# Aversion

Aversion (also known as uncertainty aversion) in decision theory and economics is described as an attitude of preference for known risks over unknown risks. People would rather choose an option with fewer unknown elements than with many unknown elements. Ambiguous events have a much greater degree of uncertainty. This includes the uncertainty of outcome and also the probability of an event occurring or the payoff associated with such events. The reaction is behavioral and still being formalized.
Arranged alphabetically by author or source: A · B · C · D · E · F · G · H · I · J · K · L · M · N · O · P · Q · R · S · T · U · V · W · X · Y · Z · Anonymous · See also · External links

## A

* The World in which we live and move Outlasts aversion, outlasts love:Outlasts each effort, interest, hope,Remorse, grief, joy...
** Matthew Arnold, in Poetical works p. 58.

## B

* Instead of fruitlessly trying to control the world, you can learn to control your mind, to step outside of the endless cycle of desire, aversion and ignoring.
** David Bruce Hughes (Gaurahari Dāsānudās Bābājī), in Healing the Pain p. 12.
* And I not only inherited an aversion to the nine-to-five routine, but the sense from my parents that being bored and boring is the worst thing that you can be.
** Christian Bale, in Christian Bale Biography
* I'm against big bureaucracy in Washington making health care decisions. I just have an aversion to bureaucrats. But it's not just government bureaucrats. I don't like HMO bureaucrats and insurance company bureaucrats either.
** Gary Bauer, in USA Today Full text of debate.
* The greater the decrease in the social significance of an art form, the sharper the distinction between criticism and enjoyment by the public. The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion.
** Walter Benjamin, in Art and Its Significance: An Anthology of Aesthetic Theory, Third Edition p. 534.
* To impose good , whether through force or through some technique like aversion therapy, is evil. To act evilly is better than to have good imposed.
** Anthony Burgess, in Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing p. 274.
* He had been haunted his whole life by a mild case of claustrophobia—the vestige of a childhood incident he had never quite overcome. Langdon’s aversion to closed spaces was by no means debilitating, but it had always frustrated him. It manifested itself in subtle ways. He avoided enclosed sports like racquetball or squash, and he had gladly paid a small fortune for his airy, high-ceilinged Victorian home even though economical faculty housing was readily available. Langdon had often suspected his attraction to the art world as a young boy sprang from his love of museums’ wide open spaces.
** Dan Brown, in Angels And Demons: (Robert Langdon Book 1) p. 19.
* My only aversion to vice, is the price.
** Victor Buono, in The Portable Curmudgeon p. 274.

## C

* Well, I think both Russia and China have a very strong aversion to interference in internal affairs.
** Hillary Clinton, in Interview with Secretary Hillary Clinton
* I deeply detest social distinction and snobbery, and in that lies my strong aversion to titular honours.
** Helen Clark, in The Telegraph New Zealand will soon abandon the Queen, says former PM
* Jealousy - that jumble of secret worship and ostensible aversion.
** Emil Cioran, in "Emile M. Cioran T-shirts - Jealousy - that - Jealousy Tshirts Unisex"
* My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
** Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, quoted by Joseph Epstein in Friendship: An Expose p. 201.
* One who shows signs of mental aberration is, inevitably, perhaps, but cruelly, shut off from familiar, thoughtless intercourse, partly excommunicated; his isolation is unwittingly proclaimed to him on every countenance by curiosity, indifference, aversion, or pity, and in so far as he is human enough to need free and equal communication and feel the lack of it, he suffers pain and loss of a kind and degree which others can only faintly imagine, and for the most part ignore.
** Charles Horton Cooley, in Quotes by Cooley Charles Horton p. 5.

## D

* He who has conquered the feelings of pleasure, wrath, avarice, attachment, vanity and aversion , this one is peace itself, and free from all pride.
** Mahatma Dattatrey, in “Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing” p. 236.

## E

* I can understand your aversion to the use of the term "religion" to describe an emotional and psychological attitude which shows itself most clearly in Spinoza... I have not found a better expression than "religious" for the trust in the rational nature of reality that is, at least to a certain extent, accessible to human reason.
** Albert Einstein, in a letter to Maurice Solovine, as quoted in Einstein : Science and Religion by Arnold V. Lesikar
* I appeal from your customs. I must be myself. I cannot break myself any longer for you, or you. If you can love me for what I am, we shall be happier. If you cannot, I will still seek to deserve that you should. I must be myself. I will not hide my tastes or aversions. I will so trust that what is deep is holy, that I will do strongly before the sun and moon whatever inly rejoices me and the heart appoints. If you are noble, I will love you; if you are not, I will not hurt you and myself by hypocritical attentions.
** Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Self-reliance, and Other Essays] p. 31.
* Society everywhere is in conspiracy against the manhood of every one of its members. The virtue in most request is conformity. Self-reliance is its aversion. It loves not realities and creators, but names and customs.
** Ralph Waldo Emerson, in Essays: First and Second Series p. 13.

## F

* Psychotherapeutic and psychoanalytic methods have a poor record in the treatment of sexual deviations. So that attempts to apply aversion therapy techniques are justified and are becoming increasingly frequent.
** M.P. Feldman in Aversion Therapy for Sexual Deviations: A Critical Review p. Cover page.

## G

* His indolence and love of pleasure, made his averse to all kinds of business …]]
** Oliver Goldsmith, on Charles II of England in http://books.google.co.in/books?id=HzEIAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA172 An abridgment of The history of England, continued to 1810. Genuine ed ...] p. 172.
* I was assigned to the Waffen-SS but was never involved in any crime. Besides, I always felt the need to write about my experiences in a larger context one day. This has only developed recently, now that I have overcome my inner aversion to writing an autobiography in the first place, specifically one having to do with my younger years.
** Günter Grass, in Interview with Günter Grass: "It Was Always on My Mind"

## H

* If every day a man takes orders in silence from an incompetent superior, if every day he solemnly performs ritual acts which he privately finds ridiculous, if he unhesitatingly gives answers to questionnaires which are contrary to his real opinions and is prepared to deny his own self in public, if he sees no difficulty in feigning sympathy or even affection where, in fact, he feels only indifference or aversion, it still does not mean that he has entirely lost the use of one of the basic human senses, namely, the sense of humiliation.
** Vaclav Havel, quoted in http://books.google.co.in/books?id=RQABaZwf7OIC&pg=PA100 On the Art of Business\ pp.100-101.
* You know quite well, deep within you, that there is a single magic, a single power, a single salvation, and single happiness, and that is called loving. Then love your suffering. Do not resist it, do not flee from it. Taste how sweet it is in its essence, give yourself to it do not meet it with aversion. It is only aversion that hurts, nothing else.
** Herman Hesse, in “Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing” p. 680.
* Faith is harder to shake than knowledge, love succumbs less to change than respect, hate is more enduring than aversion, and the impetus to the mightiest upheavals on this earth has at all times consisted less in a scientific knowledge dominating the masses than in a fanaticism which inspire them and some times in a hysteria which drove them forward.
** Adolph Hitler, quoted by Venus Americanus in Adolf Hitler: Religionist: Naziism As a Genuine Religion p. 67.

## I

* It has always been a mystery to me how Adam, Eve, and the serpent were taught the same language. Where did they get it? We know now, that it requires a great number of years to form a language; that it is of exceedingly slow growth. We also know that by language, man conveys to his fellows the impressions made upon him by what he sees, hears, smells and touches. We know that the language of the savage consists of a few sounds, capable of expressing only a few ideas or states of the mind, such as love, desire, fear, hatred, aversion and contempt. Many centuries are required to produce a language capable of expressing complex ideas. It does not seem to me that ideas can be manufactured by a deity and put in the brain of man. These ideas must be the result of observation and experience.”
** Robert G. Ingersoll, in The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, p. 170.

## J

* Mankind have a great aversion to intellectual labor; but even supposing knowledge to be easily attainable, more people would be content to be ignorant than would take even a little trouble to acquire it.
** Samuel Johnson, quoted in The Ladies' Companion and Literary Expositor, Volume 16 p. 269.

## K

* The scorn men express for a male who does housework is exceeded only by their aversion to a woman who doesn't.
** Penny Kome, in http://books.google.co.in/books?id=nTKgWEBhBeoC&pg=PA218 Women Know Everything!: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, & Brilliant Remarks] p. 218.

## L

* We are motivated more by aversion to the unpleasant than by a will toward truth, freedom, or healing. We are constantly attempting to escape our life, to avoid rather than enter our pain we, and we wonder why it is so difficult to be fully alive. (43)”
** Stephen Levine, in Quotes by Dr. Stephen Levine

## M

* Justified or not, the Supreme Court has a kind of sacred status in American life. For whatever reason, Presidents can safely run against Congress, and vice versa, but I think there is an inherent popular aversion to assaults on the court itself. Perhaps it has to do with an instinctive belief that life needs umpires.
** Jon Meacham, in Time Ideas Why Obama Shouldn’t Declare War on the Supreme Court]
* All too often education actually acts as a form of aversion therapy, that what we're really teaching our children is to associate learning with work and to associate work with drudgery so that the remainder of their lives they will possibly never go near a book because they associate books with learning, learning with work and work with drudgery.
** Alan Moore, quoted by Michelle Lemay in From the Pen of the Inkwell’s Owners]

## O

* I was raised Catholic, and I have an aversion to anyone who takes religion to the extreme.
** Conor Oberst, interview in He’s Wide Awake, He’s Talking

## P

* Aversion is a form of bondage. We are tied to what we hate of fear. That is why, in our lives, the same problem, the same danger or difficulty, will present itself over and overage in various prospects as long as we continue to resist or run away from it instead of examining it and solving it.
** Patanjali (200-150 BC), in “Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing” p. 274.

## Q

* In fact, this network, which we may identify as the Round Table Groups, has no aversion to cooperating with the Communists, or any other groups, and frequently does so.
** Carroll Quigley, in Really Inside BOSS: A Tale of South Africa's Late Intelligence Service (and ... p. 107.

## R

* One of the greatest inhibitions to the development of human potential is the aversion to effective practice.”
** Douglas B. Reeves, in ransforming Professional Development Into Student Results
* NASA's myriad failures are in many ways the natural consequence of a catastrophic combination of bureaucracy, monopoly, and a calcifying aversion to the kind of risk necessary for innovation.
** Burt Rutan, in interview in After the X Prize

## S

* I always had, deep down, a slight aversion toward the purely cerebral in music.
** Esa-Pekka Salonen, in Gramophone, Volume 79, p. 3.
* 'Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.
** Richard Brinsley Sheridan, quoted in The Literature Workbook p. 71.
* I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.
** Robert Louis Stevenson, in New Arabian Nights p. 154.
* I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.
** Robert Louis Stevenson, in New Arabian Nights p. 154.
* I've always had an aversion to looking sexy, but I've grown out of it.
** Kristen Stewart, in Kristen Stewart : Quotes

## T

* I believe we are in a world where innovation in stuff was outlawed. It was basically outlawed in the last 40 years - part of it was environmentalism, part of it was risk aversion.
** Peter Thiel, in With Eye On Future, Billionaire Investor Bets On Paul.
* If, in proportion as our minds are enlarged, our hearts purified, and our consciences cultivated, our abhorrence of wrong and aversion to it increases, what must be the moral indignation of the infinite and holy God against wrong-doers?
** Edward Thompson, in Life of Edward Thomson, D.D., LL.D.: late a bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, p. 195.

## V

* The aversion to change is in large part an aversion to the bother of making the readjustment which any given change will necessitate; and this solidarity of the system of institutions of any given culture or of any given people strengthens the instinctive resistance offered to any change in men's habits of thought, even in matters which, taken by themselves, are of minor importance.
** Thorstein Veblen, in The Theory of the Leisure Class; An Economic Study of Institutions p. 153.

## W

* I was too restless as a boy to sit through an entire mass. It was akin to aversion training. I looked at it like a puppet show with a totally predictable story line. The only aspect I really liked was the music.
** Frans de Waal, in Interfaith Dialogue(26 Mar 2013 NewAgeIslam.Com).
* Those who are devoted to amusements; who love the society of those who love pleasure, have an aversion to religious exercises.
** Ellen G. White, in Fundamentals of Bible Doctrine: Sixty Studies in the Basic Facts of the Everlasting Gospel Arranged for Seventh-day Adventist Schools of Nursing p. 333.
* I don't really have an aversion to watching myself. I think I've been doing it for long enough that I have a system of separating it in my brain from my egotistical neuroses for the most part.
** Mae Whitman, in http://www.avclub.com/article/mae-whitman-on-itmnti-blending-into-iarrested-deve-93129 Mae Whitman on TMNT, blending into Arrested Development, and acting with Coach Taylor]

## Anonymous

* The definition of an aversion is a dislike or distaste for something or someone, or a desire to avoid something or someone.An example of an aversion is when you dislike hot dogs and refuse to eat them as a result.
** In aversion
* Let Catholic writers take care when defending the cause of the proletariat and the poor not to use language calculated to inspire among the people aversion to the upper classes of society.
** Quoted in The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Volume 29 p. 238.