That justice should be administered between men, it is necessary that testimonies of fact be alleged; and that witnesses should apprehend themselves greatly obliged to discover the truth, according to their conscience, in dark and doubtful cases.
Facts have to be discovered by observation, not by reasoning
World views are social constructions and they channel the search for facts. But facts are found and knowledge progresses, however fitfully.
I let the argument rip healthily between the departments. This is a very good way to finding out the truth.
Experimental investigation, to borrow a phrase employed by Kepler respecting the testing of hypotheses, is "a very great thief of time." Sometimes it costs many days to determine a fact that can be stated in a line.
Our understanding of the world is achieved more effectively by conceptual improvements than by discovery of new facts
I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious.
