Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
Carl SaganRead
Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves.
Interpretation
Strong emotions can cloud our judgment and lead to self-deception.
Carl Sagan's quote explores the idea that intense emotions can distort our perception and judgment, making it easy for us to mislead ourselves. When we experience strong feelings, our reasoning may become compromised, leading us to rationalize our desires and beliefs in a way that might not align with reality. This highlights the importance of self-awareness and critical thinking when navigating our emotional landscape.
In practice
In a discussion about decision-making, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of being aware of emotional influences.
Science is a way to not fool ourselves.
In more than one respect, the exploring of the Solar System and homesteading other worlds constitutes the beginning, much more than the end, of history.
How smart does a chimpanzee have to be before killing him constitutes murder?
The hole in the ozone layer is a kind of skywriting. At first it seemed to spell out our continuing complacency before a witch's brew of deadly perils. But perhaps it really tells of a newfound talent to work together to protect the global environment.
There is a reward structure in science that is very interesting: Our highest honors go to those who disprove the findings of the most revered among us. So Einstein is revered not just because he made so many fundamental contributions to science, but because he found an imperfection in the fundamental contribution of Isaac Newton.
The simplest thought, like the concept of the number one, has an elaborate logical underpinning.
Cleverness, after all, has its limitations. Its mechanical judgments and clever remarks tend to prove inaccurate with passing time, because it doesn't look very deeply into things to begin with.
IMPROVIDENCE, n. Provision for the needs of to-day from the revenues of to-morrow.
We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.
It could be that one of the greatest hindrances to evangelism is the poverty of our own experience.
You solve it as you get older, when you reach the point where you've tasted so much that you can somehow sacrifice certain things more easily, and you have a more tolerant view of things like possessiveness (your own) and a broader acceptance of the pains and the losses.
The rule of the universe is that others can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and one can paddle every canoe except one's own.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.