Malcolm Turnbull Quotes

I have long felt that it is readers and viewers of conservative media who could benefit from a more balanced discussion of what is at stake in our policy and the actions of our government.

Rationality is not just something you do so that you can make more money, it is a binding principle. Rationality is a really good idea. You must avoid the nonsense that is conventional in one's own time. It requires developing systems of thought that improve your batting average over time.

America deserves a real discussion about real policy.

Science is a method to keep yourself from kidding yourself.

One must credit an hypothesis with all that has had to be discovered in order to demolish it.

What I look for in any book is an argument, based on evidence, that changes the way I think about something important.

People in New Hampshire know that I'll talk thoughtfully, substantively about any issue.

Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.

Science is the refusal to believe on the basis of hope.

Our duty is to believe that for which we have sufficient evidence, and to suspend our judgment when we have not.

So I think it's important to communicate with the people in terms of what the real facts are on these proposals and try to have a discussion and a dialogue that gives people information. I think they're hungry for that rather than just political rhetoric.

Be able to defend your arguments in a rational way. Otherwise, all you have is an opinion.

I don't mind anybody coming after me as long as they're coming with facts.

I don't want people to say, 'Something is true because Tyson says it is true.' That's not critical thinking.

Blind faith, no matter how passionately expressed, will not suffice. Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.

There is no way I could discuss things with Jimmy in an intelligent way if I didn’t attend cabinet meetings

You can’t start a conversation about public policy by saying it is complex.

In my opinion, it helps enormously to know why something is true, rather than being told it is true, for why should you believe me? Never believe anything on the authority of a single person but seek confirmation — and reason is the best confirmation

When you're writing criticism or thinking critically, to draw a very limited minor conclusion from solid evidence is really not thinking.

What we can do is provide the tools, through our educational system, for people to be able to tell sense from nonsense. These tools include the scientific method, skeptical questioning, empirical evidence, verifying sources, etc.

Generally, TED speakers are believers in the scientific method.

Disregard belief systems that aren't based on empirical studies.

I like debating policy.

One of the great commandments of science is, 'Mistrust arguments from authority'. (Scientists, being primates, and thus given to dominance hierarchies, of course do not always follow this commandment.)

You should not believe a thing only because you like to believe it. We call that 'Diax's Rake.