John Steinbeck Quotes

All nations are more tolerant of their own mistakes and weaknesses than of the mistakes and weaknesses of others.

She generally gave herself very good advice, (though she very seldom followed it).

If I don't like someone and I start reading their stuff, it seems like my brain will just automatically start criticizing everything that's there. It's really hard to read a book without having all this outside information telling you what to think about it.

The same is the case with those opinions of man to which he has been accustomed from his youth; he likes them, defends them, and shuns the opposite views.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it. The moment we want to disbelieve anything we have previously believed we suddenly discover not only that there is a mass of evidence against it but that this evidence was starting us in the face all the time.

To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.

We ask advice, but we mean approbation.

Belief is a very peculiar thing: we tend to put more store in a belief we like than a fact we hate.

The tendency of the casual mind is to pick out or stumble upon a sample which supports or defies its prejudices, and then to make it representative of a whole class.

We believe what we want to believe, what we like to believe, what suits our prejudices and fuels our passions.

Discussion: A method of confirming others in their errors

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.

The nationalist does not go on the principle of simply ganging up with the strongest side. On the contrary, having picked his side, he persuades himself that it is the strongest, and is able to stick to his belief even when the facts are overwhelmingly against him.

We give advice, but we cannot give the wisdom to profit by it.

Everyone - male and female - is biased. But no one wants to admit it, so our brains search for examples that disprove the accusation.

I guess many of us are just prone to see what the other side is up to, maybe to reinforce our own worldviews and feel confident that our ideology is right and theirs is wrong.

The greatest obstacle to discovering the truth is being convinced that you already know it.

I have no prejudices: all my irrational hatreds are based on solid evidence.

I have heard it remarked that men are not to be reasoned out of an opinion they have not reasoned themselves into.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

The human mind can hardly remain entirely free from bias, and decisive opinions are often formed before a thorough examination of a subject from all its aspects has been made.

Advice is sought to confirm a position already taken.

You see what you expect to see, Severus.

I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.

Some people see what they want to see.