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While many propositions are untrue, in order to be classified as a Great Untruth, an idea must meet three criteria: It contradicts ancient wisdom (ideas found widely in the wisdom literatures of many cultures). It contradicts modern
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“The fear of sleeplessness12 results in a hyper-intention to fall asleep, which, in turn, incapacitates the patient to do so. To overcome this particular fear, I usually advise the patient not to try to sleep but rather to try to do just the opposite, that is, to stay awake as long as possible.”
― Man's Search For Meaning
― Man's Search For Meaning
“Another Boston Globe editorial complained that the burden of proof “now shifts to the plaintiff ”10—as if this were an unusual place for the burden of proof to be.”
― Intellectuals and Society
― Intellectuals and Society
“Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic? ...Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”
― East of Eden
― East of Eden
“Many intellectuals are so preoccupied with the notion that their own special knowledge exceeds the average special knowledge of millions of other people that they overlook the often far more consequential fact that their mundane knowledge is not even one-tenth of the total mundane knowledge of those millions. However, to many among the intelligentsia, transferring decisions from the masses to people like themselves is transferring decisions from where there is less knowledge to where there is more knowledge. That is the fatal fallacy behind much that is said and done by intellectuals, including the repeated failures of central planning and other forms of social engineering which concentrate power in the hands of people with less total knowledge but more presumptions, based on their greater average knowledge of a special kind.”
― Intellectuals and Society
― Intellectuals and Society
“Nothing is easier than to get peaceful people to renounce violence, even when they provide no concrete ways to prevent violence from others.”
― Intellectuals and Society
― Intellectuals and Society
Alan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Alan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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