Unbiased Inquiry Quotes

Truth is a pathless land.

Books must follow sciences, and not sciences books.

Science commits suicide when it adopts a creed.

The truth is found when men are free to pursue it.

What is necessary for 'the very existence of science,' and what the characteristics of nature are, are not to be determined by pompous preconditions, they are determined always by the material with which we work, by nature herself. We look, and we see what we find, and we cannot say ahead of time successfully what it is going to look like. ... It is necessary for the very existence of science that minds exist which do not allow that nature must satisfy some preconceived conditions.

Every question is a hypothetical question for everyone but the person who asks it.

Scientific discovery and scientific knowledge have been achieved only by those who have gone in pursuit of it without any practical purpose whatsoever in view.

It has often been said that, to make discoveries, one must be ignorant. This opinion, mistaken in itself, nevertheless conceals a truth. It means that it is better to know nothing than to keep in mind fixed ideas based on theories whose confirmation we constantly seek, neglecting meanwhile everything that fails to agree with them.

A university's essential character is that of being a center of free inquiry and criticism - a thing not to be sacrificed for anything else.

We may fondly imagine that we are impartial seekers after truth, but with a few exceptions, to which I know that I do not belong, we are influenced-and sometimes strongly-by our personal bias; and we give our best thoughts to those ideas which we have to defend.

Investigations by special prosecutors can take on a life of their own.

The duty of a philosopher is clear. He must take every pain to ascertain the truth; and, having arrived at a conclusion, he should noise it abroad far and wide, utterly regardless of what opinions he shocks.

In matters of intellect, follow your reason as far as it will take you, without regard for any other consideration.

I don't think it's the writer's job to give answers or to give opinions. In fact, when a writer has answers, I think the work ends up being corrupted. It becomes didactic. What a book does is share a consciousness and invite people to explore the questions as best as you can.

I like to write about questions that interest me, not the conclusions I've come to.

The best thing that could happen for the president Donald Trump, and the country, is a full and credible investigation.

In a complex universe, in a society undergoing unprecedented change, how can we find the truth if we are not willing to question everything and to give a fair hearing to everything?

One of the few things in life that cannot possibly do harm in the end is the honest pursuit of the truth.

Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization.

If we are to define science, ... it does not consist so much in knowing, nor even in "organized knowledge," as it does in diligent inquiry into truth for truth's sake, without any sort of axe to grind, nor for the sake of the delight of contemplating it, but from an impulse to penetrate into the reason of things.

There should be a readiness, on our part, to investigate with candor to follow the truth wherever it may lead us, and to submit, without reserve or objection, to all the teachings of this religion, if it be found to be of divine origin.

Few know the joys that spring from a disinterested curiosity. It is like a cheerful spirit that leads us through worlds filled with what is true and fair, which we admire and love because it is true and fair.

Do you love truth for truth's sake, and will you endeavor impartially to find and receive it yourself, and communicate it to others?

You have to learn to ask questions in a way that will elicit more nuanced answers, rather than the answers you would like to get.

You have to go where the truth takes you, and that doesn't always take you in exactly the same place where people you speak to might want, or suspects may want. That's your ultimate obligation.