Fallacy Quotes - Page 8

• The divergent series are the invention of the devil, and it is a shame to base on them any demonstration whatsoever. By using them, one may draw any conclusion he pleases and that is why these series have produced so many fallacies and so many paradoxes.

  Niels Henrik Abel

  Science, Devil, Divergent

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• The need of reason is not inspired by the quest for truth but by the quest for meaning. And truth and meaning are not the same. The basic fallacy , taking precedence over all specific metaphysical fallacies, is to interpret meaning on the model of truth.

  Hannah Arendt

  Needs, Quests, Inspired

  Hannah Arendt (1981). “The Life of the Mind”, p.31, HMH

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• Ignorance, as well as disapproval for the natural restraints placed on market excesses that capitalism and sound markets impose, cause our present leaders to reject capitalism and blame it for all the problems we face. If this fallacy is not corrected and capitalism is even further undermined, the prosperity that the free market generates will be destroyed.

  Ron Paul

  Ignorance, Leader, Excess

  Ron Paul (2008). “Pillars of Prosperity: Free Markets, Honest Money, Private Property”, p.43, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• But it is a fallacy, if one is examining the methods by which security can be attained, to start upon the assumption, as so many hon. Members do, that we get security by an increase of air armaments or an increase of any other form of armaments.

  Stafford Cripps

  Air, Assumption, Increase

  Stafford Cripps's Speech in the House of Commons opposing the National Government's decision to expand the Royal Air Force, api.parliament.uk. July 30, 1934.

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• To pretend you don't feel a certain strangeness after living in England for 40 years is a fallacy.

  Trevor McDonald

  Years, England, Certain

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• The assertion fallacy is the fallacy of confusing the conditions for the performance of the speech act of assertion with the analysis of the meaning of particular words occurring in certain assertions.

  John Searle

  Confusing, Analysis, Speech

  "Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language". Book by John Searle, 1969.

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• A science only advances with certainty, when the plan of inquiry and the object of our researches have been clearly defined; otherwise a small number of truths are loosely laid hold of, without their connexion being perceived, and numerous errors, without being enabled to detect their fallacy.

  Jean-Baptiste Say

  Numbers, Errors, Research

  Jean Baptiste Say, Charles Robert Prinsep (1857). “A Treatise on Political Economy; Or, The Production, Distribution, and Consumption of Wealth”, p.15

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• Discrepancy between theory and practice, which in sound physical and mechanical science is a delusion, has a real existence in the minds of men; and that fallacy, through rejected by their judgments, continues to exert and influence over their acts.

  William John Macquorn Rankine

  Real, Men, Discrepancies Between

  William John Macquorn Rankine (1872). “A Manual of Applied Mechanics”, p.4

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• The more important point, however, is not about what the money does. It's about what has to be done to get the money. The effect of the money might be (democratically) benign. But what is done to secure that money is not necessarily benign. To miss this point is to betray the Robin Hood fallacy: the fact that the loot was distributed justly doesn't excuse the means taken to secure it.

  Lawrence Lessig

  Taken, Mean, Missing

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• Since the time of Plato and Aristotle philosophers have had an interest in taking note of common fallacies in reasoning.

  Randal Marlin

  Plato, Philosopher, Common

  Randal Marlin (2013). “Propaganda and the Ethics of Persuasion - Second Edition”, p.110, Broadview Press

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• I think that it is a fallacy to suppose that helpful cooperation in the future will be assured by the attempted compulsion of an inflexible rule. Rather will such cooperation depend upon the fostering of firm friendships springing from an appreciation of community ideals, interests, and purposes, and such friendships are more likely to be promoted by freedom of conference than by the effort to create hard and fast engagements.

  Charles Evans Hughes

  Appreciation, Thinking, Effort

  "Autobiographical Notes of Charles Hughes". Book edited by D. J. Danelski and J. S. Tulchin, 1973.

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• If fallacies come knocking at my door,I'd rather feed, and shelter full a score,Than hide behind the black portcullis, doubt,And run the risk of barring one Truth out.And if pretension for a time deceive,And prove me one too ready to believe,Far less my shame, than if by stubborn act,I brand as lie, some great colossal Fact.

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox

  Running, Lying, Believe

  Ella Wheeler Wilcox (2012). “Leafs On An Idle Breeze - My Inspirational Poems (Annotated Edition)”, p.1117, Jazzybee Verlag

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• In learning and argumentation, the quality brain is similar to a facility of maximum security. What passes the logic test, free of fallacy and pretense, then must pass the test of biblical accuracy in order to proceed as an adopted, reliable truth.

  Criss Jami

  Biblical, Order, Brain

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.34, Criss Jami

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• Probably the most pervasive false belief most of us harbor is the fallacy that only some superhuman act would have the power to turn our problems around. Nothing could be further from the truth. Life is cumulative. Whatever results we're experiencing in our lives are the accumulation of a host of small decisions we've made as individuals, as a family, as a community, as a society, and as a species.

  Tony Robbins

  Motivational, Community, Decision

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• The assumption that humans could be a reliable back up for the system was a fallacy!

  Astro Teller

  Assumption, Humans

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• I think the fallacy is to think that Women's Liberation meant that men and women would become interchangeable. That has not happened, and most men and women would not want it to happen.

  Christina Hoff Sommers

  Men, Thinking, Want

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• The biggest public fallacy is that the market is always right. The market is nearly always wrong. I can assure you of that.

  Jim Rogers

  Business, Finance, Always Wrong

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• It is a fallacy to think that carping is the strongest form of criticism: the important work begins after the artist's mistakes have been pointed out, and the reviewer can't put it off indefinitely with sneers, although some neophytes might be tempted to try: "When in doubt, stick out your tongue" is a safe rule that never cost one any readers. But there's nothing strong about it, and it has nothing to do with the real business of criticism, which is to do justice to the best work of one's time, so that nothing gets lost.

  Wilfrid Sheed

  Strong, Real, Mistake

  "Essays in Disguise" by Wilfrid Sheed, Knopf, (pp. xvi-xvii), 1990.

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• It is not proof that I sought. I, of all men, know that proof is but a fallacy invented by man to justify to himself and his fellows his own crass lust and folly.

  William Faulkner

  Men, Lust, Proof

  William Faulkner (2011). “Selected Short Stories”, p.270, Modern Library

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• The 'regular' school of medicine, as a body, has ignored and will ignore this science, because it discloses the fallacy of their favorite theories and practices and because it reveals unmistakably the direful results of chronic drug poisoning and ill-advised operations.

  Henry Lindlahr

  School, Practice, Medicine

  Henry Lindlahr (1974). “Natural Therapeutics: Iridiagnosis and Other Diagnostic Methods”, p.12, Health Research Books

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• Zoocentrism is the primary fallacy of human sociobiology, for this view of human behavior rests on the argument that if the actions of "lower" animals with simple nervous systems arise as genetic products of natural selection, then human behavior should have a similar basis.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Animal, Simple, Views

  "Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes". Book by Stephen Jay Gould. "Our Natural Place", p. 243, 1983.

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• There's a tremendous popular fallacy which holds that significant research can be carried out by trying things. Actually it is easy to show that in general no significant problem can be solved empirically, except for accidents so rare as to be statistically unimportant. One of my jests is to say that we work empirically -- we use bull's eye empiricism. We try everything, but we try the right thing first!

  Edwin Land

  Eye, Trying, Firsts

  "The Journal of Imaging Science and Technology", (Vol. 37, No. 3, p. 537), 1992.

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• One of the great fallacies of our time is that the Nazis rose to power because they imposed order on chaos. Precisely the opposite is true

  John Fowles

  Order, Opposites, Rose

  John Fowles (1968). “The Magus”, Pan

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• The fallacy in the progressive critique is the egalitarian dogma that no one should get more than what liberals deem is a 'fair' reward, nor should there be any risk to anyone to fail.

  Robert Agostinelli

  Egalitarianism, Risk, Rewards

  "DECKER: 5 Questions with Robert Agostinelli". Interview with Brett M. Decker, www.washingtontimes.com. November 14, 2012.

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• Economics is primarily useful, both to the student and to the
  political leader, as a prophylactic against popular fallacies.

  Henry Calvert Simons

  Leader, Political, Students

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