In Aesop’s fables from ancient Greece, the storyteller coined the term sour grapes to depict the opinion change of a fox who realized that he could not reach grapes that he wanted. After experiencing frustation, the fox solved his cognitive dissonance by convincing himself that the grapes must be sour and that in fact he was never interested in them.
—Dan Ariely, Misbelief, Harper Collins 2023
One day, Kipling Williams, a social scientist, was walking his dog in the park. As he was strolling along, a Frisbee fell at his feet. He picked it up and tossed back to one of the guys who’d been playing with it. Grinning, the guy tossed it back to him, and Williams found himself in the middle of an impromptu triangle toss. Back and forth they went a few times, but then the two friends who had been playing together before he stumble across their path stopped throwing the Frisbee to him and went back to throwing it to each other. Williams felt bereft and excluded.
—Dan Ariely, Misbelief, Harper Collins 2023
— (…) Sabias que a novilíngua é a única língua do mundo cujo vocabulário diminui ano após ano?
—George Orwell, 1984, Público 2002 (1949)
Havia que viver — e vivia-se, graças a um hábito que se fazia instinto — no pressuposto de que cada som emitido estaria a ser escutado e, salvo na escuridão, cada movimento, vigiado.
—George Orwell, 1984, Público 2002 (1949)
— Acho que, como de costume, não estás a ser realista Teddy. As instituições ocidentais de ensino que se recusam a reconhecer os tabus dos nossos dias são, por definição, subversivas. Se fores dizer àqueles fanáticos de Washington que o apoio a Israel é um monstruoso crime contra a humanidade, chamam-te logo anti-semita.
—John le Carré, Amigos Até Ao Fim, D. Quixote 2004 (2003)