Lesswrong Quotes & Sayings

So much of a rationalist's skill is below the level of words. It makes for challenging work in trying to convey the Art through blog posts. People will agree with you, but then, in the next sentence, do something subdeliberative that goes in the opposite direction. Not that I'm complaining! A major reason I'm posting here is to observe what my words haven't conveyed. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

There's a whole [ ... ] art to finding the truth and accomplishing value from inside a human mind: we have to learn our own flaws, overcome our biases, prevent ourselves from self-deceiving, get ourselves into good emotional shape to confront the truth and do what needs doing, etcetera etcetera and so on. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

Chaos is perhaps at the bottom of everything. — George Santayana

Don't trust thoughts because you think them, but because they obey specific trustworthy rules. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

Once upon a time, there was a man who was convinced that he possessed a Great Idea. Indeed, as the man thought upon the Great Idea more and more, he realized that it was not just a great idea, but the most wonderful idea ever. The Great Idea would unravel the mysteries of the universe, supersede the authority of the corrupt and error-ridden Establishment, confer nigh-magical powers upon its wielders, feed the hungry, heal the sick, make the whole world a better place, etc. etc. etc.
The man was Francis Bacon, his Great Idea was the scientific method, and he was the only crackpot in all history to claim that level of benefit to humanity and turn out to be completely right. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

Don't rely on others to show you the way. Carry your own map. — Sir David Baird, 1st Baronet

I've seen people severely messed up by their own knowledge of biases. They have more ammunition with which to argue against anything they don't like. And that problem - too much ready ammunition - is one of the primary ways that people with high mental agility end up stupid, in Stanovich's "dysrationalia" sense of stupidity. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

I want you to have the best of everything I can give you. And I'm not talking money here, Tru. I'm talking memories. Our life together. — Samantha Towle

Be full of sorrow, that you may become hill of joy; weep, that you may break into laughter. — Rumi

You need one whole hell of a lot of rationality before it does anything but lead you into new and interesting mistakes. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

Thou shalt not kill anything less than a fifth. — W.C. Fields

The Way of Bayes is also an imprecise art, at least the way I'm holding forth upon it. These blog posts are still fumbling attempts to put into words lessons that would be better taught by experience. But at least there's underlying math, plus experimental evidence from cognitive psychology on how humans actually think. Maybe that will be enough to cross the stratospherically high threshold required for a discipline that lets you actually get it right, instead of just constraining you into interesting new mistakes. — Eliezer Yudkowsky

When I was 20, journalists would ask me what I would do when I retire from waterpolo. For me this is not just a five- or ten-year-period in my life. This is life itself. — Tibor Benedek