Bertrand Russell Quotes

Science is a willingness to accept facts even when they are opposed to wishes.

When you are studying any matter or considering any philosophy, ask yourself only: what are the facts, and what is the truth that the facts bear out. Never let yourself be diverted by what you wish to believe, but look only and surely at what are the facts.

The intelligence community is intended to base its intelligence estimates on facts and analysis—not philosophy and conviction.

We should follow the facts wherever they lead us.

In everything we do, as long as I have anything to say about it, we're going to follow the facts independently, wherever they may lead, to whomever they may lead, no matter who likes it.

As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth - hear both sides and believe neither.

Hope is easy; knowledge is hard. Science is the one domain in which we human beings make a truly heroic effort to counter our innate biases and wishful thinking. Science is the one endeavor in which we have developed a refined methodology for separating what a person hopes is true from what he has good reason to believe.

Why do I want to believe what I believe?... Science, to put it somewhat vulgarly, is a technique to keep yourself from kidding yourself.

Part of what it is to be scientifically-literate is how you think about information that's presented in front of you. I think that's the great challenge. You have people who believe they do know how to think about the information, but don't, and they're in the position of power and legislation. You can't base a society on non-objectively verifiable truth. Otherwise, it's a fantasy land and science is the pathway to those emerging truths that are hard-earned and that some have taken decades, if not centuries, to emerge from experiments all around the world.

Rationalism doesn't require "belief," only observation. The real, measurable world doesn't care what you believe.

I don’t believe there are two sides to every argument. I think the facts are the center. And watching the news abandon the facts in favor of “fairness” is what’s troubling to me.

Everybody should care about facts. That is something all of us should agree on.

They're called 'facts', and my role is to amplify those, not cheerlead. And I don't care at all what you think of my motives.

Seek truth from facts.

We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.

Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can.

Decisions should be based on facts, objectively considered.

Science rests on reason and experiment, and can meet an opponent with calmness; but a belief is always sensitive.

As scientists, we need to not be afraid of the truth.

Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

A scientist... must accept the results of experiment, and nothing but the results of experiment.

Science is the refusal to believe on the basis of hope.

Only science and the spirit of seeking truth from facts can save China. I firmly believe in this.

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