“It becomes so easy to believe what one wishes to believe.”
Michael Moorcock book The King of the Swords
Source: Book 2, Chapter 2 “The Castle Built of Blood” (p. 320), Corum, The King of the Swords (1971)
“It becomes so easy to believe what one wishes to believe.”
Michael Moorcock book The King of the Swords
Source: Book 2, Chapter 2 “The Castle Built of Blood” (p. 320), Corum, The King of the Swords (1971)
“I wish to believe in immortality-I wish to live with you forever.”
John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet
“I wish to weep
but sorrow is
stupid.
I wish to believe
but belief is a
graveyard.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: What Matters Most is How Well You Walk Through the Fire
“I have no wish to believe on that subject.”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
Last words (June 1809), as quoted in Thomas Paine's Rights of Man https://books.google.com/books?id=0SKFXdyu8NoC&pg=PA140&lpg=PA140&dq=%22POPISH+STUFF%22+PAINE&source=bl&ots=zo5gRksBtU&sig=RY-gWE_UoreJyKW2iUdTSkuDVQg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjHi9W1mcrLAhWFnYMKHYMsCfQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=%22POPISH%20STUFF%22%20PAINE&f=false, by Christopher Hitchens, p. 140 <br class="br">1800s
François de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French author of maxims and memoirs
Ce qui nous fait croire si facilement que les autres ont des défauts, c'est la facilité que l'on a de croire ce qu'on souhaite.
Variant translation: What makes us believe so easily that others have faults is the ease with which we believe what we hope for.
Maxim 25 from the Manuscrit de Liancourt.
Later Additions to the Maxims
“An enemy generally says and believes what he wishes.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
“5426. We are apt to believe what we wish for.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)