Truth Quotes - Page 39

• As regards authority I so proceed. Boetius says in the second prologue to his Arithmetic, 'If an inquirer lacks the four parts of mathematics, he has very little ability to discover truth.' And again, 'Without this theory no one can have a correct insight into truth.' And he says also, 'I warn the man who spurns these paths of knowledge that he cannot philosophize correctly.' And Again, 'It is clear that whosoever passes these by, has lost the knowledge of all learning.'

  Roger Bacon

  Men, Path, Four

  Roger Bacon (2016). “Opus Majus, Volumes 1 and 2”, p.117, University of Pennsylvania Press

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• As true as steel, as plantage to the moon,
  As sun to day, at turtle to her mate,
  As iron to adamant, as earth to centre.

  William Shakespeare

  Science, Moon, Turtles

  William Shakespeare (2015). “Troilus and Cressida: Third Series, Revised Edition”, p.263, Bloomsbury Publishing

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• Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more — we have increased their mortality.

  Benjamin Rush

  Ignorance, Convince Us, Leader

  "Medical Inquiries and Observations".

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• Enormous numbers of people are taken in, or at least beguiled and fascinated, by what seems to me to be unbelievable hocum, and relatively few are concerned with or thrilled by the astounding-yet true-facts of science, as put forth in the pages of, say, Scientific American.

  Douglas Hofstadter

  Taken, Science, Numbers

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• Even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds

  John Stuart Mill

  Feelings, Prejudice, Littles

  John Stuart Mill (1859). “On Liberty”, p.95

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• Every great scientific truth goes through three states: first, people say it conflicts with the Bible; next, they say it has been discovered before; lastly, they say they always believed it.

  Louis Agassiz

  People, Three, Next

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• Experiment is the sole source of truth. It alone can teach us something new; it alone can give us certainty.

  Henri Poincare

  Teaching, Science, Giving

  The Foundations of Science Science and Hypothesis (p. 127)

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• For to define true madness,
  What is't but to be nothing else but mad?

  William Shakespeare

  Mad, Madness, Hamlet 2

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. 93

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• Gentlemen, that is surely true, it is absolutely paradoxical; we cannot understand it, and we don't know what it means. But we have proved it, and therefore we know it must be the truth.

  Benjamin Peirce

  Mean, Science, Gentleman

  "Benjamin Peirce, 1809-1880 : Biographical Sketch and Bibliography". Book by R. C. Archibald, 1925.

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• Geometry is not true, it is advantageous.

  Henri Poincare

  Science, Mathematical, Geometry

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• Herrmann Pidoux and Armand Trousseau stated 'Disease exists within us, because of us, and through us', Pasteur did not entirely disagree, 'This is true for certain diseases', he wrote cautiously, only to add immediately: 'I do not think that it is true for all of them'.

  Louis Pasteur

  Science, Thinking, Add

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• I have no fault to find with those who teach geometry. That science is the only one which has not produced sects; it is founded on analysis and on synthesis and on the calculus; it does not occupy itself with the probable truth; moreover it has the same method in every country.

  Frederick The Great

  Country, Science, Doe

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• I may conclude this chapter by quoting a saying of Professor Agassiz, that whenever a new and startling fact is brought to light in science, people first say, 'it is not true,' then that 'it is contrary to religion,' and lastly, 'that everybody knew it before.'

  Charles Lyell

  Science, Light, People

  Charles Lyell (2005). “The Geological Evidence of Man”, p.82, Cosimo, Inc.

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• I no longer count as one of my merits that I always tell the truth as much as possible; it has become my metier.

  Sigmund Freud

  Merit, Telling The Truth

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• I propose to raise a revolution against the lie that the majority has the monopoly of the truth.

  Henrik Ibsen

  Lying, Majority, Revolution

  Henrik Ibsen (2012). “An Enemy of the People”, p.59, Courier Corporation

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• I would proclaim that the vast majority of what [say, Scientific American] is true-yet my ability to defend such a claim is weaker than I would like. And most likely the readers, authors, and editors of that magazine would be equally hard pressed to come up with cogent, non-technical arguments convincing a skeptic of this point, especially if pitted against a clever lawyer arguing the contrary. How come Truth is such a slippery beast?

  Douglas Hofstadter

  Clever, Science, Editors

  Douglas Hofstadter (2008). “Metamagical Themas: Questing For The Essence Of Mind And Pattern”, p.85, Hachette UK

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• If others would but reflect on mathematical truths as deeply and as continuously as I have, they would make my discoveries.

  Carl Friedrich Gauss

  Science, Discovery, Mathematical Equations

  "The World of Mathematics". Book by J. R. Newman, 1956.

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• If you have to prove a theorem, do not rush. First of all, understand fully what the theorem says, try to see clearly what it means. Then check the theorem; it could be false. Examine the consequences, verify as many particular instances as are needed to convince yourself of the truth. When you have satisfied yourself that the theorem is true, you can start proving it.

  George Polya

  Mean, Math, Trying

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• In the higher walks of politics the same sort of thing occurs. The statesman who has gradually concentrated all power within himself ... may have had anything but a public motive... The phrases which are customary on the platform and in the Party Press have gradually come to him to seem to express truths, and he mistakes the rhetoric of partisanship for a genuine analysis of motives... He retires from the world after the world has retired from him.

  Bertrand Russell

  Mistake, Party, Science

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• It is not enough to discover and prove a useful truth previously unknown, but that it is necessary also to be able to propagate it and get it recognized.

  Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

  Science, Discovery, Able

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• It is not so difficult a task as to plant new truths, as to root out old errors

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Science, Errors, Roots

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.69

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• It is true that the trees are for human use. But these are aesthetic uses as well as commercial uses-uses for the spiritual wealth of all, as well as the material wealth of some.

  Joseph LeConte

  Spiritual, Science, Tree

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• It may be that the old astrologers had the truth exactly reversed, when they believed that the stars controlled the destinies of men. The time may come when men control the destinies of stars.

  Arthur C. Clarke

  Stars, Science, Destiny

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• Many errors, of a truth, consist merely in the application of the wrong names of things. For if a man says that the lines which are drawn from the centre of the circle to the circumference are not equal, he understands by the circle, at all events for the time, something else than mathematicians understand by it.

  Baruch Spinoza

  Science, Men, Errors

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• Men are probably nearer the essential truth in their superstitions than in their science.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Men, Gambling, Essentials

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry David Thoreau (Illustrated)”, p.2300, Delphi Classics

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