Steve Allen Quotes

All policies should be guided by science, not just whose voice is the loudest.

Reasoning draws a conclusion, but does not make the conclusion certain, unless the mind discovers it by the path of experience.

I'm a bit of a freak for evidence-based analysis. I strongly believe in data.

Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.

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

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Science has not been successful by making up explanations of things that fit with the current social fabric.

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

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

Disregard belief systems that aren't based on empirical studies.

Many of her thoughts were perfect syllogisms; unluckily they always remained thoughts. Only a few were irrational assumptions; but, unfortunately, they were the ones which most frequently grew into deeds

If there is any consistent enemy of science, it is not religion, but irrationalism.

The greatest progress that the human race has made lies in learning how to make correct inferences.

There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, [and] science, which is based on observation and reason. Science will win because it works.

The Rationalist case needs no straining of evidence and always gains by the severest self-criticism.

I hope you become comfortable with the use of logic without being deceived into concluding that logic will inevitably lead you to the correct conclusion.

Assumptions are dangerous things. I like facts a lot better.

A miscalculation is not negligence, nor prudence a crime. I am a scientist. I base my action or inaction upon probability and evidence. There is a reason we call science a discipline! Inferior minds bolt or build pyres to roast the witches in their midst!

The number of people that can reason well is much smaller than those that can reason badly. If reasoning were like hauling rocks, then several reasoners might be better than one. But reasoning isn't like hauling rocks, it's like, it's like racing, where a single, galloping Barbary steed easily outruns a hundred wagon-pulling horses.

You're neither right nor wrong because other people agree with you. You're right because your facts are right and your reasoning is right - that's the only thing that makes you right. And if your facts and reasoning are right, you don't have to worry about anybody else.

Opinions don't affect facts. But facts should affect opinions, and do, if you're rational

I believe in evidence-based decision making. I want to know what the facts are.

[Children] are taught that it is a virtue to accept statements without adequate evidence, which leaves them a prey to quacks of every kind in later life, and makes it very difficult for them to accept the methods of thought which are successful in science.

Through logic and inference we can prove anything. Therefore, logic and inference, in contrast to ordinary daily living experience, are secondary instruments of knowledge. Probably tertiary.

My position is that we should not succumb to irrational belief.