Credulity Quotes

• If elephants didn't exist, you couldn't invent one. They belong to a small group of living things so unlikely they challenge credulity and common sense.

  Lyall Watson

  Elephants, Common Sense, Challenges

  Lyall Watson (2003). “Elephantoms: Tracking the Elephant”, p.38, W. W. Norton & Company

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• What is wrong with priests and popes is that instead of being apostles and saints, they are nothing but empirics who say I know instead of I am learning, and pray for credulity and inertia as wise men pray for skepticism and activity.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Wise, Men, Church

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• Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about. And since we know least about ourselves, we are ready to believe all that is said about us. Hence the mysterious power of both flattery and calumny.

  Eric Hoffer

  Believe, Knowledge, Calumny Is

  Eric Hoffer (1955). “The passionate state of mind, and other aphorisms”

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• The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Cynical, Mind, Causes

  "Symposium On Epic Of Thomas Jefferson:Embargo Act Of 1807 & The Quest For Limited Government Over Big Government". Book by Festus Ogunbitan (p. 1498), April 11, 2014.

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• The most positive men are the most credulous.

  Alexander Pope

  Positive, Success, Attitude

  'Miscellanies' (1727) vol. 2 'Thoughts on Various Subjects'

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• All ambitions are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.

  Joseph Conrad

  Ambition, Feet, Literature

  Some Reminiscences (1912; in USA entitled "A Personal Record") p. 19

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• The only disadvantage of an honest heart is credulity.

  Philip Sidney

  Honesty, Lying, Heart

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”, p.23

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• The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

  George Bernard Shaw

  Life, Religious, Atheist

  George Bernard Shaw (1993). “The Complete Prefaces: 1914-1929”, Viking Adult

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• We all know that a lie needs no other grounds, than the invention of the liar; and to take for granted as truth, all that is alleged against the fame of others, is a species of credulity, that men would blush at on any other subject.

  Jane Porter

  Liars, Lying, Men

  Sir Philip Sidney, Jane Porter (1807). “Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney: With Remarks”

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• If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity.

  Umberto Eco

  Witty, Believe, Science

  Umberto Eco (2007). “Foucault's Pendulum”, p.60, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Credulity is belief in slight evidence, with no evidence, or against evidence.

  Tryon Edwards

  Believe, Belief, Evidence

  Tryon Edwards (2015). “The New Dictionary of Thoughts”, p.264, Ravenio Books

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• Credulity is the man's weakness, but the child's strength.

  Charles Lamb

  Strength, Children, Men

  'Essays of Elia' (1823) 'Witches, and Other Night-Fears'

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• I prefer credulity to skepticism and cynicism for there is more promise in almost anything than in nothing at all.

  Ralph Barton Perry

  Promise, Cynicism, Skepticism

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• Our credulity is greatest concerning the things we know least about.

  Eric Hoffer

  Calumny Is, Gullibility, Knows

  Eric Hoffer (1982). “Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer”, HarperCollins Publishers

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• The credulity of dupes is as inexhaustible as the invention of knaves.

  Edmund Burke

  Knaves, Dupes, Invention

  Edmund Burke (1852). “The Works and Correspondance of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke”, p.363

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• There are new words now that excuse everybody. Give me the good old days of heroes and villains, the people you can bravo or hiss. There was a truth to them that all the slick credulity of today cannot touch.

  Bette Davis

  Hero, People, Giving

  Bette Davis (1962). “The lonely life: an autobiography”, Putnam's

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• The credulity of the church is decreasing, and the most marvelous miracles are not either 'explained,' or allowed to take refuge behind the mistakes of the translators, or hide in the drapery of allegory.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Mistake, Miracle, Church

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1907). “The works of Robert G. Ingersoll”, p.375, Library of Alexandria

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• The characteristic of the present age is craving credulity.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Age, Characteristics, Craving

  Speech at Oxford, 25 November 1864, in 'The Times' 26 November 1864

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• The harm which is done by credulity in a man is not confined to the fostering of a credulous character in others, and consequent support of false beliefs.

  William Kingdon Clifford

  Character, Men, Support

  William Kingdon Clifford (1886). “Lectures and Essays”

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• One of the peculiar sins of the twentieth century which we've developed to a very high level is the sin of credulity. It has been said that when human beings stop believing in God they believe in nothing. The truth is much worse: they believe in anything.

  Malcolm Muggeridge

  Truth, Believe, Peculiar

  Malcolm Muggeridge, Christopher Ralling (1967). “Muggeridge through the microphone: B.B.C. radio and television”, Not Avail

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• Interior design is a travesty of the architectural process and a frightening condemnation of the credulity, helplessness and gullibility of the most formidable consumers - the rich.

  Stephen Bayley

  Design, Rich, Process

  Stephen Bayley (1991). “Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things”, Pantheon

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• We believe easily what we fear of what we desire

  Jean de La Fontaine

  Believe, Desire

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• Women are sometimes drawn in to believe against probability by the unwillingness they have to doubt their own merit.

  Samuel Richardson

  Believe, Doubt, Merit

  Samuel Richardson (1751). “Letters and passages restored from the original manuscripts of the History of Clarissa. To which is subjoined, a collection of such of the moral and instructive sentiments ... contained in the History, as are presumed to be of general use and service ... Published for the sake of doing justice to the purchasers of the first two editions of that work”, p.233

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• The idea that the UN system could provide real leadership on the great development challenges will strain credulity in some quarters.

  Jeffrey Sachs

  Real, Ideas, Challenges

  "Weapons of Mass Salvation". www.economist.com. October 24, 2002.

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• If men were but to read the New Testament with the same tone and emphasis, with which they do other books, and were to keep out of mind the idea of its being sacred, they would be disgusted with the credulity, and the want of intellect, reason and judgment, that is apparent in it.

  Lysander Spooner

  Book, Men, Ideas

  "Partisans of Freedom: A Study in American Anarchism". Book by William O. Reichert, Bowling Green State University Popular Press, p. 118, 1976.

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