Evidence Quotes

“And even if you don't give a shit whether or not the Chinese painter of rocks and birds had some mysterious kinship of the soul with the Landgrave of Hesse, fantasies are nonetheless one path to the truth. History is Philomela, and they raped her, or so they say, and cut her tongue, and she whistles at night from deep in the woods.”
― Éric Vuillard, The War of the Poor

“A fish out of water didn’t flip-flop as much as him.”
― Diane L. Kowalyshyn, Catch .22

“When it comes to weighing up evidence, we like to think of ourselves as deliberative and detached. We think carefully about the arguments and form an opinion or a belief in a dispassionate way. In reality, though, our beliefs often come first and then we search for evidence to support them. When the evidence supports a belief, we are proud of being right in the first place.”
― Paul Dolan, Happy Ever After: A Radical New Approach to Living Well

“Root cause analysis requires an extensive examination of history.”
― Steven Magee, Hypoxia, Mental Illness & Chronic Fatigue

“AN EVIDENCE IS MORE POWERFUL THAN A WITNESS”
― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“Lots of lawyers don't like circumstantial evidence. I do. I've never had any quarrel with the evidence of circumstances. My quarrel is with the habit of giving events the obvious, careless interpretation. I dislike sloppy thinking.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Case of the Crooked Candle

“If you insist on ‘exposing us’,” Donovan said, his voice hard as ice, using air quotes, “we’ll have to do some exposing of our own. Certain people, like network executives, probably aren’t too keen on their employees engaging in blackmail. Besides, Jada is beloved. You know it, and I know it. I’m sure her fans would love to fill your Twitter mentions with all kinds of creative replies if they knew what you were attempting to do.”
“You have no proof of blackmail.” Lila’s eyes spat fire.
Jada held up a manicured index finger. “Oh, but I do. You know how you kept calling and leaving messages? Silly me, I thought you were asking me to do interviews. Which you were, I guess, technically. I finally got around to listening to the voice mails.”
She wrinkled her nose, “Wow. Really creative vocabulary you have there, Lila. That last voice mail was quite a doozy. I wasn’t expecting the threats about how you were going to destroy me, how you were going to leak damaging rumors about me, how you’d been behind a lot of the hate I received online with bot accounts.” Jada grimaced. “Ugly stuff. You sounded drunk or high when you admitted that, so you might not remember saying all that, but you did.”
Jada kept her gaze trained squarely on Lila. She ignored John’s gasp.
Lila’s already pale skin turned ghastly white. “I don't know what you’re talking about.”
Jada sniffed. “Oh, I think you do. Really, I’d hate for those messages to fall into the wrong hands.”
Lila sneered, her veneer finally cracking. “You wouldn’t dare. You’re a spoiled, rich girl. You don’t have the balls.”
The courage of her convictions swept through Jada. “Keep telling yourself that.”
Jada turned to the other member of the blackmailing crew. “As for you, John, I’m sure people would love to know their perfect Mr. America has slid into the DMs of no less than three contestants from My One and Only with a woe-is-me story, trying to get back together with them, all at the same time.” Jada snapped her fingers. “Did I forget to mention I ended my social media hiatus to check my DMs? I do so love it when women have each other’s backs.”
Jada gave the cowards a moment to respond. When none came, she offered up the kill shot. “If none of that reasoning convinces you, and I can't imagine why it wouldn’t, please remember this spoiled, rich girl has a billionaire grandmother who loves her very, very much. If I tell her what you both attempted to do to me, she will ruin both your lives, barely lifting a finger. Contrary to what you believe, Lila, I don't make idle threats. I suggest you both slink away and forget you ever knew my name.”
― Jamie Wesley, Fake It Till You Bake It

“If suppression of free discussion is necessary in order to cause an opinion to be believed, that in itself is evidence that the rational grounds in favor of the opinion are inadequate, for if they were adequate free discussion would be the best way of making the opinion prevail.”
― David McConnell

“I believe that things like presumption of innocence has its practical applications,” I said, “but presumption of innocence also comprises proving that a person is guilty (or innocent) after that presumption. That’s why we say presumption of innocence before PROVEN guilty. I do see why trust is good, but I don’t want it to be blind. Presumption of innocence requires some trust in the accused, but at least it’s not blind trust in the accused! I want trust to be justified by reason and evidence. That type of submission is just blind trust.”
― Lucy Carter, The Reformation

“That's how modern medicine works: disease impresses people; illness with no evidence of the disease does not. Psychological illness, psychosomatic and functional symptoms are the least respected of medical problems.”
― Suzanne O'Sullivan, The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness

“Biological correlates are often used to give credence to the experience of psychosomatic disorders. An objective change on a blood test or scan allows others to believe in the suffering.”
― Suzanne O'Sullivan, The Sleeping Beauties: And Other Stories of Mystery Illness

“Evidence is the weakest link in the decision-making chain”
― Alex Jadad

“Evidence only speaks for itself, while lack of evidence puts it in writing.”
― Rajesh`

“Evidence only speaks for itself, whereas lack of evidence puts it in writing.”
― Rajesh`

“Nothing could compare to the youthful vigor I applied to rummaging around in their private stuff to find incriminating evidence against them. With the methodical thoroughness of a CSI and the maniacal determination of an SS, I ransacked whole rooms for evidence of their drug use - like a junkie looking for smack, except that if I actually found smack, I probably would have called the police on them and initiated the process of emancipating myself, just to be a bitch about it.”
― Samantha Bee, I Know I Am, But What Are You?

“History is unpredictable.”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, Yet Another New Land

“Sometimes the evidence of everything that I wish were not evidence points me to all of the things that I’ve spent my life attempting to build evidence against.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Awaiting us behind the podium were three trunks, one containing the remnants of the faerie cloak, now badly melted but still recognizable; one a necklace the king had given me, a delicate spiderweb of ice chains that, unlike the cloak, didn't melt; the last a jagged spire of volcanic rock from one of Krystjan's fields, in which there was a tiny wooden door that vanished in direct sun. I felt like a magician.”
― Heather Fawcett, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries

“Someone who thinks up a new theory is the last person who should be trusted with the job of testing it. A new theory should be tested by independent researchers who aren’t cronies of the theorist and who don’t have an axe to grind. It’s division of labor again: proposing theories and doing research to test them are jobs that should be carried out by different entities.

“A good theory should go in advance of the evidence,” the evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller said in a recent interview. “It should stick its neck out and say, this is how I think the world is, and leave it to other people to test it.”

Making a virtue of necessity, I will leave it to other people to test my theory.”
― Judith Rich Harris, No Two Alike: Human Nature and Human Individuality

“Atheist, n. A person to be pitied in that he is unable to believe in things for which there is no evidence, and who has thus deprived himself of a convenient means of feeling superior to others.”
― Chaz Bufe, The American Heretic's Dictionary

“Truth is a temporal spectrum,
Each slice contains a moment's evidence.
Bring the slices and string them together,
Lo, you develop the insight of science.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Rowdy Scientist: Handbook of Humanitarian Science

“In many first world countries, school systems teach several explanations for life on earth, and they present each of them as theories, not fact. Evolution is one of the many theories and so is creationism. They present the evidence for both belief systems, as well as the areas in which the evidence is lacking. And they investigate all the reasons why both theories are viable explanations for life on earth. My education was different. I learned that evolution was the only viable explanation and I came away with the impression that it was the ultimate truth that I needed to sculpt my reality around.”
― Michael J Heil, Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose

“I couldn’t help but wonder if the God who had been answering my prayers, cleaning my slate, and erasing the evidence against me, even that which was entwined in my very blood, also made all of this. If He made it all, He must also be bigger than all of it. And yet, somehow, it seemed that this great Being was willing to be intimately involved in my life.”
― Michael J Heil, Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose

“Real smart people don't brag, they show facts and evidence.”
― Titon Rahmawan

“He wasn’t just telling me, "If you’re good, I’ll forgive you. If you do this and that and follow my protocol with excruciating exactness, then I will forgive you." No, He had already forgiven me. Just like the lawyer had stood on my behalf after my second DUI, so Jesus had stood before the judgement throne of God. Although I was 100% guilty, he had erased all evidence against me.”
― Michael J Heil, Pursued: God’s relentless pursuit and a drug addict’s journey to finding purpose

“There are always humbugs hungry for ink. It is the nature and bane of paranormal research. If we throw out all evidence for the sake of a few charlatans, the world would be a poorer place, and nothing would be solved.”
― Thomm Quackenbush, The Curious Case of the Talking Mongoose

“I didn’t know whether these pictures would end up in history books or be used against me in a court hearing, but they would testify to something.”
― Ethan Chatagnier, Singer Distance

“My ability to stop the panic cycle through rational means, the Attacking Anxiety tapes, aroused a curiosity within me: Where did the fight-or-flight mechanism come from? Through studying biology on the Internet and in textbooks at the Vernon Parish library, I learned that the fight-or-flight response came from the days when we lived in a predator-prey environment, which instilled within us a safety mechanism that would take over in order to enhance our survival. Being exposed to biology then led me to evolutionary biology, all areas of study completely new to me. Through the study of science I realized that the quest for truth that had always propelled me was never able to be completely satisfied because in theology when you got to the bottom of a question, the answer rested on an opinion. In the realm of science, by contrast, an answer was based in fact, which I found to be extremely satisfying. Pentecostalism, it seemed to me, was a world of debating and selling opinions. Perhaps what was causing my profound doubts was my discomfort with both sales and opinions. I loved that with science you could put your hands upon the hard rock of evidence in order to answer a question. After so many years of experimenting with different denominations and dissatisfaction with ministers who had not satisfied my search for the truth, my embrace of evidence and rationality was a profound relief for me. Some questions, I realized, had knowable answers and when those questions were answered you needn’t agonize over those answers any longer.”
― Jerry DeWitt, Hope after Faith: An Ex-Pastor's Journey from Belief to Atheism

“All evidence can be divided into two broad categories: direct and indirect. Direct evidence is simply the testimony of eyewitnesses. Indirect evidence (also called 'circumstantial evidence') is everything else.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Forensic Faith: A Homicide Detective Makes the Case for a More Reasonable, Evidential Christian Faith

“If Jewish believers approached the evidence for Jesus as they might approach the evidence in a crime scene, they would be far more likely to accept him as the prophesied Messiah.”
― J. Warner Wallace, Person of Interest: Why Jesus Still Matters in a World that Rejects the Bible