Superiority

Famous quotes containing the word superiority:

    There is something in us, somehow, that, in the most degraded condition, we snatch at a chance to deceive ourselves into a fancied superiority to others, whom we suppose lower in the scale than ourselves.
    Herman Melville (1819–1891)

    Thus all probable reasoning is nothing but a species of sensation. ‘Tis not solely in poetry and music, we must follow our taste and sentiment, but likewise in philosophy, When I am convinc’d of any principle, ‘tis only an idea which strikes more strongly upon me. When I give the preference to one set of arguments above another, I do nothing but decide from my feeling concerning the superiority of their influence.
    David Hume (1711–1776)

    Obscurantism is the academic theorist’s revenge on society for having consigned him or her to relative obscurity—a way of proclaiming one’s superiority in the face of one’s diminished influence.
    David Lehman (b. 1948)