Assumption Quotes - Page 25

• Personally, I don't see old economics and behavioural economics as opposed. It is useful to assume people are rational as a good approximation to their long term behaviour, but it would be unwise not to think how in practice their behaviour may deviate from that simplifying assumption.

  Evan Davis

  Thinking, Practice, Long

  7 Copy quote

• The people who whine about Fox News are hypocrites - they say they're totally tolerant, but when they run into someone who doesn't share their assumptions, they say, 'Fox News is evil, and it must be stopped.

  Greg Gutfeld

  Running, Hypocrite, People

  5 Copy quote

• Beware of "the real world". A speaker's apeal to it is always an invitation not to challenge his tacit assumptions.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Real, Challenges, World

  15 Copy quote

• It is becoming plain that our liberal regime of equality and personal freedom depends, more than most theorists of liberalism have been willing to admit, on the existence and support of certain social assumptions and practices: the belief that each and every human being possesses great and inherent value, the willingness to respect the rights of others even at the cost of some disadvantages to one's self, the ability to defer some immediate benefits for the sake of long-range goals, and a regard for reason-giving and civility in public discourse.

  Mary Ann Glendon

  Rights, Self, Practice

  5 Copy quote

• The self-talk of the ego-mind is so busy describing what is happening, judging whether it is good or bad for us, and telling us what we should think and do, that there is little opportunity for our inner knowing to be heard. Instead we remain attached to our assumptions, dreaming of the fulfillment we believe they will bring.

  Russell Peters

  Dream, Believe, Opportunity

  5 Copy quote

• The evidence here, as elsewhere, suggests that education is certainly relevant, but more because better education is associated with general differences in patterns of life than because discrete parts of a lifestyle can be changed. Health-change policies which focus entirely on the individual may be ineffective not only because exposure to health risks is largely involuntary, but also, as this study has shown, because of unwarranted assumptions about the extent to which behaviour can, in these circumstances, be effective in improving health.

  Mildred Blaxter

  Differences, Focus, Risk

  6 Copy quote

• I love to start characters in a place where you think you know them. We can make all kinds of assumptions about them and think they have no redeeming qualities, but like everyone, they're complex.

  Callie Khouri

  Character, Thinking, Quality

  52 Copy quote

• While analogies are useful, however, they can also be misleading. They smuggle in assumptions that can be wrong.

  Michael Mandelbaum

  Analogies, Mislead

  "The Great Game Then and Now". Address to the Conference on Oil and Gas in the Caspian Sea Region: Geopolitical and Regional Security, March 12, 1998.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we base our belief systems on the humble assumption that the complexities of the world are ontologically beyond our understanding, then maybe our belief systems will make more sense and end up causing less suffering.

  Moby

  Humble, Understanding, Suffering

  4 Copy quote

• I mean there is an assumption made that Islam is about submission, and I think that the submission that we have is to God.

  Haleh Afshar, Baroness Afshar

  God, Mean, Thinking

  5 Copy quote

• The human mind inherently seeks intelligible order. Thus the conviction that such an order exists to be found is a crucial assumption.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Order, Mind, Conviction

  14 Copy quote

• A lot of cats in New Orleans, very soulful, very soulful musicians and they assume that they're singers. And they just make that assumption. And so when there's a little intonation problem, people are very forgiving of them because they heard how soulful they play.

  Wendell Pierce

  Cat, New Orleans, Play

  "Wendell Pierce: Everyone's Favorite Fake Trombone Player". Interview with Patrick Jarenwattananon, www.npr.org. July 4, 2011.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a dangerous assumption to say that people who drain energy "don't know what they are doing." People are sophisticated aware beings. Don't sit around and equivocate; they'll drain you more.

  Frederick Lenz

  People, Energy, Sophisticated

  4 Copy quote

• Consider that we live in a world predicated upon fear. The underlying assumption is that human beings are innately evil and must be groomed and controlled. That is the dichotomy that is set up within the human mind, good and evil.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Evil, Humanity

  4 Copy quote

• People are kept in line in society because they fear punishment. The assumption that underlies this mentality is that a human being will follow their desires without mitigation.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, Punishment, People

  4 Copy quote

• Question every assumption and go towards the problem, like the way they flew to the moon. We should have more moon shots and flights to the moon in areas of societal importance.

  Sebastian Thrun

  Moon, Should Have, Way

  "A Beautiful Mind" by Bianca Bosker, www.huffingtonpost.com. August 13, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• People are under the assumption that the kundalini just flows from the base of the spine up. That's not the case at all. Kundalini also flows downward.

  Frederick Lenz

  Buddhism, People, Flow

  4 Copy quote

• On the stage . . . masks are assumed with some regard to procedure; in everyday life, the participants act their parts without consideration either for suitability of scene or for the words spoken by the rest of the cast: the result is a general tendency for things to be brought to the level of farce even when the theme is serious enough.

  Anthony Powell

  Life, Everyday, Farce

  Anthony Powell (2010). “A Question of Upbringing: Book 1 of A Dance to the Music of Time”, p.51, University of Chicago Press

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I was under the assumption that the first job you get out of college is the job you have for the rest of your life. That's how my parents were; my parents have been teachers for as long as I've known 'em. I was worried that I'd gotten into something that I was going to hate.

  Jack McBrayer

  Teacher, Jobs, Hate

  Interview with Josh Modell, www.avclub.com. February 27, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Even when alternative views are clearly wrong, being exposed to them still expands our creative potential. In a way, the power of dissent is the power of surprise. After hearing someone shout out an errant answer, we work to understand it, which causes us to reassess our initial assumptions and try out new perspectives. “Authentic dissent can be difficult, but it’s always invigorating,” Nemeth says. “It wakes us right up.”

  Jonah Lehrer

  Views, California, Perspective

  "Groupthink: The brainstorming myth" by Jonah Lehrer, www.newyorker.com. January 30, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• we are far too used to the assumption that poetry and poets will be there when we want them, no matter how long they have been ignored, taken for granted, misused. After all, isn't poetry a form of prophecy, and aren't prophets known for their talent for flourishing in inhospitable deserts and other bleak surroundings? Maybe. But maybe not indefinitely.

  Jan Clausen

  Taken, Long, Poetry

  Jan Clausen (1982). “A movement of poets: thoughts on poetry and feminism”, Long Haul Pr

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• But on the other hand, in discussion and debate concerning social issues or American foreign policy, Vietnam or the Middle East, for example, the issue is constantly raised, often with considerable venom. I've repeatedly been challenged on grounds of credentials, or asked, what special training do you have that entitles you to speak of these matters. The assumption is that people like me, who are outsiders from a professional viewpoint, are not entitled to speak on such things.

  Noam Chomsky

  Hands, Issues, People

  5 Copy quote

• The page of my notebook was filled with many messy integrals, but all of a sudden I saw emerge a formula for counting. I had begun to calculate a quantity on the assumption that the result was a real number, but found instead that, in certain units, all the possible answers would be integers. This meant that areas and volumes cannot take any value, but come in multiples of fixed units.

  Lee Smolin

  Notebook, Real, Numbers

  Lee Smolin (2008). “Three Roads To Quantum Gravity”, p.106, Hachette UK

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If he's - the inference is that somehow he thinks slavery is a - is a noble institution I would - I would strongly reject that assumption - that John Ashcroft is a openminded, inclusive person.

  George W. Bush

  Humor, Thinking, Political

  4 Copy quote

• It must always be borne in mind that the assumption of woman's social superiority lies at the root of these rules of conduct.

  Humphry Davy

  Lying, Women, Roots

  5 Copy quote