
“Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.”
A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996), p. 281
Attributed from posthumous publications
On the Iraq War. Rebecca Traister. Enough with the vaginas! Salon, 15 September 2004 http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2004/09/15/ensler
“Even when the experts all agree, they may well be mistaken.”
A Fresh Look at Empiricism: 1927-42 (1996), p. 281
Attributed from posthumous publications
“What is the truth, but a lie agreed upon.”
“If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.”
As quoted in Words from the Wise : Over 6,000 of the Smartest Things Ever Said (2007) by Rosemarie Jarski, p. 170
No. 29
The Federalist Papers (1787–1788)
Context: A tolerable expertness in military movements is a business that requires time and practice. It is not a day, or even a week, that will suffice for the attainment of it. To oblige the great body of the yeomanry, and of the other classes of the citizens, to be under arms for the purpose of going through military exercises and evolutions, as often as might be necessary to acquire the degree of perfection which would entitle them to the character of a well-regulated militia, would be a real grievance to the people, and a serious public inconvenience and loss. It would form an annual deduction from the productive labor of the country, to an amount which, calculating upon the present numbers of the people, would not fall far short of the whole expense of the civil establishments of all the States. To attempt a thing which would abridge the mass of labor and industry to so considerable an extent, would be unwise: and the experiment, if made, could not succeed, because it would not long be endured. Little more can reasonably be aimed at, with respect to the people at large, than to have them properly armed and equipped; and in order to see that this be not neglected, it will be necessary to assemble them once or twice in the course of a year.
One Human Minute (1986)
Context: The book does not contain “everything about the human being,” because that is impossible. The largest libraries in the world do not contain “everything.” The quantity of anthropological data discovered by scientists now exceeds any individual’s ability to assimilate it. The division of labor, including intellectual labor, begun thirty thousand years ago in the Paleolithic, has become an irreversible phenomenon, and there is nothing that can be done about it. Like it or not, we have placed our destiny in the hands of the experts. A politician is, after all, a kind of expert, if self-styled. Even the fact that competent experts must serve under politicians of mediocre intelligence and little foresight is a problem that we are stuck with, because the experts themselves cannot agree on any major world issue. A logocracy of quarreling experts might be no better than the rule of the mediocrities to which we are subject. The declining intellectual quality of political leadership is the result of the growing complexity of the world. Since no one, be he endowed with the highest wisdom, can grasp it in its entirety, it is those who are least bothered by this who strive for power.
“Sometimes,” Sam says, “I can’t tell when you’re lying.”
“I never lie,” I lie.”
Source: White Cat
6 June 2016, in interview with Faisal Islam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGgiGtJk7MA. Usually misquoted as "I think people in this country have had enough of experts" due to Islam interrupting Gove mid-sentence.
Lady Gaga: How the world went crazy for the new queen of pop http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/lady-gaga-how-the-world-went-crazy-for-the-new-queen-of-pop-1684375.html