Research can increasingly address itself to minor unclarities in prior research rather than to larger issues; people can lose sight of the basic problems because the field becomes defined by the ongoing research.

The existence of dissonance, being psychologically uncomfortable, will motivate the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance.

A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point.

When dissonance is present, in addition to trying to reduce it, the person will actively avoid situations and information which would likely increase the dissonance.

If heaven had granted me five more years, I could have become a real painter.

-- Katsushika Hokusai

I used to measure the heavens, now I measure the shadows of Earth.

-- Johannes Kepler

What I wanted was simple: to preserve what existed.

-- Klemens von Metternich

I am a rock of order.

-- Klemens von Metternich

If Maximilian I was the last knight, Franz Joseph is the last monarch.

-- Franz Joseph I of Austria

I have conquered twenty-four cities, each with their surrounding districts.

-- Mansa Musa