Subjective Validation Quotes

I think the easiest people to fool are ourselves. Fooling ourselves may even be a necessary precondition for fooling others.

One of the ways by which astrology tricks human brains is via the Barnum effect, which is the process by which individuals take general and vague statements that could apply to anyone and anywhere, and find personal meaning in them.

When you think you're right, you're most likely wrong.

I think that the whole point of music is that there shouldn't be rules. There is no right or wrong. And the fact that I may not like that piece of music and you may... The validation is in the fact that somebody gets something from it.

Average people didn't analyze what they thought: they thought they thought, and half of it was gut reaction.

We falsely interpret the world around us. We ignore evidence that doesn't support our prior beliefs and we convince ourselves we know things we don. We think we know things we don't know.

The world is right because I feel good. p. 83, Awareness, copyright 1990

Whatever the Thinker thinks, the Prover will prove. And if the Thinker thinks passionately enough, the Prover will prove the thought so conclusively that you will never talk a person out of such a belief, even if it is something as remarkable as the notion that there is a gaseous vertebrate of astronomical heft ("GOD") who will spend all eternity torturing people who do not believe in his religion.

There are no such self-deceivers as those who think they reason when they only feel.

People assign much higher probability to the truth of their opinions than is warranted.

We are often confident even when we are wrong, and an objective observer is more likely to detect our errors than we are.

You do not convince me. You rationalize your actions and because the result is favorable you become right.

I have a Reagan-like ability to believe in my own data.

How can you take seriously someone who likes to believe something because he finds it 'comforting'?

I only use statistics to reinforce what I already think, or if it's something unusual.

When experience contradicts firmly held judgments of self-efficacy, people may not change their beliefs about themselves if the conditions of performance are such as to lead them to discount the import of the experience

The average man does not get pleasure out of an idea because he thinks it is true; he thinks it is true because he gets pleasure out of it.

I am an important artist. And I make art. Therefore, my opinion matters.

…the majority of men do not think in order to know the truth, but in order to assure themselves that the life which they lead, and which is agreeable and habitual to them, is the one which coincides with the truth.

Men follow their sentiments and their self-interest, but it pleases them to imagine that they follow reason. And so they look for, and always find, some theory which, a posteriori, makes their actions appear to be logical. If that theory could be demolished scientifically, the only result would be that another theory would be substituted for the first one, and for the same purpose.

Men first make up their minds (and the smaller the mind the sooner made up), and then seek for the reasons; and if they chance to stumble upon a good reason, of course they do not reject it. But though they are right, they are only right by chance.

Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred.

It is easier to rationalize than it is to be rational.

When it comes to believing things without actual evidence, we all incline to what we find most attractive.

Audiences are an unknown mystery to me, so I can't really predict anything. For me, the best audience is myself, my crew, and the actors.