“Fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than nonfiction, which is designed to persuade through argument and evidence. Studies show that when we read nonfiction, we read with our shields up. We are critical and skeptical. But when we are absorbed in a story, we drop our intellectual guard. We are moved emotionally, and this seems to make us rubbery and easy to shape.” StoriesShowsSeemsBeliefEasyFictionStudyShapesIntellectualEvidenceArgumentMovedCriticalNonfictionSkepticalShields Author:Jonathan Gottschall
“It was extremely important to show that Wilde's sexuality was not just some intellectual idea. It was real, and it was about the human body. To just have mentioned it and not shown it would have been, I think, peculiar and wrong.” ThinkingHumansHas BeensImportantIdeasRealShowsBodyComedyIntellectualSexualityPeculiarHuman BodyWilde Author:Stephen Fry
“Everyone has a right to an opinion. I can arrive in England and express my opinion. If criticism were ferocious and without intellectual objectivity they should show me the way to their airport. It is important to have an opinion and not be afraid to express it, knowing there will be criticism.” IfsWayShouldI CanImportantShowsOpinionKnowingIntellectualCriticismEnglandShow MeAirportsObjectivity Author:Jose Mourinho
“Nevertheless we have this curious spectacle: daily the trained parrot in the pulpit gravely delivers himself of these ironies, which he has acquired at second-hand and adopted without examination, to a trained congregation which accepts them without examination, and neither the speaker nor the hearer laughs at himself. It does seem as if we ought to be humble when we are at a bench-show, and not put on airs of intellectual superiority there.” IfsDoeShowsHandsSeemsAcceptingLaughingAirAtheismOughtIntellectualHumblePositive AtheismCuriousIronySpeakersNeverthelessSuperiorityAdoptedExaminationBenchesBe HumbleCongregationPulpitParrotsSecond HandIntellectual Superiority Book:Mark Twain's Fables of Man Source: Mark Twain's Fables of Man