Lies propagate, that's what I'm saying. You've got to tell more lies to cover them up, lie about every fact that's connected to the first lie. And if you kept on lying, and you kept on trying to cover it up, sooner or later you'd even have to start lying about the general laws of thought. Like, someone is selling you some kind of alternative medicine that doesn't work, and any double-blind experimental study will confirm that it doesn't work. So if someone wants to go on defending the lie, they've got to get you to disbelieve in the experimental method. Like, the experimental method is just for merely scientific kinds of medicine, not amazing alternative medicine like theirs. Or a good and virtuous person should believe as strongly as they can, no matter what the evidence says. Or truth doesn't exist and there's no such thing as objective reality. A lot of common wisdom like that isn't just mistaken, it's anti-epistemology, it's systematically wrong. Every rule of rationality that tells you how to find the truth, there's someone out there who needs you to believe the opposite. If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy; and there's a lot of people out there telling lies. Eliezer Yudkowsky
Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
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Anonymous
Besides, the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters. We've all got both light and dark inside us. What matters is the part we choose to act on. That's who we really are.
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J.k. Rowling
Mr. Moony presents his compliments to Professor Snape, and begs him to keep his abnormally large nose out of other people's business. Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. <span style="margin:15px; display:block"></span>Moony, and would like to add that Professor Snape is an ugly git. Mr. Padfoot would...
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J.k. Rowling
How do you feel, Georgie?" whispered Mrs. Weasley.George's fingers groped for the side of his head." Saintlike, " he murmured." What's wrong with him?" croaked Fred, looking terrified. "Is his mind affected?"" Saintlike, " repeated George, opening his eyes and looking up at his brother....
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J.k. Rowling
An Unbreakable Vow?" said Ron, looking stunned. "Nah, he can’t have.... Are you sure?"" Yes I’m sure, " said Harry. "Why, what does it mean?"" Well, you can’t break an Unbreakable Vow...""I’d worked that much out for myself, funnily enough.
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J.k. Rowling
More Quotes By Eliezer Yudkowsky
There is no justice in the laws of nature, no term for fairness in the equations of motion. The Universe is neither evil, nor good, it simply does not care. The stars don't care, or the Sun, or the sky. But they don't have to!...
One of chief pieces of advice I give to aspiring rationalists is "Don't try to be clever." And, "Listen to those quiet, nagging doubts." If you don't know, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know how much you don't know, and you...
If you once tell a lie, the truth is ever after your enemy.
And someday when the descendants of humanity have spread from star to star they won’t tell the children about the history of Ancient Earth until they’re old enough to bear it and when they learn they’ll weep to hear that such a thing as Death...
It's a most peculiar psychology–this business of 'Science is based on faith too, so there! ' Typically this is said by people who claim that faith is a good thing. Then why do they say 'Science is based on faith too! ' in that angry-triumphal...
