22 quotes
People will tie in with a fanatic if for no other reason than to break the monotony of their lives.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
Perhaps, in spite of her brilliance, she’s too young to realize the hostility of the world toward intelligence.
Somehow I got the impression that instead of looking into a crystal ball, they would be more inclined to look out of one.
Sense From Thought Divide (1955)
Instant acceptance of an idea is as self-defeating as instant rejection.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
It (objection to a machine that could think) was the hook used by the rabble rousers, whose monopoly of moral interpretation might be challenged.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
It’s pretty human to smash the guy or the thing which tries to tell us something we don’t want to hear.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
Logical rationality is neither subversive nor nonsubversive. It is simply a statement of fact.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
The suppressed hunger to think was like an epidemic.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
He was not psychotic enough to set himself up as a chosen arbiter of mores and laws.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
It took two thousand years for man to move from the concept that amber was a stone with a soul to the concept of static electricity.
Sense From Thought Divide (1955)
A human being is seldom bothered with insufficient data; often the less he has the more willing he is to give a firm opinion; and man prefers some answer, even a wrong one, to the requirement that he dig deeper and find out the facts.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
In either event he could only adhere to the letter of the law, but then for every yea in the law there was a nay, and it always boiled down to simple expediency. Like a psychiatric diagnosis, it could always be juggled around to fit anything you chose.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
That kind of therapy, the use of force to make a man give up his convictions, has been tried since the dawn of history. I think we should have learned by now that it won’t work.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
Early in his career Hoskins had realized that no field of science is remote from the affairs of men, that there is a sociological implication inherent even in the simple set of screwing a nut on a bolt.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
She had found the answer to her affliction—conformity! She had already learned to conceal her intelligence. So many of us break our hearts before we learn that.
There had been many times when man had been forced to adopt the only right opinion. Each time man’s forward thrust had slackened, vegetated, and died. Once, through the dark ages, the period had lasted almost a thousand years.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
To say that man has already achieved the ultimate and absolute truth is like a tribal taboo which says that a given river may never be crossed because the witch doctor proves beyond all reason that there is only chaos beyond.
The most puzzling of all contradictory concepts given me is the human will to set up such arbitrary limits to his comprehension.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
The public wants miracles. The public demands miracles; and if one source ceases to provide them, they will turn to another source which seems to accomplish the spectacular. Even while they resented and opposed the scientific attitude, they lapped up the miracles which this attitude accomplished with glee.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)
There are two basic approaches to the meaning of life and the universe about us. Man can know: That is the approach of science, its whole meaning. There are mysteries which man was not meant to know: That is the other approach. There is no reconciling of the two on a reasoning basis.
Sense From Thought Divide (1955)
The universe does not care whether man unlocks its secrets or leaves them closed. Water does not care whether man bathes in it or drowns in it; whether it waters his fields or washes them away. If man masters its laws and utilizes his knowledge, water becomes a force in his favor. But enemy or servant, water does not care.
They'd Rather Be Right (1954)