Lewis D. Eigen Quotes

If you didn’t write it down, you didn’t say it.

Always speak the truth, think before you speak, and write it down afterwards.

Documents create a paper reality we call proof.

The palest ink is better than the best memory.

If something comes on the radio or in print, I don't think there are any facts to it at all until someone shows some proof.

Every time the Trump people challenge me, I bring the receipts.

For what one has in black and white, One can carry home in comfort.

Words, once they are printed, have a life of their own.

I worked every day there, so I knew all the details. But I needed only some proof. So the proof was photos.

The written word is everything.

A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

It is fortunate when disputed theories can be decided by undisputed facts.

The truth of an idea is not a stagnant property inherent in it. Truth happens to an idea. It becomes true, is made true by events: its verity is in fact an event, a process: the process namely of its verifying itself...

Say what you say plainly, and then take responsibility for it

Whenever I write something, I always want to make sure that what I write is defensible.

Protect yourself by always having a record of what transpired or was said in any situation that might be considered sensitive.

Proof is the product that you put on the field.

I believe there should be a witness to every act in this world. So when I write about a film, when I speak volumes about it, I felt there should also be a witness to attest to its credentials, and this is especially for the conviction of future generations.

If a player hears me make a statement, I don't want them to be able to deny it.

In general, signalling theory says that if you have a good way of proving something and a noisy way of proving something, and you choose the noisy way, that means chances are it's because you couldn't do the good way in the first place.

I am a writer perhaps because I am not a talker. It has always been hard for me to say exactly what I mean in speech But if I have written a clumsiness, I may erase it.

Never think, because you cannot write a letter easily, that it is better not to write at all. The most awkward note imaginable is better than none.

letters are so much easier than living. One can give one's best.

When you have something in black and white, you can deal with it quicker.

Evidence exhausts the truth.