Jean de la Bruyere Quotes

Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly.

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

A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven.

Faith is an island in the setting sun, But proof is the bottom line for everyone.

A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

Whenever I write something, I always want to make sure that what I write is defensible.

Logic is pointless.

Good argument is intended to persuade another.

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.

The truth is always the strongest argument.

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

A thing that nobody believes cannot be proved too often.

Even things that are true can be proved.

Logic is the art of convincing us some truth.

The facts are on our side.

The only good reason to embrace a philosophical position is that you are convinced it is true or at least makes sense of the world better than the alternatives.

I mean the word proof not in the sense of the lawyers, who set two half proofs equal to a whole one, but in the sense of a mathematician, where half proof = 0, and it is demanded for proof that every doubt becomes impossible.

Rhetoric and dialectics can't change what I have learned from observation and experience.

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

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.

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.

Facts are counterrevolutionary.

Convincing yourself doesn't win an argument.

When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable.

The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.