Thomas Jefferson Quotes

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.

An open mind is not an end in itself but a means to the end of finding truth.

Our understanding of the world around us is constantly being redefined and expanded, and so therefore, it is wiser to be passionate about seeking for truth than knowing it.

The scientist is a lover of truth for the very love of truth itself, wherever it may lead.

As scientists, we need to not be afraid of the truth.

Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ASK. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds.

Only science and the spirit of seeking truth from facts can save China. I firmly believe in this.

If people were really trying to learn a lot and determine what is true, the would listen a lot and talk a little.

It is important that students bring a certain …, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.

It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth.

The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf - a philosopher or servant, - but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.

The beauty of science hugely outranks the charms of superstition.

The scientific attitude of mind involves a sweeping away of all other desires in the interest of the desire to know.

Unless you have the courage to doubt you will never come to know the truth.

I believe unconditionally in the ability of people to respond when they are told the truth. We need to be taught to study rather than believe, to inquire rather than to affirm.

Doubt . . . impels a search for the truth. It opens the door to knowledge. Faith puts a lock on the door. Indeed, . . . faith anesthetizes the desire to seek knowledge and truth.

I was brought up to believe that the only thing worth doing was to add to the sum of accurate information in the world.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can.

I was one of those kids who was always seeking the truth, and I first looked for truth by reading novels. It took quite a long time for me to realize there are better ways.

After a long, impartial enquiry of the truth, and after much and earnest calling upon God, to give unto me the spirit and revelation in the knowledge of Him, I find myself obliged, both by the principles of reason and Scripture, to embrace the opinion I now hold forth.

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

What does it matter how one comes by the truth so long as one pounces upon it and lives by it?