The psychological fact of suggestion is that if statements are made again and again in a confident manner, without argument or proof, then their hearers will tend to believe them quite independently of their soundness and of the presence or absence of evidence for their truth.

Robert H. Thouless
About This Quote

The psychological fact of suggestion is that if statements are made again and again in a confident manner, without argument or proof, then their hearers will tend to believe them quite independently of their soundness and of the presence or absence of evidence for their truth. This amazing quote by Sigmund Freud means that even when the same information is told many times people will still accept it as true. It's because you're tired, you're bored, it's old news, you're just looking for something else to do. The only way to get people to stop repeating what they already believe is to show proof.

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  4. That vice has often proved an emancipator of the mind, is one of the most humiliating, but, at the same time, one of the most unquestionable facts in history. - Anonymous
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More Quotes By Robert H. Thouless
  1. Every day People straighten up the hair, why not the heart?
  2. Silence is argument carried out by other means.
  3. We cannot be sure of having something to live for unless we are willing to die for it.
  4. The revolution is not an apple that falls when ripe. You have to make it fall.
  5. When asked whether or not we are Marxists, our position is the same as that of a physicist, when asked if he is a “Newtonian” or of a biologist when asked if he is a “Pasteurian.
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