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“Exhausting someone in argument is not the same as convincing him”
― Tim Kreider, We Learn Nothing

“Death would not surprise us as often as it does, if we let go of the misbelief that newborns are less mortal than the elderly.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Every barber thinks everybody needs a haircut.”
― M.F. Moonzajer

“It is only by ignoring fact, science, and reason that one can support current Republican positions.”
― Avi Silverman, Phalluses of Logic: How to Know When Republicans Lie

“People give ear to an upstart astrologer who strove to show that the earth revolves, not the heavens or the firmament, the sun and the moon. Whoever wishes to appear clever must devise some new system, which of all systems is of course the very best. This fool wishes to reverse the entire science of astronomy; but the sacred scripture tells us that Joshua commanded the sun to stand still, not the earth.”
― Martin Luther, The Table Talk of Martin Luther

“There is an universal tendency amongst mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice and good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us. Hence the frequency and beauty of the prosopopoeia in poetry, where trees, mountains and streams are personified, and the inanimate parts of nature acquire sentiment and passion. (Section 3, paragraph 2).”
― David Hume, The Natural History of Religion

“One of the most commonly cited human irrationalities is the sunk-cost fallacy, in which people continue to invest in a losing venture because of what they have invested so far rather than in anticipation of what they will gain going forward.”
― Steven Pinker, Rationality

“The power of collective memory does not lie in its accurate, systematic, or sophisticated mapping of the past, but in establishing basic images that articulate and reinforce a particular ideological stance.”
― Yael Zerubavel, Recovered Roots: Collective Memory and the Making of Israeli National Tradition

“Don’t ever let your deeds oppose the same thing you seek to promote! That is a big fallacy!”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“The more intense the belief, the less likely that reason and evidence can dislodge it.”
― Linda Elder Richard Paul, The Thinker's Guide to Fallacies: The Art of Mental Trickery and Manipulation

“I realize we could physically fit everybody there (Texas)... that doesn't mean they could all be fed, and clothed, and given iPhones”
― Dane Wigington

“Never forget, an argument isn’t wrong by line 1,000. It is wrong by the end of line 1. It is wrong in the first, defining claim it makes.”
― Thomas Stark, Tractatus Logico-Mathematicus: How Mathematics Explains Reality

“This was a tall order, and one could criticize it on the grounds that it was somewhat circular: how can you justify your methods of reasoning on the basis of those same methods of reasoning? It is like lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps.”
― Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid

“To define a person or people as ordinary is a fallacy, for to breathe, think, choose, and love is anything but ordinaryâ€� on the contrary, people are extraordinary. It is those things and situations we encounter that can be ordinary.”
― Nanette L. Avery

“Possession is a ruse and entitlement is a fallacy. Therefore, I am left with the singular fact that everything is a gift. And if I have one gift to give in exchange for these many gifts, maybe it’s the commitment to treat everything in like manner.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Thanks Giving.
The Indian and the White Man together.
The pageantry spoke to me of civilization.”
― Stephen Graham Jones, Ledfeather

“Now there are almost as many fallacies in this sentence as there are words.”
― Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Women's Suffrage: A Short History of a Great Movement

“All the fallacies of human reason had to be exhausted, before the light of a high truth could meet with ready acceptance.”
― Max Muller, Handbooks for the Study of Sanskrit

“All the fallacies of human reason had to be exhausted, before the light of a high truth could meet with ready acceptance.”
― Friedrich Max Müller, A History of Ancient Sanskrit Literature So Far As It Illustrates the Primitive Religion of the Brahmans

“Every argument against the Bible is based on made-up stuff.”
― Petros Scientia, Exposing the REAL Creation-Evolution Debate

“Every argument against the God of the Bible is based on made-up stuff.”
― Petros Scientia, Exposing the REAL Creation-Evolution Debate

“Work-life balance is a fallacy. Work-life freedom is the goal.”
― Richie Norton

“A man might as well say that millers and cats and princesses are fabulous animals, because they appear side by side with goblins and mermaids in the stories of the nursery.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Avowals and Denials - A Book of Essays

“Overview of the Fallacy of Division by Austin Cline

In critical thinking, we often come across statements that fall victim to the fallacy of division. This common logical fallacy refers to an attribution placed onto an entire class, assuming that each part has the same property as the whole. These can be physical objects, concepts, or groups of people.

By grouping elements of a whole together and assuming that every piece automatically has a certain attribute, we are often stating a false argument. This falls into the category of a fallacy of grammatical analogy. It can apply to many arguments and statements we make, including the debate over religious beliefs.

The fallacy of division is similar to the fallacy of composition but in reverse. This fallacy involves someone taking an attribute of a whole or a class and assuming that it must also necessarily be true of each part or member.

The fallacy of division takes the form of:

X has property P. Therefore, all parts (or members) of X have this property P.

Here are some obvious examples of the Fallacy of Division:

The United States is the richest country in the world. Therefore, everyone in the United States must be rich and live well.

[So pointing out one poor American does not refute the proposition that the United States is a rich country.]”
― Austine Cline

“Im Kapitalismus wie im Kommunismus läuft alles (...) auf eine falsche Vorstellung hinaus, die wir vor vierzig Jahren beinahe überwunden hätten: auf den Trugschluss, ein Leben ohne Armut sei kein Recht, auf das alle Menschen Anspruch hätten, sondern ein Privileg, für das man arbeiten müsse.”
― Rutger Bregman, Utopia for Realists: How We Can Build the Ideal World

“Biggest fallacy of legal system in civilised societies is that ‘truthâ€� has to be proved, so by default ‘untruthâ€� prevails.”
― Sandeep Sahajpal, The Twelfth Preamble: To all the authors to be!

“You pay full price for each error.
You pay full price for each fault
You pay full price for each inaccuracy
You pay full price for each omission
You pay full price for each slip
You pay full price for each blunder
You pay full price for each miscalculation


You pay full price for each misunderstanding
You pay full price for each flaw
You pay full price for each oversight
You pay full price for each misinterpretation
You pay full price for each fallacy.”
― -human bot

“The idea that we are the persistent seekers of the truth and nothing but the truth, and that this truth can save us or set us free is one of the strongest and most pervasive fallacies in our species through the millenia.”
― Giannis Delimitsos

“A philosophic system is an integrated view of existence.
As a human being you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation - or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind's wings should have grown.”
― Ayn Rand

“if the two of you are alone, walk away. If you have an audience, consider throwing the fallacy back at your opponent. “I see. Purple is a fruit. So, since your skin is tan, that makes you a pair of khakis.”
― Jay Heinrichs, Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion