Evidence Quotes

• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd.

  Bertrand Russell

  Education, Truth, Religion

  Marriage and Morals ch. 5 (1929)

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• To Believe without evidence and demonstration is an act of ignorance and folly

  Socrates

  Believe, Ignorance, Demonstration

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• Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.

  Charles Dickens

  Wisdom, Expectations, Looks

  Great Expectations ch. 40 (1861)

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• I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

  Isaac Asimov

  Believe, Independent, Science

  Isaac Asimov (1982). “Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine”

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  A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

  David Hume

  Wise, Wisdom, Knowledge

  1748 An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section 10, pt.1.

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• It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

  William James

  Believe, Philosophical, Government

  William James (2015). “Essays in Popular Philosophy: Top Essays”, p.9, 谷月社

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• Our duty is to believe that for which we have sufficient evidence, and to suspend our judgment when we have not.

  John Lubbock

  Believe, Judging, Judgment

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• The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

  Carl Sagan

  Absence

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• Don't leave inferences to be drawn when evidence can be presented.

  Richard Wright

  Inference

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• Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence: nor is the law less stable than the fact.

  John Adams

  Passion, Patriotic, Law

  John Adams (1971). “The Works [of] John Adams, Second President of the United States: Life of John Adams”

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• The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.

  Carl Rogers

  Friendly, Facts, Areas

  Carl Rogers (2012). “On Becoming a Person: A Therapist's View of Psychotherapy”, p.25, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• All credibility, all good conscience, all evidence of truth come only from the senses.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Truth, Philosophy, Medicine

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2009). “Basic Writings of Nietzsche”, p.278, Modern Library

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• Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

  John Fund

  Rhetoric

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• If they don't depend on true evidence, scientists are no better than gossips.

  Penelope Fitzgerald

  Science, Gossip, Scientist

  Penelope Fitzgerald (1998). “The Gate of Angels”, p.24, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Each man must reach his own verdict, by weighing all the relevant evidence.

  Leonard Peikoff

  Men, Relevant, Weighing

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• There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact.

  Arthur Conan Doyle

  Inspirational, Hype, Deception

  Sherlock Holmes in "The Boscombe Valley Mystery" (1891).

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• FEAR is an acronym in the English language for 'False Evidence Appearing Real'.

  Neale Donald Walsch

  Fear, Real, Acronyms

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• Intolerance is evidence of impotence.

  Aleister Crowley

  Intolerance, Fetish, Impotence

  Aleister Crowley, (2013). “The Writings of the Great Beast - Some Short Stories by Aleister Crowley (Fantasy and Horror Classics)”, p.7, Read Books Ltd

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• Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.

  James Randi

  Knowledge, Science, Discovery

  James Randi (1993). “The Mask of Nostradamus: The Prophecies of the World's Most Famous Seer”

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• When examining evidence relevant to a given belief, people are inclined to see what they expect to see, and conclude what they expect to conclude. Information that is consistent with our pre-existing beliefs is often accepted at face value, whereas evidence that contradicts them is critically scrutinized and discounted. Our beliefs may thus be less responsive than they should to the implications of new information

  Thomas Gilovich

  People, Mind, May

  Thomas Gilovich (2008). “How We Know What Isn't So”, p.50, Simon and Schuster

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• The history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sown thick with evidence that a truth is not hard to kill and that a lie told well is immortal.

  Mark Twain

  Truth, Lying, Race

  Mark Twain (2002). “Mark Twain's Book for Bad Boys and Girls”, Mjf Books

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• It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophical, Men, Animal

  "Unpopular Essays". Book by Bertrand Russell, 1950.

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• Blessed is the man, who having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.

  George Eliot

  Inspirational, Education, Wisdom

  The Impressions of Theophrastus Such "A Man Surprised at His Own Originality" (1879)

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• This evidence is overwhelming at this point. You eat more plants, you eat less other stuff, you live longer.

  Mark Bittman

  Stuff, Plant, Overwhelming

  "How Has The American Diet Changed Over Time?". "TED Radio Hour" wuth Guy Raz, www.npr.org. November 17, 2016.

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• Every friend of freedom... must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the United States into an armed camp, by the vision of jails filled with casual drug users and of an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight evidence.

  Milton Friedman

  Army, Jail, Alcohol

  "An Open Letter to Bill Bennett". Milton Friedman, The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 1989.

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