“It is better to have a bad method than to have none.”
Charles de Gaulle (1890–1970) eighteenth President of the French Republic
Il vaut mieux avoir une méthode mauvaise plutôt que de n'en avoir aucune.
in Le Fil de l’épée.
Writings
“Better to doubt methodically than to think capriciously.”
Speech at his inauguration as Lord Rector of The University of Edinburgh (6 November 1925), quoted in On England, and Other Addresses (1926), p. 83.
1925
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Stanley Baldwin225
Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom 1867–1947Related quotes
“A little doubt is better than total credulity.”
Al-Maʿarri (973–1057) Medieval Arab philosopher
As quoted in Leaving Islam: Apostates Speak Out (2003) by Ibn Warraq, p. 68
Muhammad Asad book The Principles of State and Government in Islam
Source: The Principles of State and Government in Islam (1961), Chapter 3: Government By Consent And Consent, p 50
William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–1863) novelist
Source: The History of Pendennis (1848-1850), Ch. 6.
Context: It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. Some of us can't: and are proud of our impotence, too.
“Tis better people think you a fool, then open your mouth and erase all doubt.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
Variously attributed to Lincoln, Elbert Hubbard, Mark Twain, Benjamin Franklin and Socrates
Misattributed
Variant: It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.
“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Cited as an example of "What Mark Twain Didn't Say" in Mark Twain by Geoffrey C. Ward, et al.
Misattributed
Variant: It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
“Absurdism, like methodical doubt, has wiped the slate clean.”
Albert Camus book The Rebel
Source: The Rebel (1951), pp. 8 - 10 as quoted in Albert Camus and the Philosophy of the Absurd';(2002) by Avi Sagi, p. 44
Context: The absurd … is an experience to be lived through, a point of departure, the equivalent, in existence of Descartes' methodical doubt. Absurdism, like methodical doubt, has wiped the slate clean. It leaves us in a blind alley. But, like methodical doubt, it can, by returning upon itself, open up a new field of investigation, and in the process of reasoning then pursues the same course. I proclaim that I believe in nothing and that everything is absurd, but I cannot doubt the validity of my proclamation and I must at least believe in my protest. The first and only evidence that is supplied me, within the terms of the absurdist experience, is rebellion … Rebellion is born of the spectacle of irrationality, confronted with an unjust and incomprehensible condition.
Scott Lynch (1978) American writer
In George R. R. Martin & Gardner Dozois (eds.) Rogues (p. 245)
Short fiction, A Year and a Day in Old Theradane (2014)
