Validity Quotes

• The only relevant test of the validity of a hypothesis is comparison of prediction with experience.

  Milton Friedman

  Statistics, Tests, Predictions

  Milton Friedman, Kurt R. Leube (1987). “The essence of Friedman”, Hoover Inst Pr

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• Know what you are talking about.

  Pope John Paul II

  Knowledge, Knowing Jesus, Talking

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• The validity of all the Inductive Methods depends on the assumption that every event, or the beginning of every phenomenon, must have some cause; some antecedent, upon the existence of which it is invariably and unconditionally consequent.

  John Stuart Mill

  Science, Events, Causes

  John Stuart Mill (1846). “A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation”, p.337

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• Hinduism's basic tenet is that many roads exist by which men have pursued and still pursue their quest for the truth and that none has universal validity.

  Kenneth Scott Latourette

  Men, Quests, Hinduism

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• It is disturbing to discover in oneself these curious revelations of the validity of the Darwinian theory. If it is true that we have sprung from the ape, there are occasions when my own spring appears not to have been very far.

  Cornelia Otis Skinner

  Spring, Apes, Curious

  Cornelia Otis Skinner (1959). “The Ape in Me”

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• The solution of the difficulty is that the two mental pictures which experiment lead us to form - the one of the particles, the other of the waves - are both incomplete and have only the validity of analogies which are accurate only in limiting cases.

  Werner Heisenberg

  Two, Analogies, Wave

  Werner Heisenberg (2013). “The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory”, p.15, Courier Corporation

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• The only rule I have found to have any validity in writing is not to bore yourself.

  John Mortimer

  Writing, Found, Bores

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• So ensuring the integrity of the data and integrity and validity of the connection is a very important element in any company's strategy that is moving towards a Web service paradigm.

  John W. Thompson

  Integrity, Moving, Data

  "Interview: Symantec's John Thompson talks about big picture security". Interview with Ed Scannell, www.infoworld.com. June 16, 2004.

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• I'm a Scorpio, and who knows if there is any validity to it, but I'm very emotional. I have high highs and low lows.

  Chely Wright

  Emotional, Scorpios, Lows

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• No one knows anything about economics. It's the great lie of the economists. By contrast in football people might have contrasting opinions, each of which has some validity. But the economists always speak in conditionals - what a mess.

  Vicente del Bosque

  Football, Lying, People

  "Vicente del Bosque: Putting regional tensions aside has united Spain" by Jimmy Burns, www.theguardian.com. September 7, 2012.

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• Who of us is able to read and understand and be entirely confident of the validity of his title to the land he lives on, and which he has redeemed from a state of nature by the most indefatigable industry and perseverance?

  William H. Wharton

  Perseverance, Nature, Land

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• What women have to stand on squarely [is] not their ability to see the world in the way men see it, but the importance and validity of their seeing it in some other way.

  Mary Hunter Austin

  Women, World, Way

  Mary Hunter Austin (1994). “Cactus Thorn”, p.108, University of Nevada Press

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• I believe that history has shape, order, and meaning; that exceptional men, as much as economic forces, produce change; and that passe abstractions like beauty, nobility, and greatness have a shifting but continuing validity.

  Camille Paglia

  Change, Beauty, Believe

  Camille Paglia (2011). “Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays”, p.99, Vintage

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• All science is experiential; but all experience must be related back to and derives its its validity from the conditions and context of consciousness in which it arises, i.e., the totality of our nature.

  Wilhelm Dilthey

  Consciousness, Arise, Totality

  Wilhelm Dilthey, Rudolf A. Makkreel, Frithjof Rodi (1991). “Introduction to the Human Sciences”, p.50, Princeton University Press

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• The individual makes a clear effort to define moral values and principles that have validity and application apart from the authority of the groups of persons holding them and apart from the individual's own identification with the group.

  Lawrence Kohlberg

  Effort, Principles, Groups

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• Know what you're talking about.

  George H. W. Bush

  Knowing Jesus, Talking, Scary

  George H.W. Bush (2013). “All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings”, p.99, Simon and Schuster

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• Profit is not the purpose of a business, but rather the test of its validity

  Peter Drucker

  Purpose, Tests, Profit

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• I was very young when I prepared those prints. I suspect the reason I couldn't celebrate the floating world was that I couldn't bring myself to believe in its worth. Young men are often guilt-ridden about pleasure, and I suppose I was no different. I suppose I thought that to pass away one's time in such places, to spend one's skills celebrating things so intangible and transient, I suppose I thought it all rather wasteful, all rather decadent. It's hard to appreciate the beauty of a world when one doubts its very validity

  Kazuo Ishiguro

  Believe, Men, Skills

  Kazuo Ishiguro (2012). “An Artist of the Floating World”, p.150, Vintage

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• Endurance is often the best indicator of validity & value

  Jim Rohn

  Endurance, Indicators, Values

  FaceBook post by Jim Rohn from Aug 22, 2012

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• ...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.

  David Foster Wallace

  Guarantees, Infinite Jest, Logical

  David Foster Wallace (2011). “Infinite Jest”, p.145, Hachette UK

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• Only on the assumption of belief in the validity of values is the attempt to espouse value-judgments meaningful. However, to judge the validity of such values is a matter of faith .

  Max Weber

  Meaningful, Judging, Matter

  Max Weber (2015). “On the Methodology of the Social Sciences”, p.81, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Finally, the illusions of validity and skill are supported by a powerful professional culture. We know that people can maintain an unshakeable faith in any proposition, however absurd, when they are sustained by a community of like-minded believers. Given the professional culture of the financial community, it is not surprising that large numbers of individuals in that world believe themselves to be among the chosen few who can do what they believe others cannot.

  Daniel Kahneman

  Powerful, Believe, Skills

  Daniel Kahneman (2011). “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, p.247, Macmillan

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• It is the duty of every citizen according to his best capacities to give validity to his convictions in political affairs.

  Albert Einstein

  Courage, Honesty, Integrity

  "Our Goal Unity, but Germans Are Unfit", Free World, no. 4, 370-371, October 8, 1944.

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• One of the biggest problems with the world today is that we have large groups of people who will accept whatever they hear on the grapevine, just because it suits their worldview—not because it is actually true or because they have evidence to support it. The really striking thing is that it would not take much effort to establish validity in most of these cases… but people prefer reassurance to research.

  Neil deGrasse Tyson

  People, Support, Effort

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• Logic is something the mind has created to conceal its timidity, a hocus-pocus designed to give formal validity to conclusions we are willing to accept if everybody else in our set will too.

  Carl L. Becker

  Giving, Mind, Hocus Pocus

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