Facts do not find their way into the world in which our beliefs reside - they did not produce our beliefs, there, they do not destroy them.

Beliefs do not change facts. Facts, if one is rational, should change beliefs.

Facts do not find their way into the world in which our beliefs reside; they did not produce our beliefs, they do not destroy them; they may inflict on them the most constant refutations without weakening them, and an avalanche of afflictions or ailments succeeding one another without interruption in a family will not make it doubt the goodness of its God or the talent of its doctor.

As a chief ingredient in the mythology of science, the accumulation of objective facts supposedly controls the history of conceptual change–as logical and self-effacing scientists bow before the dictates of nature and willingly change their views to accommodate the growth of conceptual knowledge. The paradigm for such an idealistic notion remains Huxley’s famous remark about “a beautiful theory killed by a nasty, ugly little fact.” But single facts almost never slay worldviews, at least not right away (and properly so, for the majority of deeply anomalous observations turn out to be wrong)...

Anomalous facts get incorporated into existing theories, often with a bit of forced stretching to be sure, but usually with decent fit because most worldviews contain considerable flexibility. (How else could they last so long, or be so recalcitrant to overthrow?)

Science and popular opinion rarely progress at the same rate.

The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them; they can inflict on them continual blows of contradiction and disproof without weakening them; and an avalanche of miseries and maladies succeeding one another without interruption in the bosom of a family will not make it lose faith in either the clemency of its God or the capacity of its physician.

When a change in perception takes place, the facts do not change. Their meaning does.

No single theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain

Wisdom too often never comes, so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.

I think it is generally true that sociology does not discover what no one ever knew before.

Wisdom too often never comes, and so one ought not to reject it merely because it comes late.

Few new truths have ever won their way against the resistance of established ideas save by being overstated.