A Quote by Sam Harris

Our moral reasoning is plagued by two illusions. The first illusion can be called the wag-the-dog illusion: We believe that our own moral judgment (the dog) is driven by our own moral reasoning (the tail). The second illusion can be called the wag-theother-dog's-tail illusion: In a moral argument, we expect the successful rebuttal of an opponent's arguments to change the opponent's mind. Such a belief is like thinking that forcing a dog's tail to wag by moving it with your hand will make the dog happy.

Sam Harris

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Argument Belief Believe Change Dog Driven Expect First Forcing Hand Happy Illusion Illusions Judgment Like Make Mind Moral Moral Judgment Moral Reasoning Moving Opponent Our Own Reasoning Rebuttal Second Successful Tail Thinking Two Wag Will Your

Quote Author

Sam Harris
American - Author
Born: April 9, 1967

The social intuitionist model offers an explanation of why moral and political arguments are so frustrating: because moral reasons are the tail wagged by the intuitive dog. A dog’s tail wags to communicate. You can’t make a dog happy by forcibly wagging its tail. And you can’t change people’s minds by utterly refuting their arguments.

Jonathan Haidt

The dog wags its tail only at living things. A tail wag, the equivalent of a human smile, is bestowed upon people, dogs , cats, squirrels, even mice and butterflies. - but no lifeless things. A dog won't wag its tail to its dinner or to a bed, card, stick, or even a bone.

Jean Craighead George

My mother often told us that it is a poor dog that will not wag its own tail.

Danny K. Davis

Modern houses are so small we've had to train our dog to wag its tail up and down and not sideways.

Unknown

Money can buy you a fine dog, but only love can make him wag his tail.

Kinky Friedman

I've always said money may buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail.

Kinky Friedman

She [Alice] went on "And how do you know that you're mad?" "To begin with," said the Cat, "a dog's not mad. You grant that?" "I suppose so," said Alice. "Well, then," the Cat went on, "you see, a dog growls when it's angry, and wags it's tail when it's pleased. Now I growl when I'm pleased, and wag my tail when I'm angry. Therefore I'm mad."

Lewis Carroll

Money can buy a fine dog but it is kindness that makes him wag his tail.

John B. S. Haldane

In the whole history of the world there is but one thing that money cannot buy...to wit--the wag of a dog's tail.

Josh Billings

The eyes of a dog, the expression of a dog, the warmly wagging tail of a dog and the gloriously cold damp nose of a dog were in my opinion all God-given for one purpose only-to make complete fools of us human beings.

Barbara Woodhouse

Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won't buy the wag of his tail.

Josh Billings

We may smile and the dog may wag the tail, but in essence, we have a set program and those programs are similar across individuals in the species.

Antonio Damasio

Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his own tail. It won't fatten the dog.

Mark Twain

We have learned to whittle the Eden Tree to the shape of a surplice peg, We have learned to bottle our parents twain in the yelk of an addled egg. We know that the tail must wag the dog, for the horse is drawn by the cart, But the devil whoops, as he whooped of old; It's clever, but is it art?

Rudyard Kipling

After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.

Robert R. McCammon

Because of the dog's joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift. It is not the least reason why we should honor as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born.

Mary Oliver

A Quote by Sam Harris

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