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Facts Quotes

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Facts Quotes

“... it is because one can build a compelling set of arguments - informed by science and thoroughly compatible with it - that to believe in anything despite the complete lack of evidence is, in fact, irrational.”

Believe Facts Religion Atheism Evidence Argument Despite Compelling Irrational Compatible

Author:Massimo Pigliucci

“LEAD, n. A heavy blue-gray metal much used ... as a counterpoise to an argument of such weight that it turns the scale of debate the wrong way. An interesting fact in the chemistry of international controversy is that at the point of contact of two patriotisms lead is precipitated in great quantities.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Ambrose Bierce (Illustrated)

“I always get into arguments with people who want to retain the old values in painting - the humanistic values that they always find on the canvas. If you pin them down, they always end up asserting that there is something there besides the paint on the canvas. My painting is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there... What you see is what you see.”

People Ifs Want Ends Facts Values Painting Argument Paint Canvas Pins Humanistic Old Values

Author:Frank Stella

“Christianity has a built-in defense system: anything that questions a belief, no matter how logical the argument is, is the work of Satan by the very fact that it makes you question a belief. It's a very interesting defense mechanism and the only way to get by it -- and believe me, I was raised Southern Baptist -- is to take massive amounts of mushrooms, sit in a field, and just go, "Show me.".”

“Until recently we’ve only been able to speculate about story's persuasive effects. But over the last several decades psychology has begun a serious study of how story affects the human mind. Results repeatedly show that our attitudes, fears, hopes, and values are strongly influenced by story. In fact, fiction seems to be more effective at changing beliefs than writing that is specifically designed to persuade through argument and evidence.”

Writing Mind Humans Facts Stories Shows Seems Able Lasts Values Belief Results Attitude Fiction Study Psychology Effects Serious Evidence Argument Decades Human Mind Persuasive

Author:Jonathan Gottschall

“Indeed, in Russia there is a terrible poverty of facts, and a terrible abundance of reflections of all sorts.”

Facts Suffering Wealth Poverty Type Argument Russia Spheres Frightening

Author:Anton Chekhov

“I do not overlook the fact that there are irrationalists who love mankind, and that not all forms of irrationalism engender criminality. But I hold that he who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate. (Socrates, I believe, saw something of this when he suggested that mistrust or hatred of argument is related to mistrust or hatred of man).”

Men Way Should Believe Reason Facts Form Hate I Believe Teach Saws Mankind Argument Hatred Related Mistrust Criminality

Author:Karl Popper

“A little experience is worth much argument; a few facts are better than any theory.”

Littles Facts Theory Argument

Book:Methods of Social Reform: And Other Papers

Source: Methods of Social Reform: And Other Papers

“You know, when I was in college, there was a big debate: Do unions raise wages? Well, with regard to industrial unions, there were arguments back and forth -- international competition. It is now clear, I think, that whether or not you think unions raised wages 50 years ago, the absence of unions and their weakness that is inflicted by anti-union public policy depresses wages. The fact is that people who are not represented, in the service industries in particular, are the victims of policies which depress their wages.”

“It is of first-rate importance to notice from the start that stupidity is not the same thing, or the same sort of thing, as ignorance. There is no incompatibility between being well-informed and being silly, and a person who has a good nose for arguments or jokes may have a bad head for facts.”

Firsts Wells May Persons Facts Ignorance Jokes Argument Importance Rate Stupidity Silly Noses Being Silly Incompatibility

Book:The Concept of Mind

Source: The Concept of Mind

“If you can somehow force a liberal into a point-counterpoint argument, his retorts will bear no relation to what you’ve said - unless you were in fact talking about your looks, your age, your weight, your personal obsessions, or whether you are a fascist. In the famous liberal two-step, they leap from one idiotic point to the next, so you can never nail them. It’s like arguing with someone with Attention Deficit Disorder.”

Ifs Looks Said Two Facts Age Next Force Attention Talking Steps Bears Argument Weight Relation Arguing Obsession Leap Disorder Nails Deficit Fascists Idiotic Attention Deficit Disorder Retorts

Author:Ann Coulter

“It is amazing how many people think that they can answer an argument by attributing bad motives to those who disagree with them. Using this kind of reasoning, you can believe or not believe anything about anything, without having to bother to deal with facts or logic.”

People Thinking Believe Kind Facts Answers Deals Argument Logic Bother Motive Reasoning Disagree

Author:Thomas Sowell

“We have received no single argument in favour of this document except political pressure. No link has been established between carbon dioxide emissions and climate change. No other objective facts have been presented in recent time. The IPCC's reports in 1990 and 1995 show it clearly.”

“The basic formulation, or bare-bones mechanics, of natural selection is a disarmingly simple argument, based on three undeniable facts (overproduction of offspring, variation, and heritability) and one syllogistic inference (natural selection, or the claim that organisms enjoying differential reproductive success will, on average, be those variants that are fortuitously better adapted to changing local environments, and that these variants will then pass their favored traits to offspring by inheritance).”

“It's easy to sell good news like this, and the authors confidently rely on classic fallacious arguments. They argue by declaration, which is what makes the books so amusing. In matter-of-fact, authoritative tones, the authors tell us how plants and human beings exchange energy - or they describe what angels look like, whether or how they're sexed, how they communicate with human beings, and how they differ from ghosts. Readers might be expected to wonder, How do they know?”

“Custom is custom: it is built of brass, boiler-iron, granite; facts, reasonings, arguments have no more effect upon it than the idle winds have upon Gibraltar.”

Facts Atheism Effects Wind Built Argument Positive Atheism Reasoning Iron Customs Idle Brass Granite Boiler

Book:Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations

Source: Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations