Flawed Reasoning Quotes

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.

It is not only not right, it is not even wrong.

Before thou reprehend another, take heed thou art not culpable in what thou goest about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blotted fingers makes a greater blur.

Some excel in rhyme who reason foolishly.

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

It’s amazing how much research has gone into making some of the worst decisions.

Human beings can always be relied upon to exert, with vigor, their God-given right to be stupid.

He's suffering from Politicians' Logic. Something must be done, this is something, therefore we must do it.

You perceive I generalize with intrepidity from single instances. It is the tourist's custom.

Of course the self-serving bias is something you want to get out of yourself. Thinking that what's good for you is good for the wider civilization and rationalizing all these ridiculous conclusions based on this subconscious tendency to serve one's self is a terribly inaccurate way to think.

There's a joke in economics about the drunk who loses his keys in the street but only looks for them under the lightposts. When asked why, he says, 'because that's where the light is.' That's the problem with the deficit.

Logic is a system whereby one may go wrong with confidence.

Human judgment is notoriously fallible and perhaps seldom more so than in facile decisions that a character has no adaptive significance because we do not know the use of it.

Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence.

Irrationally held truths may be more harmful than reasoned errors.

We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking.

Error is worse than ignorance.

Once again you've put your keen and penetrating mind to the task and as usual come to the wrong conclusion!

Orators are most vehement when they have the weakest cause, as men get on horseback when they cannot walk.

There is an old saying that all roads lead to Rome. It seems the administration so often clearly believes that no matter what the evidence was at any particular time, essentially everything led to Saddam Hussein.

Intelligent or not, we all make mistakes and perhaps the intelligent mistakes are the worst, because so much careful thought has gone into them.

In an attempt to make things easier for myself, which is the basis for all of history's worst decisions [...].

I examined my Liberalism and found it like an addiction to roulette. Here, though the odds are plain, and the certainty of loss apparent to anyone with a knowledge of arithmetic, the addict, failing time and again, is convinced he yet is graced with the power to contravene natural laws. The roulette addict, when he invariably comes to grief, does not examine either the nature of roulette, or of his delusion, but retires to develop a new system, and to scheme for more funds.

The commonest weakness of our race is our ability to rationalize our most selfish purposes.