“There are many ways of being wrong, but only one way of being right.”

— Susan Stebbing

As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 153

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Susan Stebbing 9

British philosopher 1885–1943

Richard Hamming (1915–1998) American mathematician and information theorist

Methods of Mathematics Applied to Calculus, Probability, and Statistics (1985)

“The way is the beginning of all beings and the measure of right and wrong.”

Han Fei (-279–-232 BC) Chinese philosopher

from "The Way of the Ruler", Han Fei Tzu: Basic Writings, Columbia University Press, New York, 1996. Translated by Burton Watson.

“For things and for poems, there is but one way of being new, and that is to be true; there is only one way of being young, and that is to be eternal.”

Paul Claudel (1868–1955) French diplomat

Il n'y a pour les choses et pour les poèmes qu'une seule manière d'être nouveaux, c'est d'être vrais et qu'une seule manière d'être jeunes, c'est d'être éternels.
Positions et propositions (Paris: Gallimard, 1928) p. 16; John O'Connor (trans.) Ways and Crossways (London: Sheed & Ward, 1935) p. 49.

“However many ways there may be of being alive, it is certain that there are vastly more ways of being dead.”

Richard Dawkins book The Blind Watchmaker

Source: The Blind Watchmaker (1986), Chapter 1 “Explaining the Very Improbable”

“Majorities are generally wrong, if only in their reasons for being right.”

George Saintsbury (1845–1933) British literary critic

Source: A Last Vintage, p. 172.

“It is impossible to recognize a wrong way without knowing the right way. This means that it is no use troubling oneself how to recognize a wrong way. One must think of how to find the right way.”

G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer

In Search of the Miraculous (1949), Ch. 10. p. 203

“There is only one way to survive in war, and that is by being willing to die.”

David Gemmell book Legend

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 12
Context: There is only one way to survive in war, and that is by being willing to die. You will find soon that swordsmen can be downed by untutored savages who would slice their fingers if asked to carve meat. And why? because the savage is willing. Worse, he may be a baresark.