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From principles is derived probability, but truth or certainty is obtained only from facts.

— Tom Stoppard Misattributed

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Source and credibility

Tom Stoppard very probably did not say this. Wikiquote lists it as misattributed.

Source: From principles is derived probability, but truth is obtained only from facts. - Jesse Olney (1798 - 1872), The National Preceptor (Goodwin, 1830), Lesson LXXXV: "Select Sentences," rule # 19 (p. 171)
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Tom Stoppard

A man talking sense to himself is no madder than a man talking nonsense not to himself.

I agree with everything you say, but I would attack to the death your right to say it.

Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966)

If you were handed power on a plate you'd be left fighting over a plate.

Squaring the Circle (1984)

Public postures have the configuration of private derangement.

The Real Thing (1982)

It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting.

Jumpers (1972)

It's the wanting to know that makes us matter.

Arcadia (1993)

I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself.

My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers.

Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966)

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More quotes by Tom Stoppard

An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality.

Travesties (1974)

Revolution is a trivial shift in the emphasis of suffering; the capacity for self-indulgence changes hands.

Lord Malquist and Mr Moon (1966)

I still believe that if your aim is to change the world, journalism is a more immediate short-term weapon.

An essentially private man who wished his total indifference to public notice to be universally recognized.

Travesties (1974)

It is a defect of God's humour that he directs our hearts everywhere but to those who have a right to them.

Arcadia (1993)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tom Stoppard (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.