John Dewey Quotes

Before anything can be reasoned upon to a conclusion, certain facts, principles, or data, to reason from, must be established, admitted, or denied.

Thinking. A process by which I use my brain to make a rational decision.

It is a very long and very difficult road from a fact to a conclusion. But it is a million times longer from a theory to a fact.

Thinking means connecting things, and stops if they cannot be connected.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Scientific thought, then, is not momentary; it is not a static instance; it is a process.

Let us gather facts in order to get ourselves thinking.

You must acquire something of that industrious habit of mind which the study of natural science gives,—the art of comparing, of perceiving true likenesses and true differences, and so of classifying and arranging what you see; the art of connecting facts together in your mind in cause and effect

Facts are not truths; they are not conclusions; they are not even premises, but in the nature and parts of premises.

Science is the most complete presentment of facts with the least expenditure of thought

To no circumstance is the wide diffusion of error in the world more owing than to our habit of adopting conclusions from insufficiently established data. An indispensable preliminary, then, in every investigation, is to get at facts. Until these are arrived at, every opinion, theory, or system, however ingeniously framed, must necessarily rest upon an uncertain basis.

Is there an observation which is not the instrument of thought?

If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition - even when it seems to be doing a little good - we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate.

People who think well, write well

What is thinking? It is the activity of searching out what must be true, or cannot be true, in the light of the given facts or assumptions.

Of course, analysis can sometimes give more accurate results than intuition but usually it’s just a lot of work. I normally do what my intuition tells me to do. Most of the time spent thinking is just to double-check.

We must learn the language of facts. The most wonderful inspirations die with their subject, if he has no hand to paint them to the senses.

Thought makes the whole dignity of man; therefore endeavor to think well, that is the only morality.

Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.

A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa.

A rational man is guided by his thinking - by a process of Reason - not by his feelings and desires.

I have this real moron thing I do? It's called thinking.

Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect.

What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” – what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Science is a way of equipping yourself with the tools to interpret what happens in front of you.