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Refutation Quotes

Browse 57 quotes about Refutation.

Refutation Quotes

“Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after years relieved of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth — often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you cannot get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable.”

TruthBeliefTeachingFightSuperstitionsMiraclesFablesIndoctrinationIntangibleMythsFantasiesRefutationMisdirection
Author:Hypathia of Alexandria
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“The discovery of instances which confirm a theory means very little if we have not tried, and failed, to discover refutations. For if we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmation, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favour of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.”

ScienceBiasRefutationFalsifiability
Book:The Poverty of Historicism
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“Refutations of the views of inherently existent production are not just refutations of rival systems but should be taken as a branch of the process of overcoming one's own innate sense that things are inherently produced. The innate non-analytical intellect does not conceive cause and effect to be either the same, or inherently different, or both, or neither; however, if the objects that the intellect misconceives as inherently existent did in fact inherently exist, they would necessarily exist in one of these four ways. Thus, through eliminating these four possibilities, the inherently existent products that are the objects of this innate ignorance are shown to be non-existent. By attacking in this way the falsely conceived object, the falsely conceiving subject is gradually overcome. The false subject is removed by overcoming belief in the false object.”

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Book:Meditation on Emptiness
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“When “New Atheists” and their ilk assure us in all seriousness that believing in God is just like believing in the Easter bunny, or that teaching religion is tantamount to child abuse, they remind me of the freshman philosophy student who once proudly declared to me his “discovery” that taking a girl out on a date was really no different from hiring a call girl, since what it’s “all about” is giving something in exchange for sex. In both cases, the analysis put forward is evidence not of profound philosophical understanding, but merely of being a shallow and sophomoric jackass. Yet many secularists believe, [...] things that are even more crassly stupid than this, things that merit them the label “superstitious” if anyone merits it.”

AtheismSecularismTheismRefutation
Book:The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism
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“When we seek a textbook case for the proper operation of science, the correction of certain error offers far more promise than the establishment of probable truth. Confirmed hunches, of course, are more upbeat than discredited hypotheses. Since the worst traditions of "popular" writing falsely equate instruction with sweetness and light, our promotional literature abounds with insipid tales in the heroic mode, although tough stories of disappointment and loss give deeper insight into a methodology that the celebrated philosopher Karl Popper once labeled as "conjecture and refutation.”

GivingWritingStoriesLightCertainCoursesLiteratureLossCasesWorstPromiseOffersToughTraditionErrorsPhilosopherDisappointmentDeeperInsightTalesOperationsHeroicInstructionEstablishmentSweetnessHypothesisTextbooksCorrectionsMethodologyHunchesConjectureInsipidUpbeatRefutation
Book:Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History
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“Robert Frost says in a piece of homely doggerel that he has hoped wisdom could be not only Attic but Laconic, Boeotian even - "at least not systematic"; but how systematically Frostian the worst of his later poems are! His good poems are the best refutation of, the most damning comment on, his bad: his Complete Poems have the air of being able to educate any faithful reader into tearing out a third of the pages, reading a third, and practically wearing out the rest.”

AbleReadingPiecesAirWorstReaderPagesThirdsFaithfulCommentEducateSystematicFrostHaving HopeAtticsHomelyRefutationLaconic
Author:Randall Jarrell
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“To plead the organic causation of a religious state of mind, then, in refutation of its claim to possess superior spiritual value, is quite illogical and arbitrary, unless one have already worked out in advance some psycho-physical theory connecting spiritual values in general with determinate sorts of physiological change. Otherwise none of our thoughts and feelings, not even our scientific doctrines, not even our dis -beliefs, could retain any value as revelations of the truth, for every one of them without exception flows from the state of their possessor's body at the time.”

MindStatesFeelingsBodySpiritualValuesBeliefReligiousTheoryFlowClaimsDoctrineSuperiorsRevelationsExceptionState Of MindOur ThoughtsConnectingArbitraryPsychoThoughts And FeelingsIllogicalPhysiologicalCausationSpiritual ValuesRefutation
Book:The Varieties of Religious Experience
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“The economic and social theories used by those who take part in the social struggle ought to be judged not by their objective value but primarily for their effectiveness in arousing emotions. The scientific refutation of them which can be made is useless, however correct it may be objectively.”

MayMadeUsedValuesSocialEmotionStruggleEconomicTheoryOughtObjectivesUselessJudgedEffectivenessRefutationSocial Theory
Book:Manual of political economy
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“The Bobbit case, which brought to life the ancient mythic archetype of woman as castrator, demonstrated that women are as aggressive as men and that sex is a dark, dangerous force of nature. But of course the feminist establishment, stuck in its battered-woman blinders, learned nothing as usual from this lurid refutation of its normal views. Classic art works like Bizet's Carmen tell us more about the irrationality of love, jealousy and revenge than do all the pat formulas of the counseling industry.”

MenArtCoursesForceSexDarkViewsCasesDangerousIndustryNormalAncientFeministRevengeStuckClassicFormulasAggressiveUsualEstablishmentCounselingArchetypeForces Of NatureIrrationalityBatteredBlindersRefutationLove JealousyBattered WomenBizet
Author:Camille Paglia
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“If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.”

IfsWayWantLooksHas BeensMightEasyDangerousTheoryEvidenceFavorsPetOverwhelmingConfirmationRefutation
Book:The Poverty of Historicism
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“Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping her. And we must hazard them to win our prize. Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game.”

MeanIdeasGamesWinningInstrumentsPrizeAnticipationUnwillingHazardsGraspingInterpretingRefutationUnjustified
Book:The Logic of Scientific Discovery
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“THERE is no method of reasoning more common, and yet none more blameable, than, in philosophical disputes, to endeavour the refutation of any hypothesis, by a pretence of its dangerous consequences to religion and morality. When any opinion leads to absurdities, it is certainly false; but it is not certain that an opinion is false, because it is of dangerous consequence. Such topics, therefore, ought entirely to be forborne; as serving nothing to the discovery of truth, but only to make the person of an antagonist odious.”

PersonsCertainCommonOpinionDangerousOughtMoralityDiscoveryConsequencePhilosophicalMethodReasoningServingAbsurdityTopicsHypothesisDisputesEndeavourPretenceAntagonistRefutation
Book:Essays Moral, Political, and Literary
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“Behold our refutation of the error. It is not based on documents of faith, but on the reasons and statements of the philosophers themselves. If then anyone there be who, boastfully taking pride in his supposed wisdom, wishes to challenge what we have written, let him not do it in some corner nor before children who are powerless to decide on such difficult matters. Let him reply openly if he dare. He shall find me there confronting him, and not only my negligible self, but many another whose study is truth.”

IfsChildrenSelfMatterReasonPoliticsWishDifficultChallengesEconomyStudyWrittenPrideErrorsPhilosopherDareCornersStatementsLiberalismDocumentsPowerlessFind MeConfrontingRefutationIf Then
Author:Thomas Aquinas
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“Liberalism makes this mistake in regard to private property and Marxism makes it in regard to socialized property... The Marxist illusion is partly derived from a romantic conception of human nature... It assumes that the socialization of property will eliminate human egotism... The development of a managerial class in Russia, combing economic with political power, is an historic refutation of the Marxist theory.”

HumansWisdomPoliticalPoliticsMistakeClassEconomyEconomicHuman NatureTheoryDevelopmentIllusionRegardAssumingPropertyRussiaLiberalismConceptionHistoricMarxismEgotismPrivate PropertyPolitical PowerMarxistSocializationRefutationMarxist Theory
Author:Reinhold Niebuhr
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“But you go to a great school, not for knowledge so much as for arts and habits; for the habit of attention, for the art of expression, for the art of assuming at a moment's notice a new intellectual posture, for the art of entering quickly into another person's thoughts, for the habit of submitting to censure and refutation, for the art of indicating assent or dissent in graduated terms, for the habit of regarding minute points of accuracy, for the habit of working out what is possible in a given time, for taste, for discrimination, for mental courage and mental soberness.”

PersonsArtMomentsSchoolGivenTermAttentionMinutesExpressionHabitTasteIntellectualAssumingWork OutDiscriminationEnteringDissentAccuracyPostureCensureRefutationGreat Schools
Author:William Johnson Cory
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“[Dr. Constain James] refuted so well the aberrations of Darwinism.... [A system] which is repugnant at once to history, to the tradition of all people, to exact science, to observed facts, and even to reason itself, would seem to need no refutation. But the corruption of this age, the machinations of the perverse, the danger of the simple, demand that such fancies, altogether absurd though they are, should - since they borrow the mask of science - be refuted by true science.”

PeopleNeedsShouldWellsReasonFactsSeemsAgeSimpleDangerDemandTraditionCorruptionScaryAbsurdFancyMaskDrsDarwinismAberrationRefutationExact Sciences
Author:Pope Pius IX
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“The risk for a woman who considers her helpless children her "job" is that the children's growth toward self-sufficiency may be experienced as a refutation of the mother's indispensability, and she may unconsciously sabotage their growth as a result.”

MayChildrenSelfJobsMotherGrowthResultsRiskHelplessSabotageSelf SufficiencySufficiencyRefutation
Book:Family politics: love and power on an intimate frontier
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“Mathematics does not grow through a monotonous increase of the number of indubitably established theorems but through the incessant improvement of guesses by speculation and criticism, by the logic of proofs and refutations.”

DoeGrowsNumbersCriticismLogicIncreaseMathematicsProofImprovementSpeculationMonotonousTheoremsIncessantRefutation
Book:Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery
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“Facts do not find their way into the world in which our beliefs reside; they did not produce our beliefs, they do not destroy them; they may inflict on them the most constant refutations without weakening them, and an avalanche of afflictions or ailments succeeding one another without interruption in a family will not make it doubt the goodness of its God or the talent of its doctor.”

WorldWayMayFactsBeliefDoubtTalentProduceSucceedGoodnessDoctorsConstantAfflictionInterruptionsWeakeningAilmentsAvalanchesRefutation
Book:In Search of Lost Time: Way by Swann's
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“The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be believed only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance, called faith.”

ReasonPainReligionChristReligiousIgnoranceEternityNotionUnhappyAbsurdObservationInsanityBlissMeritDependenceEverlastingMixturesRefutation
Book:On The Gods and Other Essays
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“Women have been driven mad, “gaslighted”, for centuries by the refutation of our experience and our instincts in a culture which validates only male experience. The truth of our bodies and our minds has been mystified to us. We therefore have primary obligation to each other: not to undermine each other’s sense of reality for the sake of expediency; not to gaslight each other.”

MindHas BeensBodyRealityCultureCenturyMadInstinctMalesSakeDrivenObligationPrimariesExpediencyRefutation
Author:Adrienne Rich
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“The statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting the blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”

MenWarSelfTruthPoliticalLyingNationsPeaceProcessEnjoySleepStudyConscienceBlameRefuseEvery ManGladTyrannyDeceptionConvinceTyrantsThank GodAntiwarSelf DeceptionStatesmenSoothingGrotesqueFalsityRefutationWar Propaganda
Book:The Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated Edition): Novels, Short Stories, Memoir, Travel Books, Letters, Biography, Articles & Speeches: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, Yankee in King Arthur's Court…
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“A man's reputation is not in his own keeping, but lies at the mercy of the profligacy of others. Calumny requires no proof. The throwing out [of] malicious imputations against any character leaves a stain, which no after-refutation can wipe out. To create an unfavorable impression, it is not necessary that certain things should be true, but that they have been said. The imagination is of so delicate a texture that even words wound it.”

MenShouldHas BeensSaidCharacterLyingCertainImaginationMercyProofWoundsImpressionReputationBeing TrueThrowingDelicateWipeTextureStainsMaliciousCalumnyRefutation
Book:Characteristics: in the manner of Rochefoucault's Maxims [by W. Hazlitt].
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“Some volumes against Deism fell into my hands ... they produced an effect precisely the reverse to what was intended by the writers; for the arguments of the Deists, which were cited in order to be refuted, appeared to me much more forcibly than the refutation itself; in a word, I soon became a thorough Deist.”

HandsReligionOrderAtheismEffectsArgumentReverseVolumeThoroughDeismRefutationDeist
Book:The works of the late Dr. Benjamin Franklin: consisting of his Life, written by himself. Together with humorous, moral and literary essays, chiefly in the manner of the Spectator. Among which are several not in any American edition
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“Historical refutation as the definitive refutation.- In former times, one sought to prove that there is no God - today one indicates how the belief that there is a God arose and how this belief acquired its weight and importance: a counter-proof that there is no God thereby becomes superfluous.- When in former times one had refuted the 'proofs of the existence of God' put forward, there always remained the doubt whether better proofs might not be adduced than those just refuted: in those days atheists did not know how to make a clean sweep.”

KnowsMightTodayBeliefExistenceChristianityKnow HowDoubtAtheismProveWeightImportanceCleanHistoricalAtheistProofFormerThere Is No GodSuperfluousExistence Of GodRefutation
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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“...the Muslims of recent times had fallen very short indeed of the ideals of their faith, ...nothing could be more erroneous than to measure the potentialities of Muhammad's message by the yardstick of present-day Muslim life and thought - just as he [Shaykh Mustafa al-Maraghi] said, 'it would be erroneous to see in the Christians' unloving behavior toward one another a refutation of Christ's message of love...'”

SaidWould BeChristianFaithChristBehaviorMessagesIdealsIslamFallenAlsMuhammadPresent DayYardsticksRefutation
Author:Muhammad Asad
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“After we came out of the church, we stood talking for some time together of Bishop Berkeley's ingenious sophistry to prove the non-existence of matter, and that every thing in the universe is merely ideal. I observed, that though we are satisfied his doctrine is not true, it is impossible to refute it. I never shall forget the alacrity with which Johnson answered, striking his foot with mighty force against a large stone, till he rebounded from it, "I refute it thus."”

MatterPhilosophyTogetherScienceUniverseForceChurchForgetExistenceTalkingImpossibleFeetProveIdealsStonesSatisfiedDoctrineJohnsonBishopsIngeniousTime TogetherBerkeleyNon ExistenceRefutationSophistryAlacrity
Book:Life of Johnson
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“I am not very impressed with theological arguments whatever they may be used to support. Such arguments have often been found unsatisfactory in the past. In the time of Galileo it was argued that the texts, 'And the sun stood still... and hasted not to go down about a whole day' (Joshua x. 13) and 'He laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not move at any time' (Psalm cv. 5) were an adequate refutation of the Copernican theory.”

ShouldMayStillsWholeEarthPastMovingUsedFoundSupportSunTheoryArgumentFoundationImpressedAdequateTheologicalPsalmsRefutation
Book:The Essential Turing
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“Astrologers were greatly impressed, and misled, by what they believed to be confirming evidence-so much so that they were quite unimpressed by any unfavorable evidence. Moreover, by making their interpretations and prophecies sufficiently vague they were able to explain away anything that might have been a refutation of the theory had the theory and the prophecies been more precise. In order to escape falsification they destroyed the testability of their theory. It is a typical soothsayer's trick to predict things so vaguely that the predictions can hardly fail: that they become irrefutable.”

Has BeensMightAbleOrderFailingTheoryEvidenceTricksDestroyedInterpretationImpressedTypicalProphecyVaguePrecisePredictionsMight Have BeenMisledRefutationFalsification
Author:Karl Popper
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