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“Only idiots are confident. It requires a great amount of wisdom and knowledge to be confused.”
― Abhishek Leela Pandey

“The classification of facts and the formation of absolute judgments upon the basis of this classification—judgments independent of the idiosyncrasies of the individual mind—essentially sum up the aim and method of modern science. The scientific man has above all things to strive at self-elimination in his judgments, to provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as for his own.”
― Karl Pearson, The Grammar of Science

“She doesn’t shake hands.�� Saul smiled at the reverend and shrugged. She had other odd behaviors. Saul never viewed her idiosyncrasies as a problem. Rather, he enjoyed her ongoing revelations. She was a piñata of surprises every time they went out. –Michael Benzehabe, from the novel Unassimilated”
― Michael Benzehabe

“...imagine that you hold in one hand an oddly shaped stone. You keep this hand closed into a fist, but still you can feel the stone’s curvature and the pointed edges, the roughness—of course, you know the relative size and weight and might even have a mental image of the color of this stone, even if you have not yet laid eyes upon it. Imagine that stone in your hand. Imagine what it is like to know everything about the way it feels, but nothing of how it looks. Hold that in mind for a moment.

Now, imagine that there is a person standing next to you who tells you that she also holds a stone in her hand. You look down and see the clenched fist and she sees yours and you confess the same. Neither of you, it seems, has yet opened the hand and seen the stone. Still, you can only trust each other’s proclamations. Standing together with your stones in hand, the two of you theorize about whether or not your respective stones are similar to one another. You discuss mundane details about your stones (not the special ones—you hesitate to make mention of the sharp point in the northern hemisphere or the flat area on the bottom). Your neighbor finally notes similarities between her stone and yours and you nod with relief and acknowledge that your stones indeed share reasonable commonalities. Over the course of your discussion, you and your neighbor finally conclude, without bothering to open your hands, that the stones you hold must indeed be quite similar.

Are they? It is only suitable to say that they are.

At the same time, and in spite of your desire not to offend, there is no doubt in your mind that the stone you hold bespeaks a greater prominence than that of your neighbor. You are not sure how you know this to be true, but it must be so! And I do not mean that this stone simply holds a greater subjective prominence. It has something of the universal, for it is, indeed, an auspicious stone! Silently, you hypothesize in what ways it must be special. It is possibly different in shape, color, weight, size and texture from the other, but you cannot confirm this. Perhaps, it is special by substance? Still, you are unsure. The very fact of your uncertainty begins to bother you and unleashes within you a deep insecurity. What if you are wrong and your stone is actually inferior to the other…or inferior even to some third stone not yet encountered?

Meanwhile, your neighbor is silently suffering in the same agony. Both of you tacitly understand that, without comparing the two visually, it is absurd to proclaim the two stones similar. Yet, your fist remains clenched, as does your neighbor’s and so you find yourselves unable to hold out the stones before you and compare them side-by-side. Of course, this is possible, but the mutual curiosity is outstripped by an inveterate pride, and so you both become afraid of showing (and even seeing) what you have, for fear that your respective stones will be different in appearance from the model that you have each conceptualized in mind. Meekly your eyes meet and you smile to one another at your new comradeship, but, all the while, remain paralyzed by a simultaneous shame and vanity.”
― Ashim Shanker

“Lying awake in the dark that night,unable to sleep, he thought he would have given anything to feel the heavy thud on the bed that used to announce the old dog's arrival. How extremely unloving and intolerant he had felt so often , waking in the middle of the night to the relentless shoving and pushing of his undesirable and selfish bedfellow.”
― Sheila Burnford, The Incredible Journey

“How did we become so prejudiced by our idiosyncrasies?...We shared the same languages, but spoke of worlds so subtly different that language was not enough. Over time the big things were left unsaid; they gave way to the little things, those once-endearing imperfections that had somewhere become deal breakers.”
― Miguel Syjuco, Ilustrado

“Identical twins think and feel in such similar ways that they sometimes
suspect they are linked by telepathy. When separated at birth and reunited as
adults, they say they feel they have known each other all their lives. Testing
confirms that identical twins, whether separated at birth or not, are eerily alike
(though far from identical) in just about any trait one can measure. They are
similar in verbal, mathematical, and general intelligence, in their degree of life
satisfaction, and in personality traits such as introversion, agreeableness, neuroticism,
conscientiousness, and openness to experience. They have similar attitudes
toward controversial issues such as the death penalty, religion, and
modern music. They resemble each other not just in paper-and-pencil tests
but in consequential behavior such as gambling, divorcing, committing
crimes, getting into accidents, and watching television. And they boast dozens
of shared idiosyncrasies such as giggling incessantly, giving interminable answers
to simple questions, dipping buttered toast in coffee,and-in the case of
Abigail van Buren and Ann Landers-writing indistinguishable syndicated
advice columns. The crags and valleysof their electroencephalograms (brainwaves)
are as alike as those of a single person recorded on two occasions, and
the wrinkles of their brains and distribution of gray matter across cortical
areas are also similar.”
― Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

“We find the Mayan pantheon peculiar. By our standards, suicide and human sacrifice are unacceptable. We tend not to notice the peculiarities of our own culture. We accept the thousands of children who wear braces to correct their teeth, yet we consider the Maya odd for filing teeth to beautify them. Each culture defines its own idiosyncracies and then forgets that it has done so.”
― Pat Murphy, The Falling Woman

“English: "All people are mad, and many try to pretend they are not."

Česky: „Všichni lidé jsou blázni a mnozí se snaží předstírat, že nejsou.”
― Sebastián Wortys

“English: "From a certain degree of freedom, understanding is impossible."

Česky: „Od určité míry svobody je dorozumění nemožné.”
― Sebastián Wortys

“We would never say to a man, "Be eccentric"; but if he cannot help being so, we would not have him be otherwise. The Leaning Tower of Pisa owes much of its fame to its leaning, and although it certainly is not a safe model for architects, we would by no means advise its demolition. Ten to one any builder who tried to erect another would create a huge ruin, and therefore it would not be a safe precedent; but there it is, and who wishes it was other than it is? Serve the Lord, brother, with your very best, and seek to do even better, and whatever your peculiarities, the grace of God will be glorified in you.”
― Charles H. Spurgeon, Eccentric Preachers: Spiritual Lessons and Insights from God’s Peculiar People [Updated and Annotated]