“There is nothing, under present conditions, that can be more easily and exactly reproduced than a technically good black-and-white photograph, and it is utter rot to burden those interested in them with irrelevant biographical trivia and pet longwinded theory.” BlackWhiteConditionsTheoryPhotographBurdenPetBlack And WhiteIrrelevantTrivia Book:Clarence John Laughlin: the personal eye Source: Clarence John Laughlin: the personal eye
“If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.” IfsWayWantLooksHas BeensMightEasyDangerousTheoryEvidenceFavorsPetOverwhelmingConfirmationRefutation Book:The Poverty of Historicism Source: The Poverty of Historicism
“One of my pet theories is that readers have built-in BS detectors that enable them to recognize insincerity in writers. David [Halberstam] was sincerity to the core. He believed in what he wrote, and that conviction conveyed itself to readers.” TheoryReaderBuiltConvictionCorePetSincerityInsincerity Author:Jonathan Yardley
“I'm just interested in women's friendships generally. It always seems to me, and this is just my pet theory, that women are kind of at the sharp end of capitalism one way or another. Mainly because they buy everything. In a practical sense, women buy most things. They're always comparing - to friends, to famous people, to other people. An obsessive act of comparison.” PeopleWayKindEndsSeemsTheoryCapitalismPracticalsOne WayComparePetComparisonObsessive Author:Zadie Smith