William A. Dembski Quotes

It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

With no more than six levels of misquotation, any statement can be made to say whatever you wish.

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.

You could put it that way if you wanted to cause people concern. On the other hand, you could report it as I said it.

Because of the way my words get scrutinized, I have to use a level of precision so people don't accuse me of misleading them.

There are some people in this world who always turn and twist the spoken word out of proportion.

I hate when people don't hear the actual words out of your mouth or even the intent of it. They just hear something completely different.

Truth, like light, blinds. Falsehood, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight that enhances every object.

Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

For years, I've been interviewed, and they write what they thought I thought or what they thought I said. Sometimes it's accurate, and often it isn't.

When you take somebody's quote out of context, which happens all the time, nobody's ever going to go and do the research on their own and figure out that you got it wrong.

I have to be clear with myself and very conscious of what I am trying to say. Misunderstandings will always take place; it's unavoidable.

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

When distant and unfamiliar and complex things are communicated to great masses of people, the truth suffers a considerable and often a radical distortion. The complex is made over into the simple, the hypothetical into the dogmatic, and the relative into an absolute.

Avoid miscommunication. The price you pay for it is horrendous.

I am not very good at expressing myself in a simple way so it can create mis-understandings and I hate that.

If you discuss other people, words get twisted; things get turned around.

For my next trick I will make everyone understand me.

Telling the truth to people who misunderstand you is generally promoting a falsehood, isn't it?

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood.

When people sometimes misquote me, I don't know if they understand what I'm saying.

There is no worse lie than a truth misunderstood by those who hear it.

Sometimes it is necessary to make things clearer than the truth.

Sentences defended as literally accurate can mislead.