quote · Legacy record
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.
Approximate author period: c. 1965 AD · modern
Meaning not yet available
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- Author or tradition
- Carl Sagan
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
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- Approximate author period: c. 1965 AD · modern
Approximate author-period anchor from life dates 1934 to 1996; Wikidata Q410, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q410 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 103901; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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