"It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts." - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"The displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is -- second only to American political campaigns -- the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time." - Larry Laudan, Science and Relativism (1990)
"An open mind, in questions that are not ultimate, is useful. But an open mind about ultimate foundations either of theoretical or practical reason is idiocy. If a man's mind is open on these things, let his mouth at least be shut." - C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man
"The rise of "postmodernist'' intellectual fashions in Western universities, particularly in departments of literature and anthropology, implies that all "facts'' claiming objective existence are simply intellectual constructions. In short, that there is no clear difference between fact and fiction. But there is, and for historians, even for the most militantly antipositivist ones among us, the ability to distinguish between the two is absolutely fundamental" - Eric Hobsbawm
"First you guess. Don't laugh, this is the most important step. Then you compute the consequences. Compare the consequences to experience. If it disagrees with experience, the guess is wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn't matter how beautiful your guess is or how smart you are or what your name is. If it disagrees with experience, it's wrong. That's all there is to it." - Richard Feynman
"The most formidable weapons against errors of every kind is reason. I have never used any other, and I trust I never shall." - Thomas Paine
From the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and everything we have comes from a single attribute of man-- the function of his reasoning mind.
- Ayn Rand"The targets of my critique have by now become a self-perpetuating academic subculture that typically ignores (or disdains) reasoned criticism from the outside. In such a situation, a more direct demonstration of the subculture's intellectual standards was required. But how can one show that the emperor has no clothes? Satire is by far the best weapon; and the blow that can't be brushed off is the one that's self-inflicted. I offered the Social Text editors an opportunity to demonstrate their intellectual rigor. Did they meet the test?" - Alan Sokal
"Reason is the main resource of man in his struggle for survival." - Ludwig von Mises