Quotes About Truth

Conventional wisdom in Galbraith's view must be simple, convenient, comfortable and comforting - though not necessarily true.

If the consequences of pretending to know can be so damaging, why do people keep doing it? That's easy: in most cases, the cost of saying "I don't know" is higher than the cost of being wrong—at least for the individual.

Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.

podría sugerir que la moral representa el modo en que a las personas les gustaría que funcionase el mundo, mientras que la economía representa cómo funciona éste en realidad.

It was John Kenneth Galbraith, the hyperliterate economic sage, who coined the phrase "conventional wisdom." He did not consider it a compliment. "We associate truth with convenience," he wrote, "with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good. None of us want to look stupid, or at least overmatched, by admitting we don't know an answer.

The gulf between the information we proclaim & the information we know to be true is vast. In other words: we say one thing & do another.

la moral representa el modo en que a las personas les gustaría que funcionase el mundo, mientras que la economía representa cómo funciona éste en realidad.

The next time you're in a real jam, facing an important question that you just can't answer, go ahead and make up something—and everyone will believe you, because you're the guy who all those other times was crazy enough to admit you didn't know the answer.

El enfoque económico no pretende describir el mundo como cualquiera de nosotros quisiera que fuera, o teme que sea, o reza por que llegue a ser, sino más bien explicar lo que hay en la realidad. La mayoría de nosotros querría arreglar o cambiar el mundo de alguna manera. Pero para cambiar el mundo, primero hay que comprenderlo.

maestros, criminales y agentes inmobiliarios pueden mentir, y también los políticos, e incluso los analistas de la CIA. Pero los números no.

The impulse to investigate can only be set free if you stop pretending to know answers that you don't. Because the incentives to pretend are so strong, this may require some bravery on your part.

Human beings aren't the most candid animals on the planet. We'll often say one thing and do another—or, more precisely, we'll say what we think other people want to hear and then, in private, do what we want.

A person who is lying or cheating will often respond to an incentive differently than an honest person.

cuando la pose moral se ve sustituida por una valoración sincera, con frecuencia el resultado es una revelación nueva y sorprendente.

Se suele decir que la luz del sol es el mejor de los desinfectantes.»

We associate truth with convenience," he wrote, "with what most closely accords with self-interest and personal well-being or promises best to avoid awkward effort or unwelcome dislocation of life. We also find highly acceptable what contributes most to self-esteem.

Se podría sugerir que la moral representa el modo en que a las personas les gustaría que funcionase el mundo, mientras que la economía representa cómo funciona éste en realidad.

La prueba de todo conocimiento es el experimento —dijo—. El experimento es el único juez de la "verdad" científica». La

Los datos no mienten: una prostituta callejera de Chicago tiene más probabilidades de practicar el sexo con un policía que de ser detenida por uno.

As scientists like to say: The plural of anecdote is not data.)

The next time you run into a question that you can only pretend to answer, go ahead and say "I don't know"—and then follow up, certainly, with "but maybe I can find out." And work as hard as you can to do that. You may be surprised by how receptive people are to your confession, especially when you come through with the real answer a day or a week later.

Every time we pretend to know something, we are doing the same: protecting our own reputation rather than promoting the collective good.

La información es un faro, un garrote, una rama de olivo, en total, un elemento de disuasión, dependiendo de quién la maneje y cómo. La información es tan poderosa que la asunción de información, aun cuando ésta no exista realmente, puede tener un efecto revulsivo.