Diane S. Sykes Quotes

The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship. The proof of a theory is in its reasoning, not in its sponsorship.

Logic can become enormously difficult, and it would undoubtedly be well to produce more assurance in its use.

If there is one thing that I take pride in, it is the fact that I never, ever make a charge without offering a substantial amount of support for it. You may ultimately end up not agreeing with me, but you will have to concede that I offered much evidence in support of my position, something that people frequently do not do.

But even the people who don't like my opinions must admit that I always have a reason behind what I say.

You only need one good reason to commit to an idea, not four hundred. But if you have four hundred reasons to say yes and one reason to say no, the answer is probably no.

If you believe you are right, then you should believe that you can make the case that you're right. This requires you to deal with serious objections properly.

Human beings do things for a reason, even if sometimes it's the wrong reason.

It's more fun to arrive a conclusion than to justify it.

Anything I do, I always have a reason for.

The knowledge of the theory of logic has no tendency whatever to make men good reasoners.

To give a reason for anything is to breed a doubt of it.

Bad reasoning as well as good reasoning is possible; and this fact is the foundation of the practical side of logic.

But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions.

Because an appeal makes logical sense is no guarantee that it will work.

A philosopher once said, 'Half of good philosophy is good grammar.'

Persuasion is clearly a sort of demonstration, since we are most fully persuaded when we consider a thing to have been demonstrated.

People need meanings to everything. People want you to intellectualize every choice you make.

Have a very good reason for everything you do.

Give your decisions, never your reasons; your decisions may be right, your reasons are sure to be wrong.

A statement is persuasive and credible either because it is directly self-evident or because it appears to be proved from other statements that are so.

Philosophy is easier than politics.

By free-thinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against it, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.

If you have ever studied geometry, you remember that by a course of reasoning Euclid proves that all the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Euclid has shown you how to work it out. Now, if you undertake to disprove that proposition, and to show that it is erroneous, would you prove it to be false by calling Euclid a liar?

Use your logick, and then your rhetorick. Rhetorick without logick, is like a tree with leaves and blossoms, but no root; yet I confess more are taken with rhetorick than logick, because they are catched with a free expression, when they understand not reason. Logick must be natural, or it is worth nothing at all: Your rhetorick figures may be learned.

Everything is reason. If you don't have reason, you have nothing.