Michael Faraday Quotes

If the facts change, I’ll change my opinion. What do you do, Sir?

However firmly thou holdest to thy opinions, if truth appears on the opposite side, throw down thy arms at once.

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

You must stick to your conviction, but be ready to abandon your assumptions.

Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what.

Good-faith re-examination of a position you've held in the past should be seen as a virtue, not a vice.

I always entertain the notion that I'm wrong, or that I'll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing.

I'll be the first one to admit that if I have conclusions based on faulty premises, then let me know about that, and I'll be the first one to change it.

One of the things I like enormously about Bob Weinstein is that that he's the only studio head I have ever known who will change his mind and say he was wrong.

There's nothing wrong with changing your position to fit the facts; there's everything wrong with changing the facts to fit your position.

I will adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

[It is] ... a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them

I'm not one of these people who thinks I know all the answers.

I try not to be an ideologue about anything. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I'm willing to evolve.

I'm going to be a guy who can defend a bunch of different positions.

I think it's very important to keep in the back of your mind: 'What if I'm wrong?'

We all are learning, modifying, or destroying ideas all the time. Rapid destruction of your ideas when the time is right is one of the most valuable qualities you can acquire. You must force yourself to consider arguments on the other side.

No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.

When the facts change, you change your mind. I know that is a hard concept for people to get sometimes.

People who are right most of the time are people who change their minds often

I wonder where you got that idea from? I mean, the idea that it's feeble to change your mind once it's made up. That's a wrong idea, you know. Make up your mind about things, by all means - but if something happens to show that you are wrong, then it is feeble not to change your mind, Elizabeth. Only the strongest people have the pluck to change their minds, and say so, if they see they have been wrong in their ideas.

I change my opinions often, but not my way of thinking.

Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.