Assumption Quotes - Page 36

• Changes in the structure of society are not brought about solely by massive engines of doctrine. The first flash of insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few phrases.

  Kenneth Clark

  Doctrine, Phrases, Firsts

  John Ruskin, Kenneth Clark (1991). “Selected writings”, Penguin Group USA

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• I began to write fiction on the assumption that the true enemies of the novel were plot, character, setting and theme, and having once abandoned these familiar ways of thinking about fiction, totality of vision or structure was really all that remained.

  John Hawkes

  Writing, Character, Thinking

  John Hawkes, Anthony C. Santore, Michael N. Pocalyko (1977). “A John Hawkes symposium: design and debris”, New Directions Publishing Corporation

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• Never stop asking yourself whether you can do things better. Keep testing every aspect of your business to the nth degree, and challenge every one of your assumptions. The tougher you are on yourself now, the tougher your business will be out there in the real world.

  James Caan

  Real, Challenges, Degrees

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• It certainly seems too simple to say what I am going to say, yet it is almost as if you would be better off turning the entire rational approach upside down, taking it for granted that all of its assumptions were false, for they are indeed more false than true.

  Seth

  Simple, Would Be, Upside Down

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• Go for long walks,
  indulge in hot baths,
  Question your assumptions,
  be kind to yourself,
  live for the moment,
  loosen up, scream,
  curse the world,
  count your blessings,
  Just let go,
  Just be.

  Carol Shields

  Letting Go, Blessing, Long Walks

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• Fundamental assumptions in general and scientific assumptions in particular are so hard to overturn because they are based on belief. Beliefs are so hard to overcome because they are irrational and therefore do not yield to logical argument.

  Thomas Campbell

  Yield, Logical Arguments, Overcoming

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• It is widely assumed, contrary to fact, that theism necessarily involves the two assumptions which cannot be squared with the existence of so much suffering, and that therefore, per impossibile, they simply have to be squared with the existence of all this suffering, somehow.

  Walter Kaufmann

  Two, Suffering, Facts

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• Dialogue is a space where we may see the assumptions which lay beneath the surface of our thoughts, assumptions which drive us, assumptions around which we build organizations, create economies, form nations and religions. These assumptions become habitual, mental habits that drive us, confuse us and prevent our responding intelligently to the challenges we face every day.

  David Bohm

  Organization, Space, Empathy

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• Good intentions will always be pleaded, for every assumption of power; but they cannot justify it ... It is hardly too strong to say, that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intention, real or pretended.

  Daniel Webster

  Strong, Real, Gun

  Daniel Webster (1854). “The speeches of Daniel Webster and his master-pieces”, p.282

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• But the doctors in the past, as the review of the evidence showed, branded Jenner, Semmelweis, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Pasteur, Lister, Koch and Keen as charlatans...Napoleon said that war is too important to be left to the generals. We go on the assumption in the Senate that foreign relations are too important to be left to the diplomats...this question (on a novel cancer cure) is too important to leave purely to doctors.

  Paul Douglas

  War, Cancer, Dark

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• There's always been an assumption that ocean shipping coming in and out of the Great Lakes is critical to the economy. It isn't.

  John Taylor

  Ocean, Lakes, Shipping

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• Our universe cannot even be stated symbolically. And this touches us all more directly than one might suppose. For example, artists, who have been very little influenced by social systems, have always responded instinctively to latent assumptions about the shape of the universe. The incomprehensibility of our new cosmos seems to me, ultimately, to be the reason for the chaos of modern art.

  Kenneth Clark

  Art, Shapes, Littles

  "Civilisation" by Kenneth Clark, (Ch. 13), 1969.

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• From the outset, however, this whole controversy has been plagued by tacit assumptions, very often of a philosophical rather than a physical character.

  David Bohm

  Philosophical, Character, Science

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• The treatment of the indeterminacy principle as absolute and final can then be criticized as constituting an arbitrary restriction on scientific theories, since it does not follow from the quantum theory as such, but rather from the assumption of the unlimited validity of certain of its features, an assumption that can in no way ever be subjected to experimental proof.

  David Bohm

  Science, Principles, Doe

  David Bohm (2004). “Causality and Chance in Modern Physics”, p.47, Routledge

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• No matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Fort 's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels.

  Colin Wilson

  Believe, Thinking, Objectivity

  "Mysteries". Book by Colin Wilson, 1978.

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• ...we are entitled to make almost any reasonable assumption, but should resist making conclusions until evidence requires that we do so.

  Steve Allen

  Religion, Should, Evidence

  Steve Allen (1998). “Dumbth: The Lost Art of Thinking : with 101 Ways to Reason Better & Improve Your Mind”

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• I thought I could rely on the plot in the novel and fill in the colour between the lines, but I made a mistake with that assumption. It was really, really hard because you pull a few things apart and then you realise how everything relies on everything else and it can all fall apart.

  Ben Affleck

  Mistake, Fall, Plot

  Interview with Jack Foley, www.indielondon.co.uk.

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• That's always important to us, is being truthful. Not guessing, not making any assumptions. Just coming at it with knowledge.

  Simon Pegg

  Important, Guessing, Truthful

  "Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, and Edgar Wright of Hot Fuzz". Interview with Keith Phipps, film.avclub.com. April 18, 2007.

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• One thing that irritates me is when people kind of make assumptions.

  Simon Pegg

  People, Kind, One Thing

  "Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, and Edgar Wright of Hot Fuzz". Interview with Keith Phipps, film.avclub.com. April 18, 2007.

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• In a very philosophic sense I think doing the work is itself a good thing. But at the end of the day, since we're taking other people's shekels to do it, and their work is being able to make a return out of it, it forces you to consider the fact that you're doing it for other people. The whole construct is built around the assumption that it's going to get shared, and that someone else is going to find value in it - entertainment, catharsis, enlightenment, or whatever.

  Edward Norton

  Thinking, People, The End Of The Day

  Interview with Bennett Miller, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 3, 2014.

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• And the cool kids always had a stop sign in their bedroom. Which means: "I don't care if people die. I want my stop sign." At least the assumption was that they took it down from somewhere and now there are old ladies hitting each other head-on somewhere.

  Josh Smith

  Kids, Mean, People

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• The more elaborate your narrative, the more the spectator shuts up and listens obediently. And if the filmmaker keeps quiet, the spectator will himself project his own assumptions and sentiments onto the screen.

  Bruno Dumont

  Narrative, Quiet, Shut Up

  Source: www.indiewire.com

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• I have come to accept that I'm a very spiritual person. However, it's interesting because part of me shies away from admitting that because I think that comes with assumptions. I think, when I was younger, I used to make judgments about people who were super spiritual. And I think it's a very personal subject.

  Erin Davie

  Spiritual, Thinking, Interesting

  Source: blogs.indiewire.com

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• Pick the assumptions to pieces till the stuff they are made of is exposed to plain view - this is the cardinal rule for understanding the basis of our beliefs.

  Eric Temple Bell

  Views, Understanding, Pieces

  Eric Temple Bell (1946). “The Search for Truth”

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• Keep clear of psychiatrists unless you know that they are also Christians. Otherwise they start with the assumption that your religion is an illusion and try to 'cure' it: and this assumption they make not as professional psychologists but as amateur philosophers.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Trying, Philosopher

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