Eric Temple Bell Quotes

Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises.

The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship. The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship.

Logic can become enormously difficult, and it would undoubtedly be well to produce more assurance in its use.

...logical validity is not a guarantee of truth.

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.

Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.

Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.

The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners.

Logic is like the sword - those who appeal to it, shall perish by it.

You should carefully study the Art of Reasoning, as it is what most people are very deficient in, and I know few things more disagreeable than to argue, or even converse with a man who has no idea of inductive and deductive philosophy.

The truth is always the strongest argument.

If you have ever studied geometry, you remember that by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Euclid has shown you how to work it out. Now, if you undertake to disprove that proposition, and to show that it is erroneous, would you prove it to be false by calling Euclid a liar?

Don't confuse evidence with a conclusion.

Logic is pointless.

I hope you become comfortable with the use of logic without being deceived into concluding that logic will inevitably lead you to the correct conclusion.

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

Wit is a thing capable of proof.

Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.

But the need for conflict to expose prejudice and unclear reasoning, which is deeply embedded in my philosophy of science, has its origin in these debates.

Bad reasoning as well as good reasoning is possible; and this fact is the foundation of the practical side of logic.

Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so.

Logic is in the eye of the logician.

I found maths very easy, but I still enjoyed discovering things. You have to have the necessary information. For example, what's the difference between the mean and the median? Probability fascinated me. You have to think very carefully about things, which is the way my mind works anyway.