389 – “We continue to favor the outlandish explanation over the simple one; we are more readily deceived by a great deception… than by a modest one. … We like to lose ourselves in a cause, to ground our private hurts in public outrages. We do not like for others to refute our beliefs any more than we like them to deny our hallucinations.”

–Stacy Schiff

Note: The parts cut from this quote do not alter the meaning, rather they serve as context to the article it was written in and make little sense without the article. However, you can read the full quote under Source Notes and judge for yourselves.

Quote Number:  1122

Source: Schiff, Stacy. “The Devil’s Tongue.” Smithsonian. November, 2015. Pg. 39.

Source Notes: “We continue to favor the outlandish explanation over the simple one; we are more readily deceived by a great deception – by a hairy creature with wings and a female face – than by a modest one. When computers go down, it seems far more likely that they were hacked by a group of conspirators than that they simultaneously malfunctioned. A jet vanishes: It is more plausible that it was secreted away by a Middle Eastern country than that it might be sitting, in fragments, on the ocean floor. We like to lose ourselves in a cause, to ground our private hurts in public outrages. We do not like for others to refute our beliefs any more than we like them to deny our hallucinations.”

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