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
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
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
He that has “a spirit of detail” will do better in life than many who figured beyond him in the university.—Such an one is minute and particular.—He adjusts trifles; and these trifles compose most of the business and happiness of life.—Great events happen seldom, and affect few; trifles happen every moment to everybody; and though one occurrence of them adds little to the happiness or misery of life, yet the sum total of their continual repetition is of the highest consequence.
—Daniel Webster (1782–1852) American Statesman, Lawyer
The fastidious are unfortunate; nothing satisfies them.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
Statistics are no substitute for judgment.
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
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
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
Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber, and takes out our brains to make room for it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Only feeble minds are paralyzed by facts.
—Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British Scientist, Science-fiction Writer
That’s the kind of ad I like: facts, facts, facts.
—Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974) Polish-born American Film Producer, Businessperson
Never forget the facts are important but it’s the opinion of the facts that causes comment.
—Unknown
Facts are counterrevolutionary.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
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
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
—Unknown
Accuracy of statement is one of the first elements of truth; inaccuracy is a near kin to falsehood.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
God give me strength to face a fact though it slay me.
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95) English Biologist
There are no facts, only interpretations.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Now, what I want is, facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
There is nothing as deceptive as an obvious fact.
—Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish Writer
If the facts don’t fit the theory, change the facts.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
There comes a time when you’ve got to say, “Let’s get off our asses and go …” I have always found that if I move with 75 percent or more of the facts I usually never regret it. It’s the guys who wait to have everything perfect that drive you crazy.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite—that particular peach is but a detail.
—Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish Painter, Sculptor, Artist
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
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
The sky is not less blue because the blind man does not see it.
—Danish Proverb
Measure three times before you cut once.
—Common Proverb
Facts and truth really don’t have much to do with each other.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
To some lawyers, all facts are created equal.
—Felix Frankfurter (1882–1965) American Judge
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
I might show facts as plain as day: but, since your eyes are blind, you’d say, Where? What? and turn away.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
Those who forget good and evil and seek only to know the facts are more likely to achieve good than those who view the world through the distorting medium of their own desires.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
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 eternal facts, as there are no absolute truths.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
The fatal futility of Fact.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Trifles make perfection, but perfection itself is no trifle.
—Michelangelo (1475–1564) Italian Painter, Sculptor, Architect, Poet, Engineer
Obviously the facts are never just coming at you but are incorporated by an imagination that is formed by your previous experience. Memories of the past are not memories of facts but memories of your imaginings of the facts.
—Philip Roth (1933–2018) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
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
If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right; if you don’t get all the facts, it can’t be right.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
Time dissipates to shining ether the solid angularity of facts.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
I deal with the obvious. I present, reiterate and glorify the obvious—because the obvious is what people need to be told.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
Conclusive facts are inseparable from inconclusive except by a head that already understands and knows.
—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
The pathetic almost always consists in the detail of little events.
—Edward Gibbon (1737–94) English Historian, Politician
Facts don’t cease to exist because they are ignored.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
But I hate things all fiction… there should always be some foundation of fact for the most airy fabric—and pure invention is but the talent of a liar.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The god whom science recognizes must be a God of universal laws exclusively, a God who does a wholesale, not a retail business. He cannot accommodate his processes to the convenience of individuals.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
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