William Kingdon Clifford Quotes

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

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

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

If I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.

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.

Belief is desecrated when given to unproved and unquestioned statements for the solace and private pleasure of the believer . . . It is wrong always, everywhere, and for every one, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

My position is that we should not succumb to irrational belief.

I've always wanted to make the world a more rational place. I'm still working on it.

Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.

Anything that gives us new knowledge gives us an opportunity to be more rational.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

The man of science is a poor philosopher.

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

When the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.

The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

I'm the type of person who responds to facts.

If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves they should value evidence. If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument would you invoke to prove they should value logic?

No one has ever understood anything better by assuming that there is no reason for why it is the way it is.

Talk about rationality can get very confusing unless the things with which rationality deals are also included.

The reasoning man who scorns the prejudices of simpletons necessarily becomes the enemy of simpletons; he must expect as much, and laugh at the inevitable.

We do not respect people's beliefs, we evaluate their reasons. If my reasons are good enough for believing what I believe, you will helplessly believe what I believe. I will give you my reasons and reasons are contagious. That is what it is to be a rational human being.

Practically, Science is true; and Faith is foolish.

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.

Facts are important to me, not emotions. I would caution against speculation.