She always says, my lord, that facts are like cows. If you look them in the face hard enough they generally run away.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
There are no facts, only interpretations.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
I grow daily to honor facts more and more, and theory less and less. A fact, it seems to me, is a great thing—a sentence printed, if not by God, then at least by the Devil.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Only feeble minds are paralyzed by facts.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Scientist, Science-fiction Writer
Accuracy is the twin brother of honesty; inaccuracy, of dishonesty.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
Facts are ventriloquist’s dummies. Sitting on a wise man’s knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
A world of facts lies outside and beyond the world of words.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
The construction of life is at present in the power of facts far more than convictions.
—Walter Benjamin
I never believe facts; Canning said nothing was so fallacious as facts, except figures.
—Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English Clergyman, Essayist, Wit
Facts are to the mind what food is to the body. On the due digestion of the former depend the strength and wisdom of the one, just as vigor and health depend on the other. The wisest in council, the ablest in debate, and the most agreeable companion in the commerce of human life, is that man who has assimilated to his understanding the greatest number of facts.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Conclusive facts are inseparable from inconclusive except by a head that already understands and knows.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called “facts”. They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
As a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
While I am busy with little things, I am not required to do greater things.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other; given the upper, to find the under side.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Accuracy is to a newspaper what virtue is to a lady, but a newspaper can always print a retraction.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
My facts shall be falsehoods to the common sense. I would so state facts that they shall be significant, shall be myths or mythologies. Facts which the mind perceived, thoughts which the body thought—with these I deal.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
Some facts should be suppressed, or, at least, a just sense of proportion should be observed in treating them.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes.
—Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) Indian Head of State
Creative thinking will improve as we relate the new fact to the old and all facts to each other.
—John Dewey (1859–1952) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Educator
Men who wish to know about the world must learn about it in its particular details.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
That’s the kind of ad I like: facts, facts, facts.
—Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) Polish-born American Film Producer, Businessperson
I often wish that I could rid the world of the tyranny of facts. What are facts but compromises? A fact merely marks the point where we have agreed to let investigation cease.
—Unknown
The facts are always friendly, every bit of evidence one can acquire, in any area, leads one that much closer to what is true.
—Carl Rogers (1902–1987) American Psychologist
Facts and truth really don’t have much to do with each other.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
A fact in itself is nothing. It is valuable only for the idea attached to it, or for the proof which it furnishes.
—Claude Bernard (1813–78) French Physiologist
Trifles make perfection, but perfection itself is no trifle.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
Measure three times before you cut once.
—Common Proverb
What are your historical Facts; still more your biographical? Wilt thou know a man by stringing-together beadrolls of what thou namest Facts?
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
A fact is like a sack—it won’t stand up if it’s empty. To make it stand up, first you have to put in it all the reasons and feelings that caused it in the first place.
—Luigi Pirandello (1867–1936) Italian Dramatist, Novelist, Short Story Writer, Author
Nothing in education is so astonishing as the amount of ignorance it accumulates in the form of inert facts.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
The sky is not less blue because the blind man does not see it.
—Danish Proverb
In some small field each child should attain, within the limited range of its experience and observation, the power to draw a justly limited inference from observed facts.
—Charles William Eliot (1834–1926) American Educationalist
A concept is stronger than a fact.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American Feminist, Writer
I have always wanted to be somebody, but I see now I should have been more specific.
—Lily Tomlin (b.1939) American Comedy Actress
It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Get your facts first, and then you can distort ’em as you please.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get them, get them right, or they will get you wrong.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
I believe in general in a dualism between facts and the ideas of those facts in human heads.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Approach each new problem not with a view of finding what you hope will be there, but to get the truth, the realities that must be grappled with. You may not like what you find. In that case you are entitled to try to change it. But do not deceive yourself as to what you do find to be the facts of the situation.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
One of the most untruthful things possible, you know, is a collection of facts, because they can be made to appear so many different ways.
—Karl Menninger (1893–1990) American Psychiatrist