Bullshit is unavoidable when circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus, the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share
“Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person’s obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic are more excessive than his knowledge… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
The fact about himself that the liar hides is that he is attempting to lead us away from a correct apprehension of reality; we are not to know that he wants us to believe something he supposes to be false. The fact about himself that the bullshitter hides, on the other hand, is that the truth-values of his statements are… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize bullshit and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share
I was raised in Brooklyn and in Baltimore. My father was a bookkeeper. When I was 36 years old, my mother told me I… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
Bullshit is unavoidable when circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus, the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever a person's obligations or opportunities to speak about some topic exceed his knowledge of the facts that are relevant to that topic. This discrepancy is common in public life, where people are frequently impelled-whether by their… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share
Someone who lies and someone who tells the truth are playing on opposite sides, so to speak, in the same game. Each responds to the facts as he understands them, although the response of the one is guided by the authority of the truth, while the response of the other defies that authority and refuses to meet its demands. The… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share
The bullshitter is neither on the side of the true or the side of the false. His eye is not on the facts at all. He does not reject the authority of the truth, as the liar does, and oppose himself to it. He pays no attention to it at all. By virtue of this, bullshit is a greater enemy… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share
One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much bullshit. — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
“Bullshit is unavoidable whenever circumstances require someone to talk without knowing what he is talking about. Thus the production of bullshit is stimulated whenever… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
Recognizing truth requires selflessness. You have to leave yourself out of it so you can find out the way things are in themselves, not… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
I used to teach at Yale, which was at one time a center of postmodernist literary theory. Derrida was there. Paul de Man was… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
It is impossible for someone to lie unless he thinks he knows the truth. A person who lies is thereby responding to the truth,… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
It is only because a person has volitions of the second order that he is capable both of enjoying and of lacking freedom of… — Harry Frankfurt Copy Share Image
