“He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings.”
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Homér217
Ancient Greek epic poet, author of the Iliad and the OdysseyRelated quotes
John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Liberal statesman, writer and newspaper editor
Vol. II, bk. 5, ch. 4.
Recollections (1917)
Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers
Socrates, 10.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 2: Socrates, his predecessors and followers
“I want to believe as many true things and as few false things as possible.”
Matt Dillahunty (1969) American activist
Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Diogenes Laertius
Variant: How many things I can do without!
William Cobbett (1763–1835) English pamphleteer, farmer and journalist
Source: Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine (1796), P. 21.
Oliver Wendell Holmes (1809–1894) Poet, essayist, physician
Source: The Professor at the Breakfast Table (1859), Ch. I.
“There are many things—some true, some false— unsupportable by rational means.”
Barry Mazur (1937) American mathematician
Barry Mazur,
Context: Sometimes the mathematical anti-Platonist believes that headway is made by showing Platonism to be unsupportable by rational means, and that it is an incoherent position to take when formulated in a propositional vocabulary. It is easy enough to throw together propositional sentences. But it is a good deal more difficult to capture a Platonic disposition in a propositional formulation that is a full and honest expression of some flesh-and-blood mathematician’s view of things. There is, of course, no harm in trying—and maybe its a good exercise. But even if we cleverly came up with a proposition that is up to the task of expressing Platonism formally, the mere fact that the proposition cannot be demonstrated to be true won’t necessarily make it vanish. There are many things—some true, some false— unsupportable by rational means.