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2008 August 15
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"One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -- that we've been so credulous. (So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.)" |
"False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness; and when this is done, one path towards error is closed and the road to truth is often at the same time opened." |
"In questions of science the authority of a thousand
is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual." |
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2008 August 14
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"It is error alone which needs the support of government.
Truth can stand by itself." |
"The man who never looks into a newspaper
is better informed than he who reads them;
inasmuch as he who knows nothing is
nearer to the truth than he whose mind
is filled with falsehoods and errors." |
"And, finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself;
that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and
has nothing to fear from the conflict unless by human interposition
disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate,
errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them." |
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2008 August 13
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"Truth resides in every human heart,
and one has to search for it there,
and to be guided by truth as one sees it.
But no one has a right to coerce others
to act according to his own view of truth." |
"Illusions are like mistresses.
We can have many of them
without tying ourselves down to responsibility.
But truth insists on marriage.
Once a person embraces truth,
he is in its ruthless, but gentle, grasp." |
"History teaches us
that men and nations
only behave wisely
once they have exhausted
all other alternatives." |
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2008 August 12
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"Truth: the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity.
Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities.
Outlawed by all governments everywhere.
Possession is normally punishable by death." |
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities.
The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit
to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his
intelligence." |
"Truth, in its struggles for recognition,
passes through four distinct stages.
First, we say it is damnable, dangerous, disorderly,
and will surely disrupt society.
Second, we declare it is heretical, infidelic
and contrary to the Bible.
Third, we say it is really a matter of no importance
either one way or the other.
Fourth, we aver that we have always upheld it and believed it." |
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2008 August 11
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"Truth never envelops itself in mystery,
and the mystery in which it is at any time enveloped
is the work of its antagonist, and never of itself." |
"Of more worth is one honest man to society and in the sight of God,
than all the crowned ruffians that ever lived." |
"The most formidable weapons against errors of every kind is reason.
I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall." |
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