James Fenimore Cooper Quotes

He, who knows how to distinguish between true and false, must have an adequate idea of true and false.

Knowledge is two-fold, and consists not only in an affirmation of what is true, but in the negation of that which is false.

We live in such a gullible world. Anything that's written, anything that's posted, anything picture that is interpreted one way is taken as truth.

The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them.

CNN is in the business of sussing out what is true and what is false.

Every man carries about him a touchstone, if he will make use of it, to distinguish substantial gold from superficial glitterings, truth from appearances. And indeed the use and benefit of this touchstone, which is natural reason, is spoiled and lost only by assuming prejudices, overweening presumption, and narrowing our minds.

Every person must be his own watchman for the truth, because the forefathers did not trust government to separate the true from the false for us.

I have learned that it is just as well to avoid even the appearance of something which you prefer not to have published as a fact! So many things are published as facts in any case which have no foundation in them whatsoever, that I don't suppose it really matters! For fair minded people usually wait until they verify a statement before they believe it, and those who believe it without verification are the ones who want to believe it!

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.

Don’t believe everything the professors tell you. Get your own information on your own terms.

People still believe what they read is necessarily the truth.

Clearly, you can't believe everything you read in the press.

Beware of current truths.

We have to challenge lies. We have to challenge falsehoods and conspiracy theories. If you don't, they fester - unchecked and unchallenged.

You can't believe everything you hear on the Internet.

Don't believe everything you read in the trades.

I have been saying this from the beginning: people are going to say whatever they want to say or believe whatever they want to believe. I say this to people: stick to the facts.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories. I'm just a cold-blooded investigator.

The greatest challenge facing mankind is the challenge of distinguishing reality from fantasy, truth from propaganda.

The whole object of education is...to develop the mind. The mind should be a thing that works.

To be able to discern that what is true is true, and that what is false is false,--this is the mark and character of intelligence.

A cultivated mind is one to which the fountains of knowledge have been opened, and which has been taught, in any tolerable degree, to exercise its faculties.

Do not banish reason for inequality; but let your reason serve to make the truth appear where it seems hid, and hide the false seems true.

It is the natural tendency of the ignorant to believe what is not true. In order to overcome that tendency it is not sufficient to exhibit the true; it is also necessary to expose and denounce the false.

Would that I could discover truth as easily as I can uncover falsehood.