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Opposites Quotes

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Opposites Quotes

“William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.”

Should Believe Wanted Used Belief Wish Doubt Opposites Errors Vagueness

Author:Bertrand Russell

“One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting.”

Source: Image and Imagination

“As soon as we ask what faith is and what sort of mistreatment of faith causes doubt, we are led to the first major misconception about doubt-the idea that doubt is always wrong because it is the opposite of faith and the same thing as unbelief. What this error leads to is a view of faith that is unrealistic and a view of doubt that is unfair.”

Firsts Ideas Asks Causes Views Doubt Majors Opposites Errors Unfair Misconception Unbelief Always Wrong Mistreatment

Author:Os Guinness

“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings. Anaïs Nin I like not only to be loved, but also to be told I am loved. George Eliot Love is the voice under all silences, the hope which has no opposite in fear; the strength so strong mere force is feebleness: the truth more first than sun, more last than star.”

“The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, it is a human concept. Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.”

Believe Humans Real Sometimes Matter Beautiful Spirit Divine Concepts Opposites Errors Statements Conclusion Mortals Realms Immortal Phenomenon Premises

Book:Science And Health

Source: Science And Health

“Most people willingly deceive themselves with a doubly false faith; they believe in eternal memory (of men, things, deeds, peoples) and in rectification (of deeds, errors, sins, injustice). Both are sham. The truth lies at the opposite end of the scale: everything will be forgotten and nothing will be rectified. All rectification (both vengeance and forgiveness) will be taken over by oblivion.”

People Men Believe Ends Lying Memories Sin Taken Eternal Opposites Errors Injustice Forgotten Deeds Scales Deceiving Vengeance Oblivion Rectification

Author:Milan Kundera

“If you're gay or lesbian, it's a biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex.”

Ifs Sex Gay Opposites Errors

Author:Laura Schlessinger

“We have hitherto considered only two possibilities: that the received opinion may be false, and some other opinion, consequently, true; or that, the received opinion being true, a conflict with the opposite error is essential to a clear apprehension and deep feeling of its truth. But there is a commoner case than either of these; when the conflicting doctrines, instead of being one true and the other false, share the truth between them.”

May Two Feelings Opinion Cases Clear Share Possibility Truth Is Conflict Essentials Opposites Errors Doctrine Being True Apprehension Deep Feeling Commoners Others Opinions

Author:John Stuart Mill

“He (the devil) always sends errors into the world in pairs--pairs of opposites...He relies on your extra dislike of one to draw you gradually into the opposite one. But do not let us be fooled. We have to keep our eyes on the goal and go straight through between both errors. We have no other concern than that with either of them.”

World Eye Goal Religious Couple Draws Devil Concern Opposites Errors Novelists Satan Rely Extras Pairs Dislike Scholar Fooled

Author:C. S. Lewis

“The world always makes the assumption that the exposure of an error is identical with the discovery of truth - that error and truth are simply opposite. They are nothing of the sort. What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually simply another error, and maybe one worse than the first one.”

World Firsts Truth Turns Discovery Opposites Errors Assumption Exposure Identical

Author:H. L. Mencken

“Satan always sends error into the world in pairs that are opposites. His great hope is that you will get so upset about one of his errors, that you'll react into the opposite one, and he's got you.”

World Opposites Errors Upset Satan Pairs Great Hope

Author:C. S. Lewis

“Let me just acknowlege that the function of grammar is to make language as efficent and clear and transparent as possible. But if we’re all constantly correcting each other’s grammar and being really snotty about it, then people stop talking because they start to be petrified that they’re going to make some sort of terrible grammatical error and that’s precisely the opposite of what grammar is supposed to do, which is to facilitate clear communication.”

People Ifs Language Talking Clear Communication Terrible Opposites Let Me Function Errors Grammar Transparent Correcting Facilitate Clear Communication

Author:John Green

“Anxiety is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. It results from over-motivation- leading to errors that lead to an underestimation of one's self. Work out your anxieties on paper and read. This calms the mind.”

Mind Self Motivation Results Humility Ego Paper Anxiety Opposites Errors Calm Work Out

Author:Robert M. Pirsig

“The Mathematics are Friends to Religion, inasmuch as they charm the Passions, restrain the Impetuosity of the Imagination, and purge the Mind from Error and Prejudice. Vice is Error, Confusion, and false Reasoning; and all Truth is more or less opposite to it. Besides, Mathematical Studies may serve for a pleasant Entertainment for those Hours which young Men are apt to throw away upon their Vices; the Delightfulness of them being such as to make Solitude not only easy, but desirable.”

Source: An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning: In a Letter from a Gentleman in the City, to His Friend at Oxford