“We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found ourselves than by those which have occurred to others.”

“Propaganda ... serves more to justify ourselves than to convince others; and the more reason we have to feel guilty, the more fervent our propaganda.”

“Our prayers for others flow more easily than those for ourselves. This shows we are made to live by charity.”

“We are generally the better persuaded by the reasons we discover ourselves than by those given to us by others.”

“We can tell people abstract rules of thumb which we have derived from prior experiences, but it is very difficult for other people to learn from these. We have difficulty remembering such abstractions, but we can more easily remember a good story. Stories give life to past experience. Stories make the events in memory memorable to others and to ourselves. This is one of the reasons why people like to tell stories.”

“Since we live in a society that promotes faddism and temporary superficial adaptation of different values, we are easily convinced that changes have occurred in arenas where there has been little or no change.”