Quotes About Evidence

I no longer believe that William Shakespeare the actor from Stratford was the author of the works that have been ascribed to him.

I]n scientific matters it is always experience, and never authority without experience, that gives the final verdict, whether in favour or against.

Dupa cum se stie, in domeniul ocultismului este valabil principiul: cazurile negative nu dovedesc nimic.

Nor have I any reason for wishing to eliminate this evidence of my initial views. Even to-day I regard them not as errors but as valuable first approximations to knowledge which could only be fully acquired after long and continuous efforts.

I don't believe you.' 'That doesn't make any difference. Whether you believe it or not doesn't change the facts. It doesn't depend on belief.

Many wish to believe that there was a Trojan War, so powerful is the hold of Homer on our imaginations. As a result, people do not always pause sufficiently to ask what sort of work the Iliad is, nor what might count as good archaeological evidence for a Trojan War. The Iliad, composed five hundred years after the events it purports to describe, is an imaginative creation of a world mostly very different from the contemporary world of the poet. It cannot be treated as a work of history.

I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.

The facts of religion were convincing only to those who were already convinced.

The beautiful is the experimental proof that the incarnation is possible.

To claim either that only Christian miracles are authentic and all the others false, or that they alone are caused by God and all the rest by demons, is a miserable expedient. For it is an arbitrary claim, and hence, the miracles prove nothing. They themselves need to be proven since they receive a stamp of authenticity from the outside.

It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data.

The larger crimes are apt to be the simpler, for the bigger the crime, the more obvious, as a rule, is the motive.

It is an old maxim of mine that when you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth? (The Sign of the Four, page 111)

If you eliminate all other possibilities, whatever remains must be the truth. Sherlock Holmes

É arriscado especular antes de ter dados na mão...inconscientemente começa-se a torcer os factos para os acomodar às teorias, em vez de fazer as teorias coincidirem com os factos.

Evidência circunstancial é uma coisa ilusória - respondeu Holmes de modo pensativo; - pode demonstrar claramente determinado pormenor, mas se você alterar o seu ponto de vista, por pouco que seja, poderá notar que a evidência aponta de modo comprometedor noutra direcção completamente oposta.

Leaving the ego-driven space of your head and moving into the spirit-driven space of your heart is a significant shift and initially takes some getting used to. However, it won't be long before you have evidence that this is the best way to go. Once you decide to turn the light back on in your heart, it's simply a matter of finding the switch. The wiring is all in place. The light still works and always has.

you may question or even deny a bad vibe because you have no hard evidence to back up what you're feeling. Don't compromise your safety by falling into this trap. You do not need any other proof if you have bad vibes. If you sense that something is off, however difficult it may be to verify, trust your vibes and stay away. You may have to take a little heat for your suspicions, especially from five-sensory people who deny almost everything, but who cares?

I look at the evidence. There's a quote I like. 'When the facts change, I change my mind.'

S]ilence supports the accuser's charge?

But don't convict me on sheer unverified surmise.

...there is no evidence that casual exposure to secondhand smoke has any impact on your life expectancy.

If non-linear leaps in intelligence and ability are possible, why haven't these effects been observed in our schools? I believe the answer lies in the profound inertia of human thought: when an entire society believes something is impossible, it suppresses, by its very way of life, the evidence that would contradict that belief.