People everywhere enjoy believing things that they know are not true. It spares them the ordeal of thinking for themselves and taking responsibility for what they know.
Interpretation
The quote highlights how people prefer comforting falsehoods over the uncomfortable truths that require critical thinking and accountability.
Brooks Atkinson's quote illustrates a common human tendency to embrace false beliefs as they offer an easy escape from the complexities of reality. It suggests that the avoidance of self-reflection and personal responsibility leads individuals to find solace in untruths, thereby inhibiting their ability to think critically and confront challenging ideas.
In practice
In a discussion on cognitive biases, this quote can serve as a reminder to critically evaluate our beliefs.
This nation was built by men who took risks-pioneers who were not afraid of the wilderness, businessmen who were not afraid of failure, scientists who were not afraid of the truth, thinkers who were not afraid of progress, dreamers who were not afraid of action.
In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.
Each of us has interests which conflict the interests of everybody else... 'everybody else' we call 'society'. It's a powerful opponent and it always wins. Oh, here and there an individual prevails for a while and gets what he wants. Sometimes he storms the culture of a society and changes it to his own advantage. But society wins in the long run, for it has the advantage of numbers and of age.
I think when the people in Burma stop thinking about whether or not they're free, it'll mean that they're free.
Oh, God β the lives people try to lead. Oh, God β what a world they try to lead them in.
The world isn't purposeful. It isn't ruled by reason. The world wants to play. Fashion queens have always aroused more interest than future generations and their fate.
As wave is driven by wave_x000D_ And each, pursued, pursues the wave ahead,_x000D_ So time flies on and follows, flies, and follows,_x000D_ Always, for ever and new. What was before_x000D_ Is left behind; what never was is now;_x000D_ And every passing moment is renewed.
They all think any minute I'm going to commit suicide. What a joke. The truth of course is the exact opposite: suicide is the only thing that keeps me alive. Whenever everything else fails, all I have to do is consider suicide and in two seconds I'm as cheerful as a nitwit. But if I could not kill myself -- ah then, I would. I can do without nembutal or murder mysteries but not without suicide.
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