David Leonhardt Quotes
Facts matter, especially when they conflict with dogma and preconceived notions. Pretending otherwise has consequences.
David Leonhardt, Journalist & Commentator, “A Cockeyed Optimist”, New York Times Book Review, December 22, 1913
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
Many politicians have used this quote in recent years, but Moynahan seems to be the first.
This famous quotation was only partly original. The most famous part, "Facts are stubborn things" was earlier used by the French Writer, Alain René Le Sage in Gil Blas
If someone repeats a lie, you can show them the logic and facts of the situation and persuade them often. But if they are ideologically wedded to an idea, it is difficult if not impossible to change their mind, as their belief is an ideology, not a conclusion.
Ibn al-Nafis was one of the great scientists of all time. He analyzed the human heart, lungs, and circulatory system. This quotation is often given by Muslim modernists and reformers to illustrate that Islam at one time was open to new knowledge, dissent, ideas of all kinds. A century later, Islam closed intellectually and later and even today, Muslims are killed for what became heresy. Truth became determined by the Koran and the words of The Prophet only, Christianity and the Church imposed a similar restrictive view of truth using the Bible and Jesus. However, the Reformation and modernity led Christianity to merge and adopt the more modern and scientific view with the exception of some Christian fundamentalists. Islam had the modern view and abandoned it causing the many educated Islamic reformers and modernists of today great difficulty in changing the culture and laws as a whole.
Most politicians would never do this. Ideologues rarely analyze their beliefs. Pragmatic politicians are fearful of being called a flip flopper with no core principles. However, some politicians follow this advice. For example, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt were both among the rare politicians who would frequently change positions as they learned more. See John Maynard Keynes {619441} for a personal statement of this principle and {636175} for a modern view.
This quotation from 1888 is apropos many of the major scientific advances which are counter-intuitive. Relativity was one; another was Quantum Mechanics where we have to learn to accept the fact that something can be in two (or more) places at once or that the exact same forces acting on an object can produce more than one result. Most non-scientists would see these as absurd, but they are basic characteristics of modern physics.
David Leonhardt is an American journalist and columnist. Beginning April 30, 2020, he writes the daily "The Morning" newsletter for The New York Times. He also contributes to the paper's Sunday Review section. His column previously appeared weekly in The New York Times. He previously wrote the paper's daily e-mail newsletter, which bore his own name. As of October 2018, he also co-hosted a weekly Opinion podcast titled "The Argument", with Ross Douthat and Michelle Goldberg.
