Accuracy of statement is one of the first elements of truth; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
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
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
To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.
—Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American Judge
There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
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
Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of the facts and evidence.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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 don’t cease to exist because they are ignored.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
Conclusive facts are inseparable from inconclusive except by a head that already understands and knows.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
No fact is so simple that it is not harder to believe than to doubt at the first presentation. Equally, there is nothing so mighty or so marvelous that the wonder it evokes does not tend to diminish in time.
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher
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
Facts quite often, I fear to confess, like lawyers, put me to sleep at noon. Not theories, however. Theories are invigorating and tonic. Give me an ounce of fact and I will produce you a ton of theory by tea this afternoon. That is, after all, my job.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
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
Every day of my life makes me feel more and more how seldom a fact is accurately stated; how almost invariably when a story has passed through the mind of a third person it becomes, so far as regards the impression it makes in further repetitions, little better than a falsehood; and this, too, though the narrator be the most truth-seeking person in existence.
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
Comment is free but facts are sacred.
—C. P. Scott (1846–1932) British Journalist, Editor, Politician
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 precedent creates another. — They soon accumulate, and constitute law. — What yesterday was fact, today is doctrine. — Examples are supposed to justify the most dangerous measures; and where they do not suit exactly, the defect is supplied by analogy.
—Junius Unidentified English Writer
Every man has a right to be wrong in his opinions. But no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
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
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