Susan Stebbing

"Perceiving involves more than being sensibly aware of something present to the senses; it involves the activity of perceiving. This is the activity of a person, and in perceiving, the whole person is …"

"There are many ways of being wrong, but only one way of being right."

"...potted thinking is easily accepted, is concentrated in form, and has lost the vitamins essential to mental nourishment."

"...we easily fall into the habit of accepting compressed statements which save us from the trouble of thinking. Thus arises what I shall call ‘Potted Thinking’."

"I am convinced of the urgent need for democratic people to think clearly without the distortions due to unconscious bias and unrecognised ignorance. Our failures in thinking in part due to our faults …"

"We are content to accept without testing any belief that fits in with our prejudices and whose truth is necessary for the satisfaction of our desires."

"We must face the unfortunate fact that we are moved to the acceptance of beliefs by factors that are wholly irrelevant to their truth."

"A mind in blinkers is a mind that is unfree."