It surely is remarkable that anyone should believe a story like the one effectively invented by the 9/11 Truth movement.
David Aaronovich

The more fantastic an ideology or theology, the more fanatic its adherents.
Edward Abbey

The beginning of wisdom is found in doubting; by doubting we come to the question, and by seeking we may come upon the truth.
Pierre Abelard

There is nothing worse than a sharp image of a fuzzy concept.
Ansel Adams

All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others
Douglas Adams

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 Adams

Heaven wheels above you displaying to you her eternal glories and still your eyes are on the ground.
Dante Alighieri

The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.
Dante Alighieri

Some people are like Slinkies. Not really good for anything but they bring a smile to your face when pushed down the stairs.
Anonymous

Never argue with an idiot. The best outcome you can hope for is that you won an argument with an idiot.
Anonymous

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
Aristotle

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.
Isaac Asimov

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge'.
Isaac Asimov

I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
Isaac Asimov

If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
Isaac Asimov

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom
Isaac Asimov

The correct scientific response to something that is not understood must always be to look harder for the explanation, not give up and assume a supernatural cause.
David Attenborough

Whoever is still seeking for miracles so that he may believe is himself a wonder, who does not believe while the world around him does.
Saint Augustine

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under your observation in life
Marcus Aurelius

A scientist seeks the truth, wherever that may lead. A believer already knows the truth, and cannot be swayed no matter how compelling the evidence.
Author Unknown

Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding people obsessed with a mistaken idea that stops reality from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
Author Unknown

Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.
Charles Babbage

All superstition is much the same whether it be that of astrology, dreams, omen, retributive judgment, or the like, in all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more common.
Francis Bacon

Man prefers to believe what he wants to be true.
Francis Bacon

The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other.
Francis Bacon

Penicillin cures pneumonia even if you're in a coma, but alternative medicine only seems to work when you are awake
R. Barker Bausell

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.
José Bergamín

If you don’t think too good, don’t think too much.
Yogi Berra

There's a sucker born every minute.
Joseph Bessimer (not Phineas T Barnum)

Heathen, n: A benighted creature who has the folly to worship something that he can see and feel.
Ambrose Bierce

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.
Napoleon Bonaparte

The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin

Losing an illusion makes you wiser than finding a truth.
Ludwig Börne

Truth exists. Only lies are invented.
Georges Braque

People have a habit of inventing fictions they will believe wholeheartedly in order to ignore the truth they cannot accept.
Libba Bray

Ridicule may lawfully be employed where reason has no hope of success.
Ed Brayton

Man masters nature not by force but by understanding. This is why science has succeeded where magic failed: because it has looked for no spell to cast over nature.
Jacob Bronowski

That is the essence of science: ask an impertinent question, and you are on the way to a pertinent answer.
Jacob Bronowski

Every day people are straying away from the church and going back to God.
Lenny Bruce

It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.
Giordano Bruno

All it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing.
Edmund Burke

To treat your facts with imagination is one thing, but to imagine your facts is another
John Burroughs

The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshipped anything but himself.
Sir Richard Francis Burton

That which can't be considered scientific data can't be asserted as proof. This is a common failing in pseudo-scientific writings - an appeal to some other form of proof or 'other ways of knowing'.
Irvin Bussel

The Bible may be the truth, but it is not the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Samuel Butler

There are causes worth dying for but none worth killing for.
Albert Camus

Our grand business is not to see what lies dimly at a distance, but to do what lies clearly at hand.
Thomas Carlyle

The better a man knows the truth, the less he is likely to condemn.
Sebastian Castellio

I have carefully examined what a heretic means, and I cannot make it mean more than this: a heretic is a man with whom you disagree.
Sebastian Castellio

God has no place within these walls, just as facts have no place within organised religion.
Superintendent Chalmers (The Simpsons)