"Why is error so popular?[…]In the first place, error is often more attractive than truth. Real life is apt to be a drab, humdrum, unglamorous business; but things-that-aren't-so are usually spectacularly exciting and fill us with a tingling sense of wonder and awe.[…]Another thing that makes error popular is that we like life to be nice and simple. Of course, life isn't like that; it's complex, irregular, hard to understand, and generally a messy thing to deal with. But error has a wonderful neatness.[…]A third reason for our wrong beliefs goes deeper. We believe what is comfortable to believe. If problems are troublesome, there must be an easy solution; if we are worried, there must be something that will make us feel good. This, I think, is at the bottom of the last two on my little list of errors."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Rudolf Flesch, The Art of Clear Thinking (1951), ch. 21. New York: Collier Books, 1962, pp. 220–221
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Error
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