James Harvey Robinson Quotes

• Our goal, simply stated, is to be the best.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Goal, Excellence, Being The Best

  49 Copy quote

• We like to continue to believe what we have been accustomed to accept as true, and the resentment aroused when doubt is cast upon any of our assumptions leads us to seek every manner of excuse for clinging to them. The result is that most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Believe, Doubt, Resentment

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  17 Copy quote

• Political campaigns are designedly made into emotional orgies which endeavor to distract attention from the real issues involved, and they actually paralyze what slight powers of cerebration man can normally muster.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Real, Men, Emotional

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• Speech gave man a unique power to lead a double life, he could say one thing and do another.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Life, Power, Unique

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• Each of us is great insofar as we perceive and act on the infinite possibilities which lie undiscovered and unrecognized about us.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Motivational, Lying, Addiction

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• We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but if someone tries to take them from us, we defend them with almost an illicit passion.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Passion, Trying, Belief

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• Few of us take the pains to study the origin of our cherished convictions.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Spiritual, Pain, Study

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  5 Copy quote

• Partisanship is our great curse. We too readily assume that everything has two sides and that it is our duty to be on one or the other.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Two Sides, Political, Atheism

  James Harvey Robinson (1921). “The Mind in the Making: The Relation of Intelligence to Social Reform”

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• Most of our so-called reasoning consists in finding arguments for going on believing as we already do.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Wisdom, Believe, Intellectual

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

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• Mere lack of success does not discredit a method, for there are many things that determine and perpetuate our sanctified ways of doing things besides their success in reaching their proposed ends.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Success, Way, Doe

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  4 Copy quote

• Curiosity is idle only to those who fail to realize that it may be a very rare and indispensable thing.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Curiosity, May, Realizing

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  9 Copy quote

• We are incredibly heedless in the formation of our beliefs, but find ourselves filled with an illicit passion for them when anyone proposes to rob us of their companionship. It is obviously not the ideas themselves that are dear to us, but our self-esteem, which is threatened.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Self Esteem, Passion, Ideas

  James Harvey Robinson (2015). “The Mind in Making”, p.26, Read Books Ltd

  7 Copy quote

• To become historically-minded is to be grown-up.

  James Harvey Robinson

  "The Human Comedy : As Devised and Directed by Mankind Itself" by James Harvey Robinson, (Ch. 1), 1937.

  7 Copy quote

• We continue to think of new things in old ways.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Thinking, Way, New Things

  6 Copy quote

• In its amplest meaning History includes every trace and vestige of everything that man has done or thought since first he appeared on the earth.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Men, History, Done

  James Harvey Robinson (1912). “The New History: Essays Illustrating the Modern Historical Outlook”

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• History ... may be regarded as an artificial extension and : broadening of our memories and may be used to overcome the natural bewilderment of all unfamiliar situations.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Memories, History, Overcoming

  James Harvey Robinson (1912). “The New History: Essays Illustrating the Modern Historical Outlook”

  8 Copy quote

• Rationalizing is the self-exculpation which occurs when we feel ourselves, or our group, accused of misapprehension or error.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Errors, Self, Atheism

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  4 Copy quote

• We find it hard to believe that other people's thoughts are as silly as our own, but they probably are.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Stupid, Believe, Silly

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  6 Copy quote

• Man has long found solace in good talk to offset bad conduct.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Men, Long, Found

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• I am opposed to censorship. Censors are pretty sure fools. I have no confidence in the suppression of everyday facts.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Everyday, Fool, Facts

  7 Copy quote

• There is nothing else anything like so interesting to ourselves as ourselves.

  James Harvey Robinson

  Self, Interesting

  James Harvey Robinson (1939). “The Mind in the Making”

  4 Copy quote

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