Cognitive Dissonance Quotes

"People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant." "I have a lot of beliefs and I live by none of them." "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." "Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them." "Our emotions have a mind of their own, one which can hold views quite independently of our rational mind." "It's not denial. I'm just selective about the reality I accept" "The very fact that the left seems to have no alternative to their failed policies—other than the notion that, since people were not persuaded by their arguments, those arguments must be repeated in a louder voice—suggests a cognitive dissonance that defies logic" "The greatest enemy of any one of our truths may be the rest of our truths." "In order to maintain an untenable position, you have to be actively ignorant" "People want to protect their own hypocrisy; they know they have lied and manipulated, but they frame their beliefs as science." "The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see" "We lie best when we lie to ourselves"