Terry Pratchett on talking

Science is not about building a body of known ‘facts’. It is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Only in our dreams are we free. The rest of the time we need wages.

A great many of those who ‘debunk’ traditional…values have in the background values of their own which they believe to be immune from the debunking process.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963The Abolition of Man

• Debate

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain1835–1910

If A is a success in life, than A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.

Albert Einstein1879–1955

• Success