#Arrogance

"I suppose that one reason I have always detested religion is its sly tendency to insinuate the idea that the universe is designed with 'you' in mind or, even worse, that there is a divine plan into which one fits whether one knows it or not. This kind of modesty is too arrogant for me."

"He was one of those young men who possess an impressive store of facts, but no truths."

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."[Preface to Brissot's Address to His Constituents (1794)]"

"I don't know how many of you have ever met Dijkstra, but you probably know that arrogance in computer science is measured in nano-Dijkstras."

"Ah! how little knowledge does a man acquire in his life. He gathers it up like water, but like water it runs between his fingers, and yet, if his hands be but wet as though with dew, behold a generation of fools call out, 'See, he is a wise man!' Is it not so?"

"Knowledge is as infinite as the universe. The man who claims to know all only reveals to all that he really knows nothing."

"When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."

"The typical atheist rebels against God as a teenager rebels against his parents. When his own desires or standards are not fulfilled in the way that he sees fit, he, in revolt, storms out of the house in denial of the Word of God and in scrutiny of a great deal of those who stand by the Word of God. The epithet 'Heavenly Father' is a grand reflection, a relation to that of human nature."

"Early in life I had to choose between honest arrogance and hypocritical humility. I chose the former and have seen no reason to change."

"The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is the pretense of intelligent ignorance. The former is teachable; the latter is not."

"You can't let the truth bring out the worst and let it get the best of you."

"I have been called arrogant myself in my time, and hope to earn the title again, but to claim that I am privy to the secrets of the universe and its creator - that's beyond my conceit."

"You never really learn much from hearing yourself speak."

"It is the certainty that they possess the truth that makes men cruel."

"I have met some highly intelligent believers, but history has no record to say that [s]he knew or understood the mind of god. Yet this is precisely the qualification which the godly must claim—so modestly and so humbly—to possess. It is time to withdraw our 'respect' from such fantastic claims, all of them aimed at the exertion of power over other humans in the real and material world."

"It's much easier on the emotions when one sees life as an experiment rather than a struggle for popularity."

"Arrogance on the part of the meritorious is even more offensive to us than the arrogance of those without merit: for merit itself is offensive."

"If your doctrine changed for the better yet your character changed for the worse, you changed for the worse."

"Those who travel to mountain-tops are half in love with themselves, and half in love with oblivion."

"My success isn't a result of arrogance - it's a result of belief."