Antonio Machado Quotes

I would, like any other scientist, willingly change my mind if the evidence led me to do so. So I care about what's true, I care about evidence, I care about evidence as the reason for knowing what is true. It is true that I come across rather passionate sometimes - and that's because I am passionate about the truth... I do get very impatient with humbug, with cant, with fakery, with charlatans.

A just thinker will allow full swing to his scepticism. I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot.... We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth.

Why is it people who want the truth never believe it when they hear it?

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

I am not 'in pursuit of truth.' It is not my 'quarry.' I am of my human nature a thinker, and conscious of need, responsibility of thinking-speaking with truth. I do not go about hunting 'truths.'

I think what's always important is not to be contrarian for its own sake but to really get at the truth.

The people who have sufficient passion for the truth to give the truth a chance to prevail, if it runs counter to their bias, are in a minority. How important is this "minority?" It is difficult to say at this point, for, at the present time their influence on governmental decisions is not perceptible.

Those who never retract their opinions, love themselves more than they love truth.

We need a world where the values of science are celebrated: free inquiry, free speech and a healthy skepticism, all coupled with a sense of wonder, a respect for truth and an ability to reason.

Truth never lost ground by enquiry.

Argument is not always truth.

Embrace truth as it is revealed to-day by human reason.

As for the search for truth, I know from my own painful searching, with its many blind alleys, how hard it is to take a reliable step, be it ever so small, towards the understanding of that which is truly significant.

It is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not sufficient to exhibit the true; it is also necessary to expose and denounce the false.

The passion for seeking the truth for truth's sake can be kept alive only if we continue to seek the truth for truth's sake.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. The fearful thing about it is that, not knowing what truth may be, we can still recognize lies.

Interviewer: "Didn't [Sagan] want to believe?" Druyan: "He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know.

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they've found it.

To avoid being drawn into error, keep a firm grip on the truth.

It is the duty of every man, as far as his ability extends, to detect and expose delusion and error.

To think truly is noble and to be deceived is base.

Education ought to foster the wish for truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth.

The cold passion for truth hunts in no pack.

All I would ask you to be thinking of is the truth and not Socrates.

The best defence against bullshit is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.