Evidence Quotes - Page 10

• GUNPOWDER, n. An agency employed by civilized nations for the settlement of disputes which might become troublesome if left unadjusted. By most writers the invention of gunpowder is ascribed to the Chinese, but not upon very convincing evidence. Milton says it was invented by the devil to dispel angels with, and this opinion seems to derive some support from the scarcity of angels.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Angel, Science, Agency

  Ambrose Bierce (2001). “The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary”, p.102, University of Georgia Press

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• PROOF, n. Evidence having a shade more of plausibility than of unlikelihood. The testimony of two credible witnesses as opposed to that of only one.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Science, Two, Shade

  Ambrose Bierce (2009). “The Devil's Dictionary: Easyread Large Bold Edition”, p.238, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• Soils could also be giving up their carbon stores: evidence emerged in 2005 that a vast expanse of western Siberia was undergoing an unprecedented thaw. The region, the largest frozen peat bog in the world, had begun to melt for the first time since it formed 11,000 years ago. Scientists believe the bog could begin to release billions of tonnes of methane locked up in the soils, a greenhouse gas 20 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The World Meteorological Organisation recently reported the largest annual rise of methane levels in the atmosphere for a decade.

  David Adam

  Giving Up, Believe, Years

  "Too late? Why scientists say we should expect the worst" by David Adam, www.theguardian.com. December 8, 2008.

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• Whenever our life is stirred by truth, it expresses energy and comes to be filled, as it were, with a creative ardor. This consciousness of the creative urge is evidence of the force of truth on our mind.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Inspirational, Change, Creative

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• There comes a point where you see no evidence that the carrot and diplomacy are working.

  John F. Kennedy

  Carrots, Diplomacy

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• Industry in art is a necessity - not a virtue - and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality; a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work.

  James Whistler

  Art, Achievement, Quality

  James M. Whistler (2012). “The Gentle Art of Making Enemies”, p.100, Courier Corporation

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• Faith ... acts promptly and boldly on the occasion, on slender evidence.

  John Henry Newman

  Decision, Slender, Occasions

  John Henry Newman (1844). “Sermons, Chiefly on the Theory of Religious Belief: Preached Before the University of Oxford”, p.290, Aeterna Press

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• The essence of all beauty, I call love, The attribute, the evidence, and end, The consummation to the inward sense Of beauty apprehended from without, I still call love.

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning

  Beauty, Love Is, Essence

  Elizabeth Barrett Browning (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Elizabeth Barrett Browning (Illustrated)”, p.308, Delphi Classics

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• Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religion, World, Honest

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.300

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• The patient typically finds himself impelled by some deep, inner conviction that something is true, or right, or virtuous: a conviction that doesn't seem to owe anything to evidence or reason, but which, nevertheless, he feels as totally compelling and convincing. We doctors refer to such a belief as 'faith'.

  Richard Dawkins

  Doctors, Belief, Patient

  Richard Dawkins (2004). “A Devil's Chaplain”, p.138, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• I am not learning definitions as established in even the latest dictionaries. I am not a dictionary-maker. I am a person a dictionary-maker has to contend with. I am a living evidence in the development of language.

  William Stafford

  Development, Definitions, Language

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• Simply put, no society can truly flourish if it stifles the dreams and productivity of half its population. Happily, I see evidence all over the world that women are gaining social and economic power that they never had before. This is good news.

  William J. Clinton

  Dream, Population, News

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• Politics is not religion and we should govern on the basis of evidence, not theology.

  William J. Clinton

  Religion, Should, Theology

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• All decisions are made on insufficient evidence.

  Rita Mae Brown

  Ignorance, Decision, Made

  Rita Mae Brown (2014). “In Her Day”, p.113, Bantam

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• Evidence exhausts the truth.

  Georges Braque

  Exhaustion

  "Conversations with Samuel Beckett and Bram van Velde". Book edited by Charles Juliet (pp. 60-61), 2009.

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• Every good piece of art... involves first essentially the evidence of human skill, and the formation of an actually beautiful thing by it.

  John Ruskin

  Beautiful, Art, Skills

  John Ruskin (2013). “Selections and Essays”, p.281, Courier Corporation

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• School is an institution built on the axiom that learning is the result of teaching. And institutional wisdom continues to accept this axiom, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

  Ivan Illich

  Education, Teaching, School

  Ivan Illich (1970). “The Dawn of Epimethean Man, and Other Essays”

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• The recent evidence increasingly suggests that an economic expansion is already well under way, although an array of influences unique to this business cycle seems likely to moderate its speed.

  Alan Greenspan

  Unique, Expansion, Way

  "Greenspan attacks Bush" by Heather Stewart, www.theguardian.com. March 7, 2002.

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• The very act of creation requires such focused concentration that vast areas of knowledge may be completely overlooked. Well, so what? There is no evidence that generalized skills are in any way superior to specialized brilliance.

  Tom Robbins

  Skills, Way, May

  Tom Robbins (2003). “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, p.137, Bantam

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• The stricter standards and independent, often conclusive, evidence in the physical sciences cannot be generalized to intellectual activity as a whole, even though the aura of scientific processes and results is often appropriated by other intellectuals.

  Thomas Sowell

  Independent, Intellectual, Auras

  Thomas Sowell (1996). “Knowledge And Decisions”, p.9, Basic Books

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• Nothing as mundane as mere evidence can be allowed to threaten a vision so deeply satisfying.

  Thomas Sowell

  Vision, Mundane, Mere

  Thomas Sowell (1999). “Barbarians Inside the Gates--and Other Controversial Essays”, Hoover Inst Press

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• ..the real world's all we've got. Believers in the supernatural claim to have special wisdom about the world. But real wisdom means knowing truth from falsehood, knowing the difference between evidence and wishful thinking. Yes, the real world is mysterious and sometimes frightening. But would the supernatural make it better? The real world has beauty, poetry, love and the joy of honest discovery. Isn't that enough?

  John Stossel

  Real, Mean, Thinking

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• Right actions for the future are the best apologies for wrong ones in the past - the best evidence of regret for them that we can offer, or the world receive.

  Tryon Edwards

  Regret, Apology, Past

  Tryon Edwards (1853). “The World's Laconics: Or, The Best Thoughts of the Best Authors”, p.240

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• It would be awesome to be so impressive that we could sway people to our way of thinking just by declaiming our thoughts, but probably most of us lack such gravitas. Luckily, there's something even better: evidence, logic, and argument.

  Barry Eisler

  Thinking, People, Would Be

  "How to Argue (VIDEO)" by Barry Eisler, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 15, 2010.

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• Not one piece of evidence has ever been found to support the Book of Mormon-not a trace of the large cities it names, no ruins, no coins, no letters or documents or monuments, nothing in writing. Not even one of the rivers or mountains or any of the topography it mentions has ever been identified.

  Dave Hunt

  Book, Writing, Cities

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