Richard Posner Inspirational Quotes (9)

Because reputation lags achievement, we should expect people to reach the zenith of their reputation well past the zenith of their productive output

I do not know what has caused MacKinnon to become, and, more surprisingly, to remain, so obsessed with pornography, and so zealous for censorship. But let us not sacrifice our civil liberties on the altar of her obsession.

Heterosexuals get drunk and pregnant, producing unwanted children their reward is to be allowed to marry. Homosexual couples do not produce unwanted children their reward is to be denied the right to marry. Go figure.

We have a tendency to assume people are a unity, and thus good people all good, etc. But the fact that Hitler was good to dogs and children isn't a paradox.

If belief in the existence of God is predicted to lead to a feeling of contentment, and the prediction is fulfilled, does it follow that God exists? Surely not. All that would follow would be the desireability of the belief.

Fact is often stranger than fiction because most writers of fiction try to make their stories plausible.

A diversity of approaches is necessary if there is to be a good chance of hitting on one that works. Progress is a social undertaking & achievement, because people see things differently

I’ve become less conservative since the Republican Party started becoming goofy.

But Friedman seemed to share Friedrich Hayek's extreme and inaccurate view that socialism of the sort that Britain embraced under the old Labour Party was incompatible with democracy, and I don't think that there is a good theoretical or empirical basis for that view. The Road to Serfdom flunks the test of accuracy of prediction!