Rationality Quotes August 2016

2 Post author: bbleeker 01 August 2016 09:32AM

Another month, another rationality quotes thread. The rules are:

  • Provide sufficient information (URL, title, date, page number, etc.) to enable a reader to find the place where you read the quote, or its original source if available. Do not quote with only a name.
  • Post all quotes separately, so that they can be upvoted or downvoted separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
  • Do not quote yourself.
  • Do not quote from Less Wrong itself, HPMoR, Eliezer Yudkowsky, or Robin Hanson. If you'd like to revive an old quote from one of those sources, please do so here.
  • No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.

Comments (18)

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Comment author: Clarity 02 August 2016 07:48:53AM 1 point [-]

“We understand the world by how we retrieve memories, re-order information into stories to justify how we feel.”

― Stephen Elliott, The Adderall Diaries

Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 01 August 2016 04:13:38PM 3 points [-]

Beginning to reason is like stepping onto an escalator that leads upward and out of sight. Once we take the first step, the distance to be traveled is independent of our will and we cannot know in advance where we shall end.

-- Peter Singer, The Expanding Circle: Ethics, Evolution, and Moral Progress

Comment author: Fyrius 21 August 2016 10:35:28PM *  0 points [-]

"Why live alone on a mountain if you love conversation?"
"There are many hungers it is better to deny than to feed. Discipline against the lesser aids in denial of the greater."

-- Paarthurnax (Skyrim)

(I edited out the bits of gratuitous dragon language.)

Comment author: Clarity 06 August 2016 04:37:08AM 0 points [-]

‘We can forget that it is often painful to be a narcissist. It is not easy always having to be Admired/Admiring or Contemptuous, in order to avoid - desperately - the Contemptible pole. If we are lucky enough to usually inhabit a more normal Self-State (e.g. "reasonably competent; Respectful of-Respected by others; relaxed about being Ordinary"), can we find compassion for Narcissists who have not achieved this?’