Objective Analysis Quotes

I'm a big believer in,'If anyone can understand my politics, I've failed.' If you can get a sense of which side of the fence I'm on, then I'm not doing a service. I'm preaching, and that's not my job.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

If the facts change, I’ll change my opinion. What do you do, Sir?

Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it

The pendulum of the mind alternates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.

Temperate, sincere, and intelligent inquiry and discussion are only to be dreaded by the advocates of error. The truth need not fear them...

I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I'm just a cold-blooded investigator.

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

I would say that I am an academic in politics. I have never abandoned my academic approach to observe reality, independently from the subject and its constant changes.

I am not here concerned with intent, but with scientific standards, especially the ability to tell the difference between a fact, an opinion, a hypothesis, and a hole in the ground.

Go with the science!.

You want to get both sides of the story and it's my role to try and bring that out of people.

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

I always try and distinguish between facts and opinions.

To govern well, one must see things as they are.

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.

I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right.

Disagreements are one of the fundamental positive aspects of science.

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the later ignorance.

I always say I have a Socratic approach to most things that I do. I pummel people with questions, because I need to know what they're thinking, what they're trying to achieve, what they believe the final outcome is going to be.

I attack ideas. I don't attack people. And some very good people have some very bad ideas. And if you can't separate the two, you gotta get another day job. You don't want to be a judge. At least not a judge on a multi-member panel.

Realists do not fear the results of their study.

There are hundreds of fine journalists who regularly inform us of what is happening in the world around us; and innumerable commentators who provide intelligent and objective insight on public policy matters.

Don’t take the wrong side of the argument just because your opponent has taken the right side.

I am not in any way a conspiracy theorist and have no time for such nonsense.