Get the facts, or the facts will get you. And when you get ‘em, get ‘em right, or they will get you wrong.
Thomas Fuller, English preacher, scholar, author (1608-1661)
Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910)
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.
John Quincy Adams, US President (1767-1848)
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
Aldous Huxley, British author (1894-1963)
He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts – for support rather than illumination.
Andrew Lang, British author (1844-1912)
We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don’t, it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions.
Jessamyn West, US novelist (1903-1984)
People don’t ask for facts in making up their minds. They would rather have one good, soul-satisfying emotion than a dozen facts.
Robert Keith Leavitt, US advertising executive, author (1895 -1967)
No great marketing decisions have ever been made on quantitative data.
John Sculley, US businessman, computers & drinks (b. 1939)
Information is pretty thin stuff unless mixed with experience.
Clarence Day, US author (1874-1935)
It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, however suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.
Gore Vidal, US author, essayist (b. 1925)
