The Evidence Of The Emotions, Save In Cases Where It Has Strong Objective Suppo

HomeFortune CookiesMiscellaneous Collections

The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective
support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has
its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way.
Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for immortality,
and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile when it is
recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of annihilation,
and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there is nothing
beyond the grave. Such childish proofs are typically theological, and
they remain theological even when they are adduced by men who like to
flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific gents...
-- H. L. Mencken

Related: