Evidence Quotes

• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Truth, Religion

  Marriage and Morals ch. 5 (1929)

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• There must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry... There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors. Our political life is also predicated on openness. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it and that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. And we know that as long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never be lost, and science can never regress.

  J. Robert Oppenheimer

  Freedom, Science, Men

  "J. Robert Oppenheimer" by L. Barnett in Life Magazine, Volume 7, No. 9, International Edition (p. 58), October 24, 1949.

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• Because remote viewing is such an outlandish claim that will revolutionise the world, we need overwhelming evidence before we draw any conclusions. Right now we don't have that evidence.

  Richard Wiseman

  Needs, World, Claims

  "Could there be proof to the theory that we're ALL psychic?". Interview with Danny Penman, www.dailymail.co.uk. January 28, 2008.

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• Even irrefutable evidence is rarely enough to pierce the mental armor of self-justification.

  Carol Tavris

  Self, Armor, Enough

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• The world of ideas which it [mathematics] discloses or illuminates, the contemplation of divine beauty and order which it induces, the harmonious connexion of its parts, the infinite hierarchy and absolute evidence of the truths with which it is concerned, these, and such like, are the surest grounds of the title of mathematics to human regard, and would remain unimpeached and unimpaired were the plan of the universe unrolled like a map at our feet, and the mind of man qualified to take in the whole scheme of creation at a glance.

  James Joseph Sylvester

  Beauty, Men, Order

  James Joseph Sylvester (1908). “The Collected Mathematical Papers: (1870-1883)”

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• Well-referenced, with numerous quotations from renowned Egyptologists and classical scholars, Acharya's penetrating research clearly lays out the very ancient pre-Christian basis of modern Christianity. Those who espouse Christianity beware! After digesting the evidence, you will never again view your religion in the same light.

  Robert M. Schoch

  Christian, Light, Views

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• The atom can't be seen, yet its existence can be proved. And it is simple to prove that it can't ever be seen. It has to be studied by indirect evidence - and the technical difficulty has been compared to asking a man who has never seen a piano to describe a piano from the sound it would make falling downstairs in the dark.

  Carl David Anderson

  Fall, Dark, Men

  "Carl Anderson. Some notes about his life and work at Caltech. The first of a series of biographical sketches of Caltech faculty members". Engineering and Science, Volume 15:1, October 1951.

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• Some beliefs may be subject to such instant, brutal and unambiguous rejection. For example: no left-coiling periwinkle has ever been found among millions of snails examined. If I happen to find one during my walk on Nobska beach tomorrow morning, a century of well nurtured negative evidence will collapse in an instant.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Beach, Morning, Science

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• To Believe without evidence and demonstration is an act of ignorance and folly

  Socrates

  Believe, Ignorance, Demonstration

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• Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.

  Charles Dickens

  Wisdom, Expectations, Looks

  Great Expectations ch. 40 (1861)

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• I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

  Isaac Asimov

  Believe, Independent, Science

  Isaac Asimov (1982). “Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine”

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  A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

  David Hume

  Wise, Wisdom, Knowledge

  1748 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 10, pt.1.

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• It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

  William James

  Believe, Philosophical, Government

  William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.9, 谷月社

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• Our duty is to believe that for which we have sufficient evidence, and to suspend our judgment when we have not.

  John Lubbock

  Believe, Judging, Judgment

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• When examining evidence relevant to a given belief, people are inclined to see what they expect to see, and conclude what they expect to conclude. Information that is consistent with our pre-existing beliefs is often accepted at face value, whereas evidence that contradicts them is critically scrutinized and discounted. Our beliefs may thus be less responsive than they should to the implications of new information

  Thomas Gilovich

  People, Mind, May

  Thomas Gilovich (2008). “How We Know What Isn't So”, p.50, Simon and Schuster

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• The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

  Carl Sagan

  Absence

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• You made a point about proof. In this sort of history we do nt have proof... Yet... the incontrovertibility of the evidence can be plain even when it is not documentary or complete.

  Robert Conquest

  Documentaries, Proof, Made

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• Don't leave inferences to be drawn when evidence can be presented.

  Richard Wright

  Inference

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• Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact.

  John Adams

  Passion, Patriotic, Law

  John Adams (1971). “The Works [of] John Adams, Second President of the United States: Life of John Adams”

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• Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

  John Fund

  Rhetoric

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• The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.

  Carl Rogers

  Friendly, Facts, Areas

  Carl Rogers (2012). “On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy”, p.25, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Each man must reach his own verdict, by weighing all the relevant evidence.

  Leonard Peikoff

  Men, Relevant, Weighing

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• There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Inspirational, Hype, Deception

  Sherlock Holmes in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" (1891).

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• All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Truth, Philosophy, Medicine

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2009). “Basic Writings of Nietzsche”, p.278, Modern Library

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• We can't have full knowledge all at once. We must start by believing; then afterwards we may be led on to master the evidence for ourselves.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Believe, Saint, May

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