“We must face the unfortunate fact that we are moved to the acceptance of beliefs by factors that are wholly irrelevant to their truth.”

— Susan Stebbing

As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 100

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Susan Stebbing 9

British philosopher 1885–1943

Leslie Weatherhead (1893–1976) English theologian

Source: The Christian Agnostic (1965), p.61, [ellipsis added]

“When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.”

Claude Bernard (1813–1878) French physiologist

Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale (1865)

“We are content to accept without testing any belief that fits in with our prejudices and whose truth is necessary for the satisfaction of our desires.”

Susan Stebbing (1885–1943) British philosopher

As quoted in Thinking to Some Purpose (1939), p. 204

“The standard of permanent Christianity must be kept clear in our minds and it is against that standard that we must test all contemporary thought. In fact, we must at all costs not move with the times.”

Clive Staples Lewis book God in the Dock

"Christian Apologetics" (1945), p. 92
God in the Dock (1970)

“We must do away with any shred of denial, minimization, justification, or rationalization. To recover, we must completely and totally understand and accept the truth that addiction creates suffering.”

Noah Levine (1971) American Buddhist teacher

Refuge Recovery (2014)

“Patience is a form of wisdom. It demonstrates that we understand and accept the fact that sometimes things must unfold in their own time.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Source: Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness

“Postmodernists parade their relativism as a superior kind of humility — the modest acceptance that we cannot claim to have the truth. In fact, the postmodern denial of truth is the worst kind of arrogance. In denying that the natural world exists independently of our beliefs about it, postmodernists are implicitly rejecting any limit on human ambitions. By making human beliefs the final arbiter of reality, they are in effect claiming that nothing exists unless it appears in human consciousness.”

John Gray book Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals

The Deception: Postmodernism (p. 54-55)
Straw Dogs: Thoughts on Humans and Other Animals (2002)

“My belief is, we will, in fact be greeted as liberators.”

Dick Cheney (1941) American politician and businessman

Meet The Press with Tim Russert. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/ (March 16, 2003)
2000s, 2003

“It is unfortunate, considering that enthusiasm moves the world, that so few enthusiasts can be trusted to speak the truth.”

Arthur James Balfour (1848–1930) British Conservative politician and statesman

Chief Secretary for Ireland
Source: Letter to Mary Gladstone Drew (17 May 1891), in Some Hawarden Letters, 1878–1913, Written to Mrs. Drew (Miss Mary Gladstone) Before and After Her Marriage, chosen and arranged by Lisle March-Phillipps and Bertram Christian (London: Nisbet & Co., 1917), p. 248.

“Feeble beliefs must be replaced by healthier habits and irrelevant institutions by progressive institutions. Our will should get guidance not form the twilight of the intellect but from the broad daylight of true beliefs.”

Zakir Hussain (politician) (1897–1969) 3rd President of India

Source: Philosophy of Education, p. 83.

“We must face the unfortunate fact that we are moved to the acceptance of beliefs by factors that are wholly irrelevant to their truth.”

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Susan Stebbing 9

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