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Unreliable Quotes

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Unreliable Quotes

“Memory is slippery. It bends to our understanding of the world, twists to accommodate our prejudices. It is unreliable. Witnesses seldom remember the same things. They identify the wrong people. They give us the details of events that never happened. Memory is slippery, but my memories suddenly feel slipperier.”

PeopleWorldGivingFeelsRememberUnderstandingMemoriesHappenedEventsPrejudiceDetailsWitnessTwistsAccommodateSlipperyUnreliable
Book:White Cat
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“As those who have seen Jurassic Park will know, this means a tiny disturbance in one place, can cause a major change in another. A butterfly flapping its wings can cause rain in Central Park, New York. The trouble is, it is not repeatable. The next time the butterfly flaps its wings, a host of other things will be different, which will also influence the weather. That is why weather forecasts are so unreliable.”

KnowsMeanDifferentNextCausesTroubleInfluenceNew YorkMajorsRainWingsTinyWeatherParksHostButterflyNext TimeDisturbanceUnreliableForecastsCentral ParkJurassic ParkMajor ChangeFlapping
Author:Stephen Hawking
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“Ezra clapped his hands. "all right," he said. "In addition to the books we're reading as a class, I want to do an extra side project on unreliable narrators." Devon Arliss raised her hand. "what does that mean?" Ezra strode around the room. "well, the narrator tells us the story in the book, right? But what if... the narrator isn't telling us the truth? Maybe he's telling us his skewed version of the story to get you on his side. Or to scare you. Or maybe he's crazy!”

IfsWantWellsMeanDoeSaidBookStoriesHandsReadingSidesRoomsClassCrazyProjectsRaisedVersionsExtrasWhat IfScareUnreliableNarratorsDevon
Author:Sara Shepard
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“Men can construct a science with very few instruments, or with very plain instruments; but no one on earth could construct a science with unreliable instruments. A man might work out the whole of mathematics with a handful of pebbles, but not with a handful of clay which was always falling apart into new fragments, and falling together into new combinations. A man might measure heaven and earth with a reed, but not with a growing reed.”

MenWholeMightEarthTogetherFallHeavenGrowingMathematicsInstrumentsWork OutCombinationConstructsFalling ApartClayFragmentsHandfulMeasurementHeaven And EarthPebblesReedsUnreliable
Book:The Essential Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“[Theory is] an explanation that has been confirmed to such a degree, by observation and experiment, that knowledgeable experts accept it as fact. That's what scientists mean when they talk about a theory: not a dreamy and unreliable speculation, but an explanatory statement that fits the evidence. They embrace such an explanation confidently but provisionally - taking it as their best available view of reality, at least unil some severely conflicting data or some better explanation might come along.”

MeanHas BeensFactsRealityMightViewsAcceptingTheoryFitDegreesEvidenceScientistEmbraceAvailableExperimentsStatementsObservationDataExplanationExpertsSpeculationKnowledgeableUnreliableDreamy
Author:David Quammen
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“Gun laws are an attempt to nationalize the right of self-defense. Politicians perennially react to the police's abject failure to prevent crime by trying to disarm law-abiding citizens. The worse government fails to control crime, the more the politicians want to restrict individuals' rights to defend themselves. But police protection in most places is typical government work - slow, inefficient, and unreliable.”

WantTryingSelfGovernmentLawIndividualRightsFailingCrimeCitizensPoliticianGunPoliceProtectionDefenseTypicalGun ControlAbidingSelf DefenseUnreliableLaw Abiding CitizenGun LawGovernment WorkPolice Protection
Author:James Bovard
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“The passion for playing chess is one of the most unaccountable in the world. It slaps the theory of natural selection in the face. It is the most absorbing of occupations. The least satisfying of desires. A nameless excrescence upon life. It annihilates a man. You have, let us say, a promising politician, a rising artist that you wish to destroy. Dagger or bomb are archaic and unreliable - but teach him, inoculate him with chess.”

MenWorldFacesDesireArtistPassionWishNaturalTeachTheoryPoliticianChessRisingBombsOccupationSatisfyingSelectionSlapNatural SelectionAbsorbingNamelessUnreliableDaggersPlaying Chess
Author:H. G. Wells
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“Still, accomplishment is unreliable. "Succeeding," whatever that might mean to you, is hard, and the need to do so constantly renews itself (success is like a mountain that keeps growing ahead of you as you hike it), and there's the very real danger that "succeeding" will take up your whole life, while the big questions go untended.”

NeedsMeanStillsRealHardWholeBigsMightGrowingAdviceDangerSucceedMountainWhole LifeAccomplishmentUnreliableBig QuestionsGrad
Book:Congratulations, by the way: Some Thoughts on Kindness
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“Suppose we concede that if I had been born of Muslim parents in Morocco rather than Christian parents in Michigan, my beliefs would be quite different. [But] the same goes for the pluralist...If the pluralist had been born in [Morocco] he probably wouldn't be a pluralist. Does it follow that...his pluralist beliefs are produced in him by an unreliable belief-producing process?”

IfsDoeDifferentPhilosophyWould BeChristianBeliefProcessParentBornIslamicMichiganUnreliablePluralismReliabilityMorocco
Author:Alvin Plantinga
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“No organization can depend on genius; the supply is always scarce and unreliable. It is the test of an organization to make ordinary people perform better than they seem capable of, to bring out whatever strength there is in its members, and to use each person's strength to help all the other members perform.”

MenHumansHelpingUseSeemsPurposeHuman BeingsCommonStrengthDependsGeniusMembersCapableOrdinaryTestsOrganizationScarceUncommonCommon ManUnreliable
Author:Peter Drucker
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“The digital sunset always looks better than the real thing, always. Because a sunset generated by the basic package of yellow sun and blue sky is unreliable. Today it may be stunning, hypnotic. Tomorrow it may be lifeless and dull, a white sky scorched with yellow. Tomorrow the sky will be velvet.”

LooksMayRealTodayWhiteSunSkyTomorrowBlueDullSunsetDigitalYellowPackagesReal ThingsStunningVelvetBlue SkyLifelessUnreliableHypnoticYellow Sun
Author:Will Christopher Baer
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“In the light of her son's comment she reconsidered the scene at the mosque, to see whose impression was correct. Yes it could be worked into quite an unpleasant scene. The doctor had begun by bullying her, had said Mrs Callendar was nice, and then - finding the ground safe - had changed; he had alternately whined over his grievances and patronized her, had run a dozen ways in a single sentence, had been unreliable, inquisitive, vain. Yes, it was all true, but how false as a summary of the man; the essential life of him had been slain.”

MenWaySaidLightRunningNiceChangedHe ManSonSceneSafeEssentialsFindingsDoctorsSentencesImpressionVainBullyingCommentDozenGrievanceMosquesUnreliableSummaryInquisitiveSingle Sentence
Author:E. M. Forster
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“We find collected in this book [The Bible] the superstitious beliefs of the ancient inhabitants of Palestine, with indistinct echoes of Indian and Persian fables, mistaken imitation of Egyptian theories and customs, historical chronicles as dry as they are unreliable and miscellaneous poems, amatory, human and Jewish-national, which is rarely distinguished by beauties of the highest order but frequently by superfluity of expression, coarseness, bad taste, and genuine Oriental sensuality.”

HumansBookOrderBeliefExpressionTheoryTasteHighestHistoricalAncientGenuineSensualityIndianDryCustomsEchoesImitationMistakenPalestineDistinguishedMiscellaneousFablesSuperstitiousEgyptianPersianUnreliableChroniclesBad TasteJewish National
Author:Max Nordau
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