Sooner or later, false thinking brings wrong conduct.

Predominant opinions are generally the opinions of the generation that is vanishing.

the general or prevailing opinion in any subject is rarely or never the whole truth; it is only by the collision of adverse opinions that the remainder of the truth has any chance of being supplied

Most people go through life assuming that they’re right … and that people who don’t see things their way are wrong.

Thoughts are false.

It is a general popular error to imagine the loudest complainers for the public to be the most anxious for its welfare.

Hasty opinion too often points the wrong way, and then affection for one's own opinion binds up the intellect.

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

"Atticus, you must be wrong."

"How's that?"

"Well, most folks seem to think they're right and you're wrong. . ."

"They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions," said Atticus, "but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.

One can be certain that every generally held idea, every received notion, will be an idiocy, because it has been able to appeal to a majority.

The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than with their minds.

The prevailing wisdom is that markets are always right. I take the opposition position. I assume that markets are always wrong. Even if my assumption is occasionally wrong, I use it as a working hypothesis. It does not follow that one should always go against the prevailing trend. On the contrary, most of the time the trend prevails; only occasionally are the errors corrected. It is only on those occasions that one should go against the trend. This line of reasoning leads me to look for the flaw in every investment thesis. ... I am ahead of the curve. I watch out for telltale signs that a trend may be exhausted. Then I disengage from the herd and look for a different investment thesis. Or, if I think the trend has been carried to excess, I may probe going against it. Most of the time we are punished if we go against the trend. Only at an inflection point are we rewarded.

People who assume failure tend to have the failure.