All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called “facts.” They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar

Article (1857-11), “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
    (Source)

Collected in The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, ch. 1 (1858)