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Quotes of the Day for 6 December 2004 - Facts

It was on this day in 1768 that the Encyclopaedia Britannica was first published at Edinburgh, Scotland. I remember way back to the mid 'sixties when my folks bought the magic set of 24 volumes. I would sit on the floor, sometimes for hours, with a growing pile of volumes open around me as I followed the "See also" references, looking up a name that was mentioned in one item, tracing down the fragments until I knew something. It was almost like clicking from one page to the next on the internet. Here are some quotes suggested by that memory.

There comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.
     - Arthur Conan Doyle, 1858 - 1930

The degree of one's emotion varies inversely with one's knowledge of the facts - the less you know the hotter you get.
     - Bertrand Russell, 1872 - 1970

False facts are highly injurious to the progress of science, for they often endure long; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, for everyone takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.
     - Charles Robert Darwin, 1809 - 1882

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.
     - Jules Henri Poincaré, 1854 - 1912

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and whatever abysses nature leads, or you will learn nothing.
     - Thomas Henry Huxley, 1825 - 1895

The possession of facts is knowledge, the use of them is wisdom.
     - Thomas Jefferson, 1743 - 1826

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