Opinion Quotes (18)

Opinionum commenta delet dies, naturae judicia confirmat
Time obliterates the fictions of opinion and confirms the decisions of nature.
De Natura Deorum, II, ii, 5. In Samuel Johnson, W. Jackson Bate, The Selected Essays from the Rambler, Adventurer, and Idler (1968),167
See also:  |  Nature (156)  |  Time (17)

A doctor whose breath smells has no right to medical opinion.
See also:  |  Breath (3)  |  Physician (123)

But at the same time, there must never be the least hesitation in giving up a position the moment it is shown to be untenable. It is not going too far to say that the greatness of a scientific investigator does not rest on the fact of his having never made a mistake, but rather on his readiness to admit that he has done so, whenever the contrary evidence is cogent enough.
Principles of General Physiology (1915), x.xi.
See also:  |  Evidence (18)

But, as Bacon has well pointed out, truth is more likely to come out of error, if this is clear and definite, than out of confusion, and my experience teaches me that it is better to hold a well-understood and intelligible opinion, even if it should turn out to be wrong, than to be content with a muddle-headed mixture of conflicting views, sometimes miscalled impartiality, and often no better than no opinion at all.
Principles of General Physiology (1915), x.
See also:  |  Error (73)

Even if the received opinion be not only true, but the whole truth; unless it is suffered to be, and actually is, vigorously and earnestly contested, it will, by most of those who receive it, be held in the manner of a prejudice, with little comprehension or feeling of its rational grounds
On Liberty (1859), 95.
See also:  |  Truth (147)

Every variety of philosophical and theological opinion was represented there [The Metaphysical Society], and expressed itself with entire openness; most of my colleages were -ists of one sort or another; and, however kind and friendly they might be, I, the man without a rag of a label to cover himself with, could not fail to have some of the uneasy feelings which must have beset the historical fox when, after leaving the trap in which his tail remained, he presented himself to his normally elongated companions. So I took thought, and invented what I conceived to be the appropriate title of 'agnostic' .
'Agnosticism' (1889). In Collected Essays (1894), Vol. 5, 239.
See also:  |   (6)  |  Philosophy (43)  |  Theology (4)

I submit a body of facts which cannot be invalidated. My opinions may be doubted, denied, or approved, according as they conflict or agree with the opinions of each individual who may read them; but their worth will be best determined by the foundation on which they rest—the incontrovertible facts.
Experiments and Observations on the Gastric Juice, and the Physiology of Digestion (1833), Preface.
See also:  |  Digestion (4)  |  Fact (96)

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.
Spoken by character Lazarus Long in Time Enough for Love (1973). In Leon E. Stover, Heinlein (1987), 103.
See also:  |  Measurement (38)

It is contrary to the usual practice of professional men to give their opinions upon each other's work unless regularly called upon in the way of their profession.
See also:  |  Engineering (28)

It is not worth a first class man's time express a majority opinion. By definition, there are already enough people to do that.
Quoted in the foreward to A Mathematician's Apology (1941, reprint with Foreward by C.P. Snow 1992), 46.

Science begets knowledge; opinion, ignorance.
In Fielding Hudson Garrison, An Introduction to the History of Medicine (1929), 14.
See also:  |  Ignorance (37)  |  Knowledge (213)  |  Science (270)

The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate.
Aphorism 46,' Novum Organum, Book I (1620)

The influence of Association over our Opinions and Affections, and its Use in explaining those Things in an accurate and precise Way, which are commonly referred to the Power of Habit and Custom, is a general and indeterminate one.
Observations on Man, His Frame, His Duty, and His Expectations (1749), part 1, 5-6.
See also:  |  Habit (8)  |  Human Nature (24)

The recipe for perpetual ignorance is: be satisfied with your opinions and content with your knowledge.
Philistine: A Periodical of Protest (Sep 1902), 15, No. 4, 92.
See also:  |  Ignorance (37)  |  Knowledge (213)

There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance.
Law sect. 4, in Hippocrates, trans. W. H. S. Jones (1923), Vol. 2, 265.
See also:  |  Fact (96)  |  Ignorance (37)  |  Knowledge (213)

Though there be no such thing as chance in the world; our ignorance of the real cause of any event has the same influence on the understanding, and begets a like species of belief or opinion.
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), ed. L. A. Selby-Bigge (1894), section 6, 56.
See also:  |  Belief (10)  |  Cause (26)  |  Chance (20)  |  Event (4)  |  Ignorance (37)  |  Understanding (40)

You have heard of the new chemical nomenclature endeavored to be introduced by Lavoisier, Fourcroy, &c. Other chemists of this country, of equal note, reject it, and prove in my opinion that it is premature, insufficient and false. These latter are joined by the British chemists; and upon the whole, I think the new nomenclature will be rejected, after doing more harm than good. There are some good publications in it, which must be translated into the ordinary chemical language before they will be useful.
Letter to Dr. Currie (Paris, 1788). In Thomas Jefferson and John P. Foley (ed.), The Jeffersonian Cyclopedia (1900), 135. From H.A. Washington, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (1853-54). Vol 2, 544.
See also:  |  Chemistry (63)  |  False (2)  |  Harm (3)  |  Nomenclature (33)  |  Publication (43)

You shall yourself be judge. Reason, with most people, means their own opinion.
Essay XVII. 'A New School of Reform: A Dialogue between a Rationalist and a Sentimentalist', in A.R. Waller and A. Glover (eds.), The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1903), Vol. 7, 188.
See also:  |  Reason (30)

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Original words on great scientific discoveries.
Darwin considers pros and cons of marriage.
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I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy. --Albert Einstein
I try to identify myself with the atoms...I ask what I would do if I were a carbon atom or a sodium atom. --Linus Pauling




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