Source: Persecution and the Art of Writing (1952), Persecution and the Art of Writing, p. 35
“No philosopher allows his opinions to be swayed by facts—he would be kicked out of his guild. Theologians, the lot of them.”
Source: The Number of the Beast (1980), Chapter VI : Are men and women one race?, p. 54
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Robert A. Heinlein 557
American science fiction author 1907–1988Related quotes
Source: Love in the Time of Cholera
Charles Sanders Peirce
(1839–1914) American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist
"The Century's Great Men in Science" in The 19th Century : A Review of Progress During the Past One Hundred Years in the Chief Departments of Human Activity (1901), published by G. P. Putnam's Sons.
Context: It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion regenerated, his every idea rationalized, by drinking at the fountain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher. To an earlier age knowledge was power — merely that and nothing more; to us it is life and the summum bonum. Emancipation from the bonds of self, of one's own prepossessions, importunately sought at the hands of that rational power before which all must ultimately bow, — this is the characteristic that distinguishes all the great figures of nineteenth-century science from those of former periods.
Mandell Creighton
(1843–1901) English historian and ecclesiastic
Persecution and Tolerance, Hulsean Lectures, University of Cambridge (Winter 1893–94)
Elisha Gray
(1835–1901) American electrical engineer
Familiar talks on science, Volume 2 (1900), p. 157
Nature's Miracles (1900)
Context: It is the province of the scientist to reveal the facts of nature as they now exist, and leave the rest to the speculation of the philosopher and the theologian. The growth of vegetation made it possible for animal and insect life to exist, and the earth teemed with both; first of an inferior kind, but later, as the conditions for a higher order of life were right, the higher order came with the improved conditions. In this way was the earth through countless ages of time prepared for man — God's highest creation.
“But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own.”
Benjamin Ricketson Tucker
(1854–1939) American journalist and anarchist
¶ 13
State Socialism and Anarchism: How Far They Agree, and Wherin They Differ (1888)
Context: What other applications this principle of Authority, once adopted in the economic sphere, will develop is very evident. It means the absolute control by the majority of all individual conduct. The right of such control is already admitted by the State Socialists, though they maintain that, as a matter of fact, the individual would be allowed a much larger liberty than he now enjoys. But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own. There would be no foundation of society upon a guaranteed equality of the largest possible liberty. Such liberty as might exist would exist by sufferance and could be taken away at any moment. Constitutional guarantees would be of no avail. There would be but one article in the constitution of a State Socialistic country: “The right of the majority is absolute.”
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
(1927–2003) American politician
Quoted in Robert Sobel's review of Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies edited by Mark C. Carnes.
Quoted in Timothy J. Penny, http://www.nationalreview.com/article/207925/facts-are-facts-timothy-j-penny, National Review September 4, 2003.
Ellen Hume, Tabloids, Talk Radio and the Future of News, part 4 http://www.ellenhume.com/articles/tabloids4.html ( TOC http://www.ellenhume.com/articles/tabloids_contents.html), 1995 cites this as something Moynihan said to a "1994 electoral opponent on WNBC in New York".
However, proceedings http://web.archive.org/web/20141031220947/http://www.intelligence.senate.gov/pdfs/96id_protection.pdf of a Senate Intelligence Committee in 1980 attribute the identical quote to James R. Schlesinger (at p. 110), possibly made during the course of 1973 Congressional testimony.
Also see Bernard Baruch, who said "Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts." in the January 6, 1950 issue of the Deming (New Mexico) Headlight
See also this Barry Popik blog http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/everyone_is_entitled_to_his_own_opinion_but_not_his_own_facts for some etymological research into this quote and its variants.
Attributed
Variant: Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts.
Variant: You are entitled to your own opinion, but you are not entitled to your own facts.
Variant: You’re entitled to your own opinions. You’re not entitled to your own facts.
George Long
(1800–1879) English classical scholar
The Philosophy of Antoninus
Context: The doctrines of Epictetus and Antoninus are the same, and Epictetus is the best authority for the explanation of the philosophical language of Antoninus and the exposition of his opinions.