Charles Darwin Quotes

For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question.

[Louis Brandeis] insisted on the necessity of public reason, which he thought could only be achieved if all of us just take the time to inform ourselves about the best arguments on all sides of questions so that we can make up our own minds.

If you're going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you're not always going to like the conclusions you reach. If you like them all the time, you're probably doing something wrong.

Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them...

Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads or you learn nothing.

Happily I had very early learned the fallacy of building much on logic and verbal argument. Single sets of truths I knew to be as little conclusive in theology as in physics; and, in one as in the other, no theory to be worth anything, however plausibly backed up with Scripture texts or facts, which was not gathered bona fide from the analysis of all the attainable phenomena, and verified wherever possible by experiment.

Nations, like individuals, never condescend to stop and examine how far the arguments and feelings of their opponents may be reasonable and just; and it follows from hence, that men of rank and influence in our community can never be better employed than in prevailing on their countrymen to pause and reflect: to remember that in every quarrel there must necessarily be two sides, and that it would be a marvelous circumstance indeed, if the one side, i. e. themselves, were exclusively in the right.

You owe it to the community not to be swerved by eloquence and specious argument.

There is no just and serene criticism as yet.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

Never let yourself be diverted, either by what you wish to believe, or what you think could have beneficent social effects if it were believed; but look only and solely at what are the facts.

As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth - hear both sides and believe neither.

How can we judge fairly of the characters and merits of men, of the wisdom or folly of actions, unless we have . . . an accurate knowledge of all particulars, so that we may live as it were in the times, and among the persons, of whom we read, see with their eyes, and reason and decide on their premises?

When we would show any one that he is mistaken, our best course is to observe on what side he considers the subject,--for his view of if is generally right on this side,--and admit to him that he is right so far. He will be satisfied with this acknowledgment, that he was not wrong in his judgment, but only inadvertent in not looking at the whole case.

If you're analytical, you have to be blunt. That's by definition. You can't analyze something and not be blunt about it. What would you rather hear if not the truth?

In a startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions.

I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don't know the other side's argument better than they do.

Get the facts. Let's not even attempt to solve our problems without first collecting all the facts in an impartial manner.

The difference between science and religion is the difference between a willingness to dispassionately consider new evidence and new arguments , and a passionate unwillingness to do so.

One of the reasons we do history, in fact, is because it acts as a brake, a control, on our otherwise unbridled enthusiasm for our own ideas.

When an arguer argues dispassionately he thinks only of the argument.

I would like to be judged on the validity of my arguments, not as a victim.

Assumptions are dangerous things. I like facts a lot better.

One man's word is no man's word; we should quietly hear both sides.

People only believe what they discover for themselves. We need to have civil discussions, and look at what the facts and the truth are.