Erring – Page 10 – Everything

Erring

Error is boundless.
Nor hope nor doubt,
Though both be groundless,
Will average out.
—Cunningham

Dec 282017
 

The crank cannot be refuted, only dismissed.

Dec 192017
 

Whatever the fanatic permits himself is a duty: whatever he denies himself is a crime.

Dec 112017
 

A belief no fact can sink no fact can float.

Dec 072017
 

The good cause that leads to bad outcomes may not be all that good a cause.

Dec 062017
 

A very few rigorous social processes — scientific method, trial by jury — converge on truth reliably. Argument is not among them.

Dec 012017
 

Intelligence, n.   The ability to make more elaborate errors, with more plausible justifications.

Nov 092017
 

Someone who understands politics is about as likely to set up as a pundit as someone who can predict the future is to set up as a psychic.

Nov 022017
 

We have all of our ideas at second hand, except the ones we think original, which we have at fourth or fifth.

Oct 312017
 

Primitive irrationality is to refuse to refer actions and sentiments to abstract principle; decadent irrationality is to insist on it.

Oct 302017
 

Psychology begins by classifying people according to their conduct; then grows scientific, and deduces conduct from the classifications.