“The human capacity for denial and rationalization is always shocking, but never surprising.”
Humor in Psychotherapy (2007)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
David H. Levy19
Canadian astronomer 1948Related quotes
Herbert A. Simon book Administrative Behavior
Variant: The principle of bounded rationality [is] the capacity of the human mind for formulating and solving complex problems is very small compared with the size of the problems whose solution is required for objectively rational behavior in the real world — or even for a reasonable approximation to such objective rationality.
Source: 1940s-1950s, Administrative Behavior, 1947, p. 198.
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi
The Zookeeper's Wife (2008)
Context: I have one talent, and that is the capacity to be tremendously surprised, surprised at life, at ideas. This is to me the supreme Hasidic imperative: Don't be old. Don't be stale.
“History, as it comes into our daily lives, is charged with surprise and shock.”
Robert L. Heilbroner (1919–2005) American historian and economist
Source: The Future As History (1960), Chapter I, Part 1, The Shock of Events, p. 13
“The development of a society can never be subject to rational human control.”
Theodore Kaczynski (1942) American domestic terrorist, mathematician and anarchist
Source: Anti-Tech Revolution: Why and How (2016), p. 7
“We strain to renew our capacity for wonder, to shock ourselves into astonishment once again.”
Shana Alexander (1925–2005) Journalist
The Feminine Eye (1970), p. 169
Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist
Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Heartfire (1998), Chapter 7.
“Death never takes the wise man by surprise, he is always ready to go.”
Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.
La mort ne surprend point le sage:
Il est toujours prêt à partir.
Book VIII (1678-1679), fable 1.
Fables (1668–1679)