““Truth” is contained in the preconceptions of him who seeks to define it. Any organization of ideas whatever presupposes a judgment on the world.”
Source: The Languages of Pao (1958), Chapter 11 (p. 112)
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Jack Vance 213
American mystery and speculative fiction writer 1916–2013Related quotes

As appears on plaque in the entrance to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/ns/grahambell/index_e.asp in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, Canada.

contempt prior to examination.
A View of the Evidences of Christianity (1794).
As quoted or paraphrased in Anglo-Israel or, The British Nation: The Lost Tribes of Israel (1879) by Rev. William H. Poole.
A similar statement apparently derived from this version has become widely attributed to Herbert Spencer, but there are no records of Spencer ever saying or writing it, the first known attributions to him occurring in 1922 as the epigraph to Le Roy Campbell's The True Function of Relaxation in Piano Playing: A Treatise on the Psycho-Physical Aspect of Piano Playing, With Exercises for Acquiring Relaxation: https://books.google.com/books?id=gjMuAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false "There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance! That principle is condemnation before investigation".
Variant: There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all argument, and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance. This principle is, contempt prior to examination.

“If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”
Journal entry (29 October 1838)

Grzegorz Strzelczyk, a Catholic priest who co-authored a book that was a conversation record between him and Vetulani, in an interview with Tygodnik Sanocki http://tygodniksanocki.pl/2017/10/08/czy-w-mozgu-mieszka-bog/ (in Polish).
"An Essay on a Pig Roast," p. 437
Bully for Brontosaurus (1991)

“What rules the world is idea, because ideas define the way reality is perceived.”
Wall Street Journal, September 11, 1975.
1970s

Congressional Record https://books.google.fr/books?id=mHjzYq7zoocC&q=%22+I+know+that+there+are+millions+of+good+loyal+Americans+who+belong+to+the+CIO%22&dq=%22+I+know+that+there+are+millions+of+good+loyal+Americans+who+belong+to+the+CIO%22&hl=fr&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGo4ar-NPkAhXMxIUKHWB6DMYQ6AEIKzAA (1946)
1940s