Assumption Quotes - Page 12

• Ninety percent of the book variations have no great value, because either they contain mistakes or they are based on fallacious assumptions; just forget about the openings and spend all that time on the endings.

  Jose Raul Capablanca

  Mistake, Book, Variation

  66 Copy quote

• Excelling at chess has long been considered a symbol of more general intelligence. That is an incorrect assumption in my view, as pleasant as it might be.

  Garry Kasparov

  Views, Long, Might

  "World's Best Chess Players Deny Brilliance" by Benjamin Carlson, www.theatlantic.com. March 25, 2010.

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Democracy is based on the assumption that a million men are wiser than one man. How's that again? I missed something.

  Robert A. Heinlein

  Men, Democracy, Wiser

  Time Enough for Love "Intermission" (1973)

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is universally appreciated, I think, that theorists are able to tweak their assumptions in order to reach any conclusion they wish. The believability of the conclusion depends not only on the fact that it was reached but on how hard the theorist had to tweak the model to get there.

  David M. Kreps

  Thinking, Order, Wish

  4 Copy quote

• Page after page of professional economic journals are filled with mathematical formulas leading the reader from sets of more or less plausible but entirely arbitrary assumptions to precisely stated but irrelevant theoretical conclusions.

  Wassily Leontief

  Arbitrary, Pages, Economics

  Wassily Leontief (1966). “Essays in Economics: Theories, Theorizing, Facts, and Policies”, p.10, Transaction Publishers

  21 Copy quote

  Show source

• Too large a proportion of recent "mathematical" economics are mere concoctions, as imprecise as the initial assumptions they rest on, which allow the author to lose sight of the complexities and interdependencies of the real world in a maze of pretentious and unhelpful symbols.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Real, Sight, Investing

  John Maynard Keynes (2006). “General Theory Of Employment , Interest And Money”, p.272, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

  19 Copy quote

  Show source

• We move from more or less plausible but really arbitrary assumptions, to elegantly demonstrated but irrelevant conclusions.

  Wassily Leontief

  Moving, Arbitrary, Economics

  18 Copy quote

• Majority rule rests on numbers; democracy rests on the well-grounded assumption that society is neither a collection of units nor an organism but a network of human relations.

  Mary Parker Follett

  Women, Majority Rule, Numbers

  Mary Parker Follett (1918). “The New State: Group Organization the Solution of Popular Government”, p.7, Penn State Press

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The tendency of those committed to the theory of catastrophic man-made global warming to unquestioningly adopt the assumptions, at every stage, that maximise the expectation of calamity should alert us that groupthink is driving the movement.

  Peter Lilley

  Men, Expectations, Driving

  "Peter Lilley: 'I am a global lukewarmist' and other quotes" by Lauren Niland, www.theguardian.com. October 25, 2012.

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Not only is there no guarantee of the temporal immortality of the human soul, that is to say of its eternal survival after death; but, in any case, this assumption completely fails to accomplish the purpose for which it has always been intended. Or is some riddle solved by my surviving forever? Is not this eternal life itself as much of a riddle as our present life?

  Ludwig Wittgenstein

  Life, Forever, Soul

  "Tractatus Logico Philosophicus".

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• The exact sciences also start from the assumption that in the end it will always be possible to understand nature, even in every new field of experience, but that we may make no a priori assumptions about the meaning of the word understand.

  Werner Heisenberg

  Nature, Environmental, May

  7 Copy quote

• The 'environmental crisis' has happened because the human household or economy is in conflict at almost every point with the household of nature. We have built our household on the assumption that the natural household is simple and can be simply used. We have assumed increasingly over the last five hundred years that nature is merely a supply of 'raw materials,' and that we may safely possess those materials by taking them.... And so we will be wrong if we attempt to correct what we perceive as 'environmental' problems without correcting the economic oversimplification that caused them.

  Wendell Berry

  Inspiring, Simple, Years

  Wendell Berry (2010). “What Matters?: Economics for a Renewed Commonwealth”, p.178, Counterpoint Press

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• All of us cherish our beliefs. They are, to a degree, self-defining. When someone comes along who challenges our belief system as insufficiently well-based - or who, like Socrates, merely asks embarrassing questions that we haven't thought of, or demonstrates that we've swept key underlying assumptions under the rug - it becomes much more than a search for knowledge. It feels like a personal assault.

  Carl Sagan

  Love, Embarrassing Questions, Keys

  Carl Sagan (2011). “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.297, Ballantine Books

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• Humans suffer from self-centred notions as to the nature of life. Humans assume that alien life forms should conform to standards that match our own, including logic and morality. Even among humans, morality is ignored when expedient. Why should we expect more from an alien life form than we demand from ourselves?

  Steve Perry

  Life, Nature, Self

  21 Copy quote

• A rational process is a moral process. You may make an error at any step of it, with nothing to protect you but your own severity, or you may try to cheat, to fake the evidence and evade the effort of the quest - but if devotion to the truth is the hallmark of morality, then there is no greater, nobler, more heroic form of devotion than the act of a man who assumes the responsibility of thinking.

  Ayn Rand

  Cheating, Truth, Responsibility

  Ayn Rand (2005). “Atlas Shrugged”, p.961, Penguin

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Tyranny has perhaps oftener grown out of the assumptions of power, called for, on pressing exigencies, by a defective constitution, than out of the full exercise of the largest constitutional authorities.

  Alexander Hamilton

  Exercise, Constitution, Authority

  Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay (1831). “The Federalist on the New Constitution”, p.98

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If they are incorporated into the Constitution, independent tribunals of justice will consider themselves in a peculiar manner the guardians of those rights; they will be an impenetrable bulwark against every assumption of power in the legislative or executive; they will be naturally led to resist every encroachment upon rights expressly stipulated for in the Constitution by the declaration of rights.

  James Madison

  Independent, Rights, Justice

  James Madison, Ralph Ketcham “Selected Writings of James Madison”, Hackett Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If it be true that democracy is based upon the assumption that every man shall serve his fellow man, the organization of democracy should be gradually adapted to that assumption.

  Herbert Croly

  Men, Organization, Democracy

  Herbert Croly (2005). “The Promise of American Life”, p.418, Cosimo, Inc.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The practical man is the adventurer, the investigator, the believer in research, the asker of questions, the man who refuses to believe that perfection has been attained.... There is no thrill or joy in merely doing that which any one can do.... It is always safe to assume, not that the old way is wrong, but that there may be a better way.

  Henry Harrower

  Believe, Men, Perfection

  5 Copy quote

• It is my conviction that if any professional biologist will take adequate time to examine carefully the assumptions upon which the macro-evolution doctrine rests, and the observational and laboratory evidence that bears on the problem of origins, he/she will conclude that there are substantial reasons for doubting the truth of this doctrine. Moreover, I believe that a scientifically sound creationist view of origins is not only possible, but it is to be preferred over the evolutionary one.

  Dean H. Kenyon

  Believe, Views, Doubt

  20 Copy quote

• It is the growing custom to narrow control, concentrate power, disregard and disenfranchise the public; and assuming that certain powers by divine right of money-raising or by sheer assumption, have the power to do as they think best without consulting the wisdom of mankind.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Power, Thinking, Divine Right

  104 Copy quote

• I think of veganism humbly and holistically. It's about taking personal responsibility in a world so full of needless suffering. It's challenging one's self to open one's eyes and question society's assumptions and habits. It's about critical thinking and compassion and how we would like to see the world evolve.

  Michael Greger

  Eye, Responsibility, Thinking

  61 Copy quote

• The assumption that the gospel can be reduced to a note card is already off on the wrong track.

  Scot McKnight

  Track, Cards, Notes

  18 Copy quote

• We need leaders, we ourselves need to lead from a place that has the audacity to believe that we ourselves can extend the fundamental assumption that all men are created equal to every, man woman and child on this planet. And we need the humility to recognize that we cannot do it alone.

  Jacqueline Novogratz

  Children, Believe, Humility

  4 Copy quote

• Over the last 25 years, the American free enterprise system created the most diverse video programming on earth with the best value for the customer. It is disappointing that the updated report relies on assumptions that are not in line with the reality of the marketplace.

  Kyle E. McSlarrow

  Reality, Years, Lasts

  4 Copy quote