Overestimating Quotes & Sayings

The mistake we make in thinking of character as something unified and all-encompassing is very similar to a kind of blind spot in the way we process information. Psychologists call this tendency the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE), which is a fancy way of saying that when it comes to interpreting other people's behavior, human beings invariably make the mistake of overestimating the importance of fundamental character traits and underestimating the importance of situation and context. — Malcolm Gladwell

Italian women are some of the most beautiful in the world. This is why the Vatican is in Italy. If a man can walk across Italy and retain his celibacy, he's got what it takes to be a priest - or an interior decorator. — Craig Ferguson

Overestimating the intelligence of the enemy is, if anything, more dangerous than underestimating it. — Neal Stephenson

To overestimate the originality of one's thoughts is perhaps a less serious defect than being unaware of their newness. There is a more pronounced lack of sensitivity in underestimating (ourselves and others) than in overestimating. — Eric Hoffer

I read once that the act of observing changes the nature of what is observed. — Christina Baker Kline

No game designer ever went wrong by overestimating the narcissism of their players, — Will Wright

Do you suppose Valentine is happy?" Women. They were forever pondering the imponderables and expecting their menfolk to do likewise. "Valentine delights in his music, the Philharmonic is ever after him to give up his ruralizing and come to Town to rehearse them. One must conclude his rustic existence appeals to him." Her Grace set the letter aside. "Or being up in Oxfordshire appeals to him, or his wife appeals to him. I think Ellen is yet shy of polite society." If their youngest son ran true to Windham form, he was spending the winter keeping his new wife warm and cozy, and perhaps seeing to the next generation of the musical branch of the family. His Grace reached over and patted his wife's hand. "We'll squire her around next Season, put the ducal stamp of approval on Val's choice. — Grace Burrowes

Count on the strength of your own godly attributes, and you will grow lax in your duties for Christ. Knowing you are weak keeps you from wandering too far from Him. When you see that your own cupboard is bare and everything you need is in His, you will go often to Him for supplies. But a soul who thinks he can take care of himself will say, "I have plenty and to spare for a long time. Let the doubting soul pray; my faith is strong. Let the weak go to God for help; I can manage fine on my own." What a sad state of affairs, to suppose that we no longer need the moment-by-moment sustaining grace of God.
Not only does overestimating the strength of our own goodness make us shun God's help, but it also makes us foolhardy and venturesome. You who boast about your spirituality are likely to put yourselves in all kinds of dangerous situations, then brag that you can handle them. — William Gurnall

I think you are seriously overestimating my dancing abilities. My kind of dancing usually ends up on the Internet, where people watch it so they can stop feeling sorry about their own lives. You know how people say they have two left feet? It's like I have no feet and my stumps are attached to wheels shaped like triangles. — T.J. Klune

While you don't want to make career moves on 0 percent information, you also don't want to wait till you have 100 percent information - or else you'll wait forever. Jetting off to vacation in Hawaii with no set itinerary introduces many uncertainties about what will transpire, but it's not particularly risky. After all, how likely are you to have a bad time in Hawaii? But the biggest and best opportunities frequently are the ones with the most question marks. Don't let uncertainty lull you into overestimating the risk. — Reid Hoffman

No man ever went broke overestimating the ignorance of the American public. — P.T. Barnum

More men are ruined by underestimating the value of money than by overestimating it. Let us, then, abandon the affectation of despising money, and frankly own its value. — Orison Swett Marden

I've been involved in mixed martial arts since 1997 when I first started working for the UFC. — Joe Rogan

I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. — Markus Zusak

Just because he had underestimated them to start with didn't mean he should turn about-face and begin overestimating them now. — Stephen King

She prayed now, with desperate conviction but no faith, and she suspected it made no difference either way. When — Kate Atkinson

On the one hand competition between capitalists will lead to an ever-diminishing number of monopoly capitalists: on the other hand the 'misery, oppression, slavery, degradation, exploitation' of the working class grows (C I 763). But the working class is, because of the nature of capitalist production, more numerous and better organized. Eventually the dam will burst. — Anonymous

Believe me, were I ever to accomplish anything, it would be in music, which has always attracted me; and, without overestimating myself, I am conscious of possessing a certain creative faculty. — Robert Schumann

Kiss me again without my permission, " she whispered against his lips, "and I'll geld you and sell your balls to a Ruthanian specialty meats shop. Understood?"

"You won't do that," he whispered back. "You'd miss them too much."

Sin snorted and made the blade disappear into her pocket as she stepped back.

"Men are always overestimating the worth of their genitals."

~Sin to Con — Larissa Ione

Nobody ever went broke overestimating the vulgarity of the American people, — Kurt Vonnegut

So what is the fallout for dogs of the Lassie myth? As soon as you bestow intelligence and morality, you bestow the responsibility that goes along with them. In other words, if the dog knows it's wrong to destroy furniture yet deliberately and maliciously does it, remembers the wrong he did and feels guilt, it feels like he merits a punishment2, doesn't it? That's just what dogs have been getting - a lot of punishment. We set them up for all kinds of punishment by overestimating their ability to think. Interestingly, it's the "cold" behaviorist model that ends up giving dogs a much better crack at meeting the demands we make of them. The myth gives problems to dogs they cannot solve and then punishes them for failing. And the saddest thing is that the main association most dogs have with that punishment is the presence of their owner. This puts a pretty twisted spin on loooving dogs 'cause they're so smart, doesn't it? — Jean Donaldson

The greatest risk we face in software development is that of overestimating our own knowledge. — Jim Highsmith

I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race - that rarely do I even simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant ... I AM HAUNTED BY HUMANS. — Markus Zusak

I'm nobody's motivational speaker, but if I've learned anything it's this: Always try to fuck someone you think won't fuck you. Just try. Chances are decent that you're overestimating their taste or intelligence. — Shawn Vestal

When people suggest that what, all along, has been holding women back is other women bitching about each other, I think they're severely overestimating the power of a catty zinger during a cigarette break. We have to remember that snidely saying, "Her hair's a bit limp on top" isn't what's keeping womankind from closing the 30 percent pay gap and a place on the board of directors. I think that's more likely to be down to tens of thousands of years of ingrained social, political, and economic misogyny and the patriarchy, tbh. That's just got slightly more leverage than a gag about someone's bad trousers. — Caitlin Moran

She grew daring and reckless, overestimating her strength. She wanted to swim far out, where no woman had swum before. — Kate Chopin

I wanted to tell the book thief many things, about beauty and brutality. But what could I tell her about those things that she didn't already know? I wanted to explain that I am constantly overestimating and underestimating the human race-that rarely do I ever simply estimate it. I wanted to ask her how the same thing could be so ugly and so glorious, and its words and stories so damning and brilliant. — Markus Zusak

You catch all that, Humphrey?" I asked.
"Get to eat demons for breakfast," he said with a grin.
"Hey, only if they misbehave," I said.
"Demons always do," he said, licking his lips.
I had a sinking feeling that the gargoyle had a point. — E.J. Stevens

With our minutes and days and decades, we build houses and savings accounts and busy calendars full of activity. And in some deeper way, we build our reputations and friendships and invest in our kids and careers. We are looking for this life to matter. No, we are actually looking for ourselves to matter. So we keep so busy, so distracted, so in love with everything but our invisible, patient, jealous God. Christ said, "So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33). This covers literally everything. In essence, "Stop eating the flowers! Wake up — Jennie Allen

On my tombstone just write, 'The sorest loser that ever lived.' — Earl Weaver

I would have unleashed my secret weapon." She leaned in and whispered, "Operation Feel the Beard."

"That's your secret weapon?" He felt his beard every day, and he could say with 100 percent certainty that it was fairly low on his list of ways into his good graces. "I think you're overestimating the beard, Hollywood. Now if you were to feel another part of - "

She felt his beard. Sweet effen Christmas. — Kate Meader

The mistake I had made, obviously, was in overestimating human intelligence. By and large, one can not deny certain of mankind's achievements, such as the invention of lamb chops and central heating, but many people are strangely unreceptive to nuance. The hint, the diplomatic nudge, the oblique statements
these very often pass straight over their heads, and man and dog find themselves looking at each other through a fog of incomprehension. Thus it was with the management and myself. Delightful and welcoming, they certainly were, but not, it seemed, too quick on the uptake. — Peter Mayle

Weakness and strength are necessary for balance. No one or nothing is only weak or only strong. But some of us overlook our weaknesses, and even deny that we have them. That can be dangerous, because denying there is a weakness is in itself a weakness. Likewise, accepting that we have weaknesses becomes a strength. And by the same token, overestimating strength is a weakness. You should not be blinded by your strengths. The feeling of strength is not the same as having strength. Neither should you ignore your weaknesses. Know them well, too. — Joseph M. Marshall III