#assumption

The surface of the earth is soft and impressible by the feet of men; and so with the paths which the mind travels. How worn and dusty, then, must be the highways of the world, how deep the ruts of tradition and conformity! I did not wish to take a cabin passage, but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world, for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. ↗

— Henry David Thoreau

#conformity #men

Our choice of a reform framework dictated that we looked at the fundamental assumptions that had driven Nigeria's economy, society and policy hitherto and to seek ways of either abandoning or transcending those assumptions and their supporting institutions. ↗

— Ibrahim Babangida

#assumptions #choice #dictated #driven #economy

The worst mistake of first contact, made throughout history by individuals on both sides of every new encounter, has been the unfortunate habit of making assumptions. It often proved fatal. ↗

— David Brin

#been #both #both sides #contact #encounter

The creative individual has the capacity to free himself from the web of social pressures in which the rest of us are caught. He is capable of questioning the assumptions that the rest of us accept. ↗

— John W. Gardner

#assumptions #capable #capacity #caught #creative

I just operate on the assumption that all phone conversations are bugged. ↗

— Terry McAuliffe

#bugged #conversations #i #just #operate

Most of our assumptions have outlived their uselessness. ↗

— Marshall McLuhan

#most #our #outlived #their

In a start-up company, you basically throw out all assumptions every three weeks. ↗

— William Lyon Phelps

#basically #company #every #out #start-up

People today sometimes get uncomfortable with empirical claims that seem to clash with their political assumptions, often because they haven't given much thought to the connections. ↗

— Steven Pinker

#because #claims #clash #connections #empirical

If the assumptions used in calculating energy are changed, then this seriously affects the final result, even though the same body of data might be used. ↗

— Charles Francis Richter

#assumptions #body #calculating #changed #data

I have learned throughout my life as a composer chiefly through my mistakes and pursuits of false assumptions, not by my exposure to founts of wisdom and knowledge. ↗

— Igor Stravinsky

#chiefly #composer #exposure #false #i