Walter Lippmann Quotes

Everybody is entitled to have an opinion. But it is also useful to have some facts.

Do not believe just because you want to believe.

The first thing you ought to do is verify what I present. Just because I say it doesn't make it true. So check it out, see what looks correct, what looks wrong, look at other material which wasn't discussed, figure out what the truth really is. That's what you've got a brain for.

We have the right to our own opinions, but not our own facts.

Opinions don't affect facts. But facts should affect opinions, and do, if you're rational

You shouldn't use anything as the sole source for anything, in my view.

If we applied more science reporting standards to political reporting, most of these politicians wouldn’t be able to make all these outrageous statements. We ask where is your data? How can you prove that?

Even a conscientious person cannot reach reasonable political conclusions without trustworthy, factual information.

If a book be false in its facts, disprove them; if false in its reasoning, refute it. But for God's sake, let us freely hear both sides if we choose.

When we hear news, we should always wait for the sacrament of confirmation.

If you get all the facts, your judgment can be right. If you don't get all the facts, it can't be right.

I used to have so many opinions before I learned the facts.

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.

The heart and soul of good writing is research; you should write not what you know but what you can find out about.

You're entitled your own opinions, but you're not entitled to your own facts.

When you're getting your facts from people, consider the way that they are being given to you.

We are not a court - not a judge or jury at work - but we've tried to apply the highest possible standards of rigorous analysis to the evidence where we make a criticism.

You've accepted a lot of things without evidence. Find out what the evidence is for that. Find out what the evidence is for everything that you accept.

Anything that makes us take more seriously scientists - or economists or chemists or physicists or biologists - I think is helpful in times when things get distorted because of people not paying attention to all the facts.

I have been saying this from the beginning: people are going to say whatever they want to say or believe whatever they want to believe. I say this to people: stick to the facts.

A judicious man looks at Statistics, not to "get knowledge, but to save himself from having ignorance foisted 'on him".

We must consider both the ultimate end and all clear sensory evidence, to which we refer our opinions; for otherwise everything will be full of uncertainty and confusion.

An unflinching determination to take the whole evidence into account is the only method of preservation against the fluctuating extremes of fashionable opinion.

Opinion has a significance proportioned to the sources that sustain it.

Just because something is typed-whether it is typed on a business card or typed in a newspaper or book-this does not mean that it is true.