Wednesday, June 28. 2017
‘Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.’
Charles Darwin, via an Aeon piece on the Dunning-Kruger Effect (how poorly-informed people tend to over-estimate their competence, while the best-informed tend to doubt themselves)
Interestingly, really smart people also fail to accurately self-assess their abilities. As much as D- and F-grade students overestimate their abilities, A-grade students underestimate theirs. In their classic study, Dunning and Kruger found that high-performing students, whose cognitive scores were in the top quartile, underestimated their relative competence.
Moral: Self-doubt is always a rational position, and a good foundation for a realistic self-confidence. Maggie's Farmers tend towards wholesome skepticism about everything, including oneself.
Monday, June 26. 2017
"Like a bearded nut in robes on the sidewalk proclaiming the end of the world is near, the media is just doing what makes it feel good, not reporting hard facts. We need to start seeing the media as a bearded nut on the sidewalk, shouting out false fears. It's not sensible to listen to it."
Michael Crichton, as quoted in Continetti's They’re Wrong About Everything: More evidence the political class doesn't know what it's talking about
Wednesday, June 21. 2017
We see, but we do not observe.
Sherlock Holmes, re Dr. Watson
Friday, June 9. 2017
Via Virginia Freemen:
Traditions, rituals and ceremonies take centuries to build, and can be lost in an instant. Be careful of your inheritance.
– Unknown
The nuclear family must be destroyed…whatever its ultimate meaning, the break-up of families now is an objectively revolutionary process.
–Linda Gordon
Since marriage constitutes slavery for women, it is clear that the women’s movement must concentrate on attacking this institution. Freedom for women cannot be won without the abolition of marriage.
– Sheila Cronin
“Tribe.” How can there be tribe without clans? How can there be clans without extended families? How can there be extended families without patriarchy? How can clans become tribes without a chief? Indeed, how can there be families at all with divorce, contraception and infanticide and a ‘working ‘mother’? And as far as community goes, can you think of a people less prone to coalesce into community than Americans?
– SFC Steven M Barry USA RET
Tuesday, May 23. 2017
“When bankers get together for dinner, they discuss art. When artists get together for dinner, they discuss money.”
Oscar Wilde, via Art Collecting Today
Tuesday, May 9. 2017
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts."
Richard Feynman
Monday, May 8. 2017
“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is an absurd one.”
Voltaire
Sunday, May 7. 2017
Justice Brandeis notwithstanding, progressives have never been content to “experiment” at the local level and be judged by the results. In every way they can, they seek to push all policy decisions to the national level. There, with only the meager voting power to constrain them, they can impose their one-size-fits-all, “comprehensive” policies on everyone. They even hound those individuals and companies who seek to exit the jurisdiction of the United States for freer pastures elsewhere.
Randy Barnett, via Cafe Hayek
Friday, April 28. 2017
“If people knew how hard I worked to gain my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all.”
Michelangelo
Wednesday, April 26. 2017
"Seventy percent of success in life is showing up."
Woody Allen. Life has confirmed the truth of that observation to me countless times. As they say in the program, "Never mind how you feel. Suit up and show up."
Saturday, April 22. 2017
"I believe in political equality. But there are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows. That I believe to be the true ground of democracy. I do not believe that God created an egalitarian world."
C.S.Lewis. via AVI's Egalitarianism
Saturday, April 15. 2017
Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let him make her sorry to see him leave.
Martin Luther
Tuesday, April 11. 2017
The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'
Thomas Sowell (h/t Ace)
Sunday, April 2. 2017
A friend asked me whether I have ever been depressed or considered suicide. I said of course I have, especially when I wasn't married by 23. But suicide? And miss a meal?
Long-time NYC radio host Joan Hamburg
Tuesday, March 21. 2017
There is no doubt about precisely when folks began racing each other in automobiles. It was the day they built the second automobile.
Richard Petty (h/t Ace)
Friday, March 3. 2017
Advertisements contain the only truths to be relied on in the newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson
Wednesday, March 1. 2017
“There's as much crookedness as you want to find. There was something Abraham Lincoln said - he'd rather trust and be disappointed than distrust and be miserable all the time. Maybe I trusted too much.”~John Wooden
"I guess I didn't think it through."
Lots of people have said this
Tuesday, February 28. 2017
Saddest statement ever:
"It was not to be."
Monday, February 27. 2017
The best thing about a cocktail party is being invited to it.
Gerald Nachman. I would say the same about a wedding.
Friday, February 24. 2017
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.
Winston Churchill
Thursday, February 23. 2017
I caused my husband's heart attack. In the middle of lovemaking I took the paper bag off my head. He dropped the Polaroid and keeled over, and so did the hooker. It would have taken me half an hour to untie myself and call 911, but fortunately the Great Dane could dial.
Joan Rivers
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