41 quotes
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
Our lives are guided by that general conception of the course of things which has been created by society for social purposes.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
No mathematician can give any meaning to the language about matter, force, inertia used in current text-books of mechanics.
It is the sense of power attached to a sense of knowledge that makes men desirous of believing, and afraid of doubting.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
Force is not a fact at all, but an idea embodying what is approximately the fact.
The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences (1885)
It is wrong in all cases to believe on insufficient evidence; and where it is presumption to doubt and to investigate, there it is worse than presumption to believe.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
To try to make a model of an atom by studying its spectrum is like trying to make a model of a grand piano by listening to the noise it makes when thrown downstairs.
Do I seem to say, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die?" Far from it; on the contrary, I say, "Let us take hands and help, for this day we are alive together."
We ought not to teach to little children, as a known fact, that which is not a known fact.
Energy is a quantity which can be greater or less but has no direction.
Energy and Force (1873)
No mathematician can give any meaning to language about matter, force, inertia, used in text-books of mechanics.
Energy and Force (1873)
This idea must be got rid of to understand force. All universally true laws of nature are laws of co-existence, not succession.
Energy and Force (1873)
It is a very serious thing to consider that not only the earth itself and all that beautiful face of Nature we see, but also the living things upon it, and all the consciousness of men, and the ideas of society, which have grown up upon the surface, must come to an end.
The credulous man is father to the liar and the cheat; he lives in the bosom of this his family, and it is no marvel if he should become even as they are.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
But a greater and wider evil arises when the credulous character is maintained and supported, when a habit of believing for unworthy reasons is fostered and made permanent.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
There is in the true man of science a desire stronger than the wish to have his beliefs upheld; namely, the desire to have them true.
What hurts society is not that it should lose its property, but that it should become a den of thieves, for then it must cease to be society.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)
A little reflection will show us that every belief, even the simplest and most fundamental, goes beyond experience when regarded as a guide to our actions.
The Ethics of Belief (1877)