No wonder the really powerful men in our society, whether politicians or scientists, hold writers in contempt.Theydoit becausetheyget no evidence from modern literature that anybody is thinking about any significant question.

-Bellow, Saul
  Interview in The Paris Review, no.37, winter issue.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

-Bible (NewTestament)
Hebrews11:1.

False facts are highly injuriousto the progress of science, for they often long endure; but false views, if supported by some evidence, do little harm, as every one takes a salutary pleasure in proving their falseness.

-Darwin, Charles Robert
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, ch.13.

It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has all the evidence. It biases the judgement.

-Doyle, SirArthur Conan
  A Study in Scarlet, ch.3.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

-Hume, David
  An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, section10, pt.1.

Space-ships and time machines are no escape from the human condition. Let Othello subject Desdemona to a lie-detector test; his jealousy will still blind him to the evidence. Let Oedipus triumph over gravity; he won't triumph over his fate.

-Koestler, Arthur
  'The Boredom of Fantasy', collected in The Trail of the Dinosaur (1955), pt.2.

A judge is not supposed to know anything about the facts of life until they have been presented in evidence and explained to him at least three times.

-Parker, Hubert Lister
  Quoted in the Observer,12 Mar.

Mistaken in its assumptions, defective in its evidence and wrong in its conclusions.

-Regan, Donald Thomas
  Of the congressional report faulting him on lack of direction and public disclosure of Iran^Contra arms sales. For the Record.

In the realm of science, all attempts to find any evidence of supernatural beings, of metaphysical concepts, as God, immortality, infinity, etc have thus far failed, and if we are honest, we must confess that in science there exists no God, no immortality, no soul or mind, as distinct from the body.

-Steinmetz, Charles Proteus
  In the American Freeman, Jul.

Some circumstantial evidence is very strong, as when you find a trout in the milk.

-Thoreau, Henry David
  Journal entry,11 Nov.

The theater is the primary evidence of a nation's culture.

-Thurber,James Grover
  In the NewYorkTimes, 27 Jul.

We cannot bring ourselves to believe it possible that a foreigner should in any respect be wiser than ourselves. If any such point out to us our follies, we at once claim those follies as the special evidence of our wisdom.

-Trollope, Anthony
  Stavely. Orley Farm, ch.18.

But to ignore the absence of evidence is the basis of true faith.

-Vidal, Gore originally Eugene Luther Vidal,Jr
  'PinkTriangle andYellow Star', in the Nation,14 Nov.