Eseink Kuo’s Reviews > How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading > Status Update

It is a good mental exercise to pretend that you believe something you really do not believe. And the clearer you are about your own prejudgements, the more likely you will not to misjudge those made by others.

Philosophy according to Aristotle, begins in wonder. It certainly begins in childhood, even if for most of us it stops there, too.

Adults do not lose the curiosity that seems to be a naive human trait, but their curiosity deteriorated in quality. They want to know whether something is so, not why.

Scientific objectivity is not the absence of initial bias. It is attained by frank confession of it.

The cause of every human action, Tolstoy thought, we’re so manifold, so complex, and so deeply hidden in unconscious motivations that it is impossible to know why anything ever happened.

A witness cannot suppose anything, he cannot guess or hypothecate or estimate (except under very carefully controlled conditions)

A story is like life itself; in life, we don’t expect to understand events as they occur, at least with total clarity, but looking back on them, we do understand.

Do not say you agree, disagree, or suspend judgement, until you can say “ I understand.”

The language they must use to communicate is an imperfect medium, clouded by emotion and colored by interest, as well as inadequately transparent for thought.

To agree is just as much an exercise of critical judgement on your part as to disagree.
To agree without understanding is insane. To disagree without understanding is impudent.