Facts Quotes - Page 11

• [I]t is necessary to insist upon this extraordinary but undeniable fact: experimental science has progressed thanks in great part to the work of men astoundingly mediocre, and even less than mediocre. That is to say, modern science, the root and symbol of our actual civilization, finds a place for the intellectually commonplace man and allows him to work therein with success.

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Men, Civilization, Roots

  Jose Ortega Y Gasset (1960). “the Revolt of the Masses”

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• The nineteenth century, utilitarian throughout, set up a utilitarian interpretation of the phenomenon of life which has come down to us and may still be considered as the commonplace of everyday thinking. ... An innate blindness seems to have closed the eyes of this epoch to all but those facts which show life as a phenomenon of utility

  Jose Ortega y Gasset

  Eye, Thinking, Everyday

  "History as a System". Book by Jose Ortega y Gasset, 1962.

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• A writer's subconscious is one of the filthiest places there are: as a matter of fact, you can find the whole world there.

  Romain Gary

  World, Matter, Subconscious

  Romain Gary (1968). “The Dance of Genghis Cohn”, New American Library of Canada

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• I have left the obvious, essential fact to this point, namely, that it is the Russian Armies who have done the main work in tearing the guts out of the German army. In the air and on the oceans we could maintain our place, but there was no force in the world which could have been called into being, except after several more years, that would have been able to maul and break the German army unless it had been subjected to the terrible slaughter and manhandling that has fallen to it through the strength of the Russian Soviet Armies.

  Winston Churchill

  Ocean, Army, Air

  "War Situation". Speech in the House of Commons, api.parliament.uk. August 2, 1944.

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• Nature knows nothing but solid bodies; your science deals only with combinations of surfaces. And so nature constantly gives the lie to all your laws; can you name one to which no fact makes an exception?

  Honore de Balzac

  Lying, Law, Names

  "Seraphita". Book by Honoré de Balzac, 1834.

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• The right to discuss freely and openly, by speech, by the pen, by the press, all political questions, and to examine the animadvert upon all political institutions is a right so clear and certain, so interwoven with our other liberties, so necessary, in fact, to their existence, that without it we must fall into despotism and anarchy.

  William C. Bryant

  Fall, Political, Liberty

  "The Death of Lovejoy" by William C. Bryant (November 18, 1837), as quoted in William Cullen Bryant II "Power For Sanity: Selected Editorials of William Cullen Bryant, 1829-61" (p. 78), 1994.

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• The very word "sorrow" colours the fact of sorrow, the pain of it.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Pain, Sorrow, Colour

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• We have to face the fact that most men and women out there are more stale than they know, more bored than they care to admit.

  John W. Gardner

  Men, Bored, Care

  "Self-Renewal: The Individual and the Innovative Society". Book by John W. Gardner, 1964.

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• I, for one, will be convinced that the Canada we know and love will be gone forever. But, then, Thucydides wrote that Themistocles' greatness lay in the fact that he realized Athens was not immortal. I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper.

  Pierre Trudeau

  Greatness, Thinking, Forever

  Pierre Trudeau's speech before the Canadian Senate in opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, March 30, 1988.

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• If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix.

  Hunter S. Thompson

  Phoenix, Heaven, Hell

  Hunter S. Thompson (2011). “Generation of Swine: The Brutal Odyssey of an Outlaw Journalist”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

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• If you make the same guess often enough it ceases to be a guess and becomes a Scientific Fact. This is the inductive method.

  C. S. Lewis

  Enough, Method, Ifs

  The Pilgrim's Regress: An Allegorical Apology for Christianity, Reason and Romanticism Book Two Chapter I (p. 37)

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• The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact.

  C. S. Lewis

  Heart, Christianity, Myth

  C. S. Lewis (2003). “A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis”, p.213, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• It is the magician's bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls.

  C. S. Lewis

  Giving Up, Soul, Puppets

  "The Abolition of Man". Book by C. S. Lewis, 1943.

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• I have nothing but myself to write about, no facts, no theories, no opinions, no adventures, no sentiments, nothing but my own poor barren individualism, of considerable interest to me, but I do not know why I should presume it will be so to you. Egotism is not tiresome, or it ought not to be, if one is sincere about oneself; but it is so hard to be sincere. Well, never mind, I mean to be, and you know me well enough to see through me when I am humbugging.

  James Anthony Froude

  Writing, Adventure, Mean

  James Anthony Froude (1849). “The Nemesis of Faith”, p.2

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• Collect all the facts that can be collected about the life of Racine and you will never learn from them the art of his verse. All criticism is dominated by the outworn theory that the man is the cause of the work as in the eyes of the law the criminal is the cause of the crime. Far rather are they both the effects.

  Paul Valery

  Art, Eye, Men

  "Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci". Book by Paul Valery, 1895.

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• There are many who say more than the truth on some occasions, and balance the account with their consciences by saying less than the truth on others. But the fact is that they are in both instances as fraudulant as he would be that exacted more than his due from his debtors, and paid less than their due to his creditors.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Saying Less, Balance, Debtors

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”

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• Think about this - some of us actively fighting to remove Saddam Hussein don't agree with the cause themselves, but they're doing their duty. And it is our duty as loyal Americans to shut up once the fighting begins, unless - unless facts prove the operation wrong, as was the case in Vietnam.

  Bill O'Reilly

  Fighting, Thinking, Vietnam

  "Made a Mistake". "Talking Points Memo" with Bill O'Reilly, www.foxnews.com. March 3, 2003.

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• The sermon was based on what he claimed was a well-known fact, that there were no Atheists in foxholes. I asked Jack what he thought of the sermon afterwards, and he said, "There's a Chaplain who never visited the front.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Atheist, Religion, Atheism

  Kurt Vonnegut (1997). “Hocus Pocus”, p.128, Penguin

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• The myth that holds that the great corporation is the puppet of the market, the powerless servant of the consumer, is, in fact one of the devices by which its power is perpetuated.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Puppets, Corporations, Servant

  "The Age of Uncertainty". Book by John Kenneth Galbraith. Chapter 9, p. 258, 1977.

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• Truth has anciently been called the first casualty of war. Money may, in fact, have priority.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  War, Priorities, May

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2017). “Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went”, p.106, Princeton University Press

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• Seaboard Air Line, which was thought by numerous innocents to provide a foothold in aviation, was another favorite, although, in fact, it was a railroad.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Air, Railroads, Lines

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2017). “Money: Whence It Came, Where It Went”, p.123, Princeton University Press

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• Men are, in fact, either sustained by organization or they sustain organization.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Men, Organization

  John Kenneth Galbraith (2015). “The New Industrial State”, p.121, Princeton University Press

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• In fact, the wage-price spiral is the functional counterpart of unemployment. The latter occurs when there is insufficient demand; the spiral operates when there is too much and also,unfortunately, when there is just enough.

  John Kenneth Galbraith

  Demand, Too Much, Unemployment

  "The New Industrial State". Book by John Kenneth Galbraith. Chapter XXII, Section 4, p. 255, 1967.

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• Wit is, in fact, the eloquence of indifference.

  William Hazlitt

  Indifference, Wit, Eloquence

  William Hazlitt (1857). “Lectures on the English comic writers. Lectures on the English poets”, p.14

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• The questions which for years were in dispute between the State and General Government, and which unhappily were not decided by the dictates of reason, but referred to the decision of war, having been decided against us, it is the part of wisdom to acquiesce in the result, and of candor to recognize the fact.

  Robert E. Lee

  War, Government, Years

  Letter to former Virginia governor John Letcher on August 28, 1865. "Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee" by John William Jones, p. 203, 1874.

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