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Topics/Truth & Lies

Quotes about facts

50 quotes from 40 people

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Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence…
John Adams1735–1826Boston Massacre trial (1770)
Before mass leaders seize the power to fit reality to their lies, their propaganda is marked by its extreme contempt for facts as such, for in their opinion fact depends entirely on the power of man who can fabricate it.
Hannah Arendt1906–1975The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951), Ch. 11: The Totalitarian Movement
- Truth & Lies
I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it.
Isaac Asimov1920–1992The Roving Mind (1983), p. 43
- Science
What could I do! Facts are such horrid things!
Jane Austen1775–1817“Lady Susan”, Letter XXXII (1871)
- Comedy
Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
Bernard Baruch1870–1965Deming Headlight (New Mexico), 6 January 1950, as cited in the Yale Book of Modern Proverbs and at There Are Opinions, And Then There Are Facts; Freakonomics blog post by Fred R. Shapiro (18 August 2011)
Who’s Britannica to tell me that the Panama Canal was built in 1914? If I want to say that it was built in 1941, that’s my right as an American.
Stephen Colbertborn 1964White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner (April 2006)
- Comedy
In all my experience along the dirtiest ways of this dirty little world, I have never met with such a thing as a trifle yet.
Wilkie Collins1824–1889The Moonstone (1868), First Period: The Loss of the Diamond (1848), Chapter XIIIn context
- Experience
“Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”
Charles Dickens1812–1870Great Expectations (1861), Chapter XLIn context
- Truth & Lies
The more outré and grotesque an incident is the more carefully it deserves to be examined, and the very point which appears to complicate a case is, when duly considered and scientifically handled, the one which is most likely to elucidate it.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902), Chapter 15In context
- Thinking
It is a capital mistake to theorize before you have all the evidence. It biases the judgment.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part I, Chapter IIIIn context
- Thinking
When a fact appears to be opposed to a long train of deductions, it invariably proves to be capable of bearing some other interpretation.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930A Study in Scarlet (1887), Part I, Chapter VIIIn context
- Thinking
It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), A Scandal in BohemiaIn context
- Thinking
There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact
Arthur Conan Doyle1859–1930The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1891–1892), The Boscombe Valley MysteryIn context
- Truth & Lies
I think that only daring speculation can lead us further and not accumulation of facts.
Albert Einstein1879–1955Letter to Michele Besso (8 October 1952)
- Science
I am no poet, but if you think for yourselves, as I proceed, the facts will form a poem in your minds.
Michael Faraday1791–1867Lecture notes of 1858, quoted in The Life and Letters of Faraday (1870) by Bence Jones, Vol. 2, p. 403
- Poetry