Susan Stebbing Quotes

• There is an urgent need to-day for the citizens of a democracy to think well. It is not enough to have freedom of the Press and parliamentary institutions. Our difficulties are due partly to our own stupidity, partly to the exploitation of that stupidity, and partly to our own prejudices and personal desires.

  Susan Stebbing

  Thinking, Stupidity, Desire

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• The opposite of thinking clearly is being muddled. To be conscious of being muddled is a horrible experience. To avoid it we may even be tempted to shut our minds and swallow a belief, ready-made, from some expert authority.

  Susan Stebbing

  Thinking, Opposites, Mind

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• We easily fall into the habit of accepting compressed statements which save us from the trouble of thinking. Thus arises what I shall call 'Potted Thinking'.

  Susan Stebbing

  Fall, Thinking, Trouble

  "Thinking to Some Purpose". Book by Susan Stebbing, p. 63, 1939.

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• It is an illusion to suppose that a Dictator makes himself; at most he seizes an opportunity made for him by passive, stupid, incompetent, and above all, unsatisfied and fearful men.

  Susan Stebbing

  Stupid, Opportunity, Men

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• It is not swinish to be happy unless one is happy in swinish ways.

  Susan Stebbing

  Happiness, Way

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• We come to think of an idealist as one who seeks to realize what is not in fact realizable. But, it is necessary to insist, to have ideals is not the same as to have impracticable ideals, however often it may be the case that our ideals are impracticable.

  Susan Stebbing

  Thinking, May, Facts

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• A system is said to be coherent if every fact in the system is related every other fact in the system by relations that are not merely conjunctive. A deductive system affords a good example of a coherent system.

  Susan Stebbing

  Example, Facts, Said

  "A Modern Introduction to Logic". Book by Susan Stebbing, p. 198, 1930.

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• To have ideals is not the same as to have impracticable ideals.

  Susan Stebbing

  Ideals

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