The Quotation IndexThe trusted reference for quotations and the sources behind them
Tag Tag Evidence
Every thing impossible, until we see a success.
Ralph Waldo Emerson Experience · 1844

Quotes

“Truth was the only daughter of Time.”

Leonardo da Vinci · The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1888 · Primary source

“For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.”

Richard Feynman · Personal Observations on Reliability of Shuttle, 1986 · Primary source

“It is interesting that human relationships, if there is an independent way of judging truth, can become unargumentative.”

Richard Feynman · The Meaning of It All, 1998 · Primary source

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

William Bruce Cameron · Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking, 1963 · Primary source

“Altogether too often, people substitute opinions for facts and emotions for analysis.”

Andrew S. Grove · Only the Paranoid Survive, 1996 · Primary source

“I pass with relief from the tossing sea of Cause and Theory to the firm ground of Result and Fact.”

Winston Churchill · The Story of the Malakand Field Force, 1898 · Primary source

“I am reminded of the professor who in his declining hours was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, Verify your quotations.”

Winston Churchill · The Second World War, 1948-1953 · Primary source

“In science we must be interested in things, not in persons.”

Marie Curie · Madame Curie: A Biography, 1938 · Secondary source

“If you see smoke, there must be fire.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Compensation, 1841 · Primary source

“Commerce is a game of skill, which every man cannot play, which few men can play well. The right merchant is one who has the just average of faculties we call common sense; a man of a strong affinity for facts, who makes up his decision on what he has seen. He is thoroughly persuaded of the truths of arithmetic.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Wealth, 1860 · Primary source

“Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your experiments.”

Leonardo da Vinci · The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, 1888 · Primary source

“The test of all knowledge is experiment. Experiment is the sole judge of scientific truth.”

Richard Feynman · The Feynman Lectures on Physics, 1961-1964 · Primary source

“It was a reaction I learned from my father: have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look at what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, Is it reasonable?”

Richard Feynman · What Do You Care What Other People Think?, 1986 · Primary source

“The only way to have real success in science, the field I’m familiar with, is to describe the evidence very carefully without regard to the way you feel it should be. If you have a theory, you must try to explain what’s good and what’s bad about it equally. In science, you learn a kind of standard integrity and honesty.”

Richard Feynman · What Do You Care What Other People Think?, 1986 · Primary source

“There is no sense in calculating the probability or the chance that something happens after it happens.”

Richard Feynman · The Meaning of It All, 1998 · Primary source

“By honest I don’t mean that you only tell what’s true. But you make clear the entire situation. You make clear all the information that is required for somebody else who is intelligent to make up their mind.”

Richard Feynman · The Meaning of It All, 1998 · Primary source

“So little pains do the vulgar take in the investigation of truth, accepting readily the first story that comes to hand.”

Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BC · Primary source

“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.”

Thucydides · History of the Peloponnesian War, 431 BC · Primary source

Related Tags

Decision-making 35 Judgement 31 Time 20 Knowledge 18 Observation 17 Truth 16 Critical thinking 13 Consequences 12 Experimentation 9 Reasoning 8 Success 7 Independent judgement 7 Practical judgement 6 Possibility 6 Discovery 6 Risk assessment 6 Bias 6 Scientific integrity 5 Objectivity 4 Research 4 Causation 4 Authority 4 Probability 4 Analysis 3 Research ethics 3 Human behaviour 3 Empiricism 2 Fact-checking 2 Impartiality 2 Cause and effect 2 Inference 2 Belief 2 Commerce 2 Common sense 2 Empirical testing 2 Engineering safety 2 Challenger disaster 2 Transparency 2 Credulity 2 Historical method 2 Historiography 2 Facts 1 Theory 1 Quotation accuracy 1 Source verification 1 Historical research 1 Scientific inquiry 1 Precedent 1 Numeracy 1 Scientific truth 1 Public relations 1 Theory testing 1 Objective standards 1 Disagreement 1 Scientific consensus 1 Selection bias 1 Post hoc reasoning 1 Statistical inference 1 Disclosure 1 Informed judgement 1 Critical inquiry 1 Long-term relevance 1 Measurement 1 Qualitative research 1 Social research 1