Wishful Thinking Quotes - Page 5

• To search means, first, I need Being, Truth; second, I do not know where to find it; and third, an action takes place that is not based on fantasies of certainty— while at the same time a waiting takes place that is rooted not in wishful thinking but in a deep sense of urgency.

  Jacob Needleman

  Mean, Thinking, Waiting

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• The investment business has taught me – increasingly as the years have passed – that people, especially investors (and, I believe, Americans), prefer good news and wishful thinking to bad news; and that there are always vested interests to offer facile, optimistic alternatives to the bad news.

  Jeremy Grantham

  Believe, Optimistic, Thinking

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• A large number of well-trained scientists outside of evolutionary biology and paleontology have unfortunately gotten the idea that the fossil record is far more Darwinian than it is. This probably comes from the oversimplification inevitable in secondary sources: low-level textbooks semipopular articles, and so on. Also, there is probably some wishful thinking involved. In the years after Darwin, his advocates hoped to find predictable progressions. In general. these have not been found-yet the optimism has died hard and some pure fantasy has crept into textbooks.

  David M. Raup

  Thinking, Years, Ideas

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• Peace is a militant state, which is not secured by wishful thinking. . . . If we are to be sure of our liberty, we must be ready to fight for it.

  Jonathan M. Wainwright

  Peace, Military, Fighting

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• At first glance, the idea that some UFOs may be vehicles from outside the Earth seems utterly preposterous, the baseless result of wishful thinking by highly unscientific minds.

  Don Berliner

  Thinking, Ideas, Mind

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• What you wish to do you are apt to think you ought to do.

  Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

  Thinking, Wish, Ought

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• The whole iconography of ancient science is simply the fruit of wishful thinking.

  George Sarton

  Thinking, Iconography, Fruit

  George Sarton (1993). “Hellenistic Science and Culture in the Last Three Centuries B.C.”, p.13, Courier Corporation

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• Providence and Manifest Destiny are synonyms often invoked to support arguments based on wishful thinking.

  Frank Herbert

  Destiny, Thinking, Support

  "Whipping Star". Book by Frank Herbert, "From The Wreave Commentary"; p. 136, 1969.

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• There is wishful thinking in Hell as well as on Earth.

  C. S. Lewis

  Thinking, Earth, Screwtape Letters

  1942 The Screwtape Letters, preface.

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• Theorems often tell us complex truths about the simple things, but only rarely tell us simple truths about the complex ones. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking or "mathematics envy."

  Marvin Minsky

  Believe, Simple, Thinking

  "Music, Mind, and Meaning". Computer Music Journal, Volume 5, Number 3, web.media.mit.edu. 1981.

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• Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any other factor, and the contrary opinion is wishful thinking at its worst. Breeds that forget this basic truth have always paid for it with their lives and freedoms.

  W. E. B. Du Bois

  Thinking, Issues, Violence

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• I get by on wishful thinking that when you come home you'll want to stay.

  Amanda Marshall

  Home, Thinking, Want

  Song: Wishful Thinking, Album: Tuesday's Child, 1999

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• The 'Rise, Rebel, Resist' video is a reflection of the outrage the American people are feeling at the absurd hypocrisy, and overwhelming nonsense and balderdash plaguing Washington D.C. It uses a bit of satire and a bit of wishful thinking to form this powerful amalgam of imagery that nourishes and empowers the living art of the song. Our message is clear: Either these elected officials do their job and protect the rights and lives of ALL Americans or be prepared to face the consequences.

  Otep Shamaya

  Song, Art, Jobs

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• Thea was still under the belief that public opinion could be placated; that if you clucked often enough, the hens would mistake you for one of themselves.

  Willa Cather

  Mistake, Thinking, Public Opinion

  Willa Cather (2013). “The Best of Willa Cather”, p.265, Simon and Schuster

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• I think young people really do care. They want to build their life on something that's solid and makes sense, that's rational, that's not built on mythology, make-believe and wishful thinking.

  Lee Strobel

  Believe, Thinking, People

  Source: www.patheos.com

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• I suspect that, though Craig indulges in a bit of wishful thinking, playing taps for various critical approaches still quite far from death's door, he may well be correct that New Testament scholarship is more conservative than it once was. This has more than he admits to do with which denominations can afford to train the most students, hire more faculty, and send more members to the SBL.

  Robert M. Price

  Thinking, Doors, Indulge In

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• Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Thinking, Government, Self

  Barbara Tuchman (2015). “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam”, p.13, Crux Publishing Ltd

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• Geopolitics needs not just rhetoric, not just certain instincts, not just political skillful manipulation; it needs vision and what the Germans call erdung - you have to be connected to the ground always. You cannot float on your wishful thinking and hope that some miracles will become reality.

  Ehud Barak

  Reality, Thinking, Miracle

  Source: www.politico.com

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• We have hopes that we can see rational American presidents; fair, obey the international law, deal with other countries according to mutual respect, parity, etc., but we all know that this is only wishful thinking and fantasy.

  Bashar al-Assad

  Country, Thinking, Law

  The Associated Press Interview, www.foxnews.com. September 21, 2016.

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• No one seemed able to look at themselves, coolly, from the outside. Their reality was all that could be seen in the light cast ahead by their own wishful thinking.

  Fay Weldon

  Reality, Thinking, Light

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• memory is so selective; wishful thinking presses it into service all the time.

  Fay Weldon

  Memories, Thinking, Selective

  Fay Weldon (2014). “Fay Weldon Omnibus: Collected Works of Fay Weldon”, p.1211, Head of Zeus

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• I want to think that there are better ways of obviating murder than to resort to capital punishment, but I realise that this may be wishful thinking on my part.

  Torbjorn Tannsjo

  Thinking, Punishment, May

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• To some extent I'm guilty of wishful thinking. The absence of the interstitial I find unbearable.

  William Gibson

  Thinking, Unbearable, Guilty

  Source: craphound.com

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• If someone tells you that George Bush is not the 43rd president of the United States, they might be engaged in wishful thinking, or denial, but if they make that claim, it's either true or false! And you can assess that, regardless of whether there's an omniscient narrator, or an unreliable narrator, or it's shot in vérité, or it's manipulated, it's agitprop, whatever! It makes no difference! It's a style!

  Errol Morris

  Thinking, Style, President

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• There is a sense that science and politics are incompatible. I don't think so at all. I think it's important that scientists take great pains to make sure that ideology and personal bias and wishful thinking do not contaminate the collection and analysis and evidence.

  Rush D. Holt, Jr.

  Pain, Thinking, Important

  "One of the Most Famous Scientists in the World Just Explained Why Trump Is an Existential Threat". Interview With Emily Atkin, www.motherjones.com. February 28, 2017.

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