Quotations about:
    expert


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


By a pompous parade of words, some learned men have so managed it, that an unjust cause has often gained the victory, and reason submitted to sophistry and chicane.

[Gli uomini letterati, per pompa di parlare, fanno ben spesso che il torto vince, e che la ragione perde.]

Giovanni della Casa
Giovanni della Casa (1503-1556) Florentine poet, author, diplomat, bishop
Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners [Il Galateo overo de’ costumi], ch. 29 (1558) [tr. Graves (1774)]
    (Source)

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

But, we see that Learned men have suche art and cunning to persuade, and such filed wordes to serve their turne: that wrong doth carry the cause away, and Reason cannot prevaile.
[tr. Peterson (1576)]

Men of letters, with their parade of high-flown language, very often make the wrong to prevail and the right to succumb.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

We find that learned men, through their grandiose talk, very often manage to have the wrong side win and reason lose.
[tr. Eisenbichler/Bartlett (1986)]

 
Added on 14-Dec-22 | Last updated 14-Dec-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Della Casa, Giovanni

Experts are never right or wrong; they win or lose. Right and wrong are decided by proof; winning and losing are decided by who is doing the talking or talks the loudest, has the last, latest, or only word, and is quoted by reporters.

(Other Authors and Sources)
M. A. Zeidner, “Experts: A Definition” Quarterly Review of Doublespeak (Oct 1988)
 
Added on 2-Jul-21 | Last updated 2-Jul-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by ~Other

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking. Why? He knows.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
In Geoffrey T Hellman, “Wright Revisited,” The New Yorker (8 Jun 1956)
    (Source)

Wright used variations on this quotation throughout his life, e.g.:

The expert is usually a man who has stopped thinking and so is perfectly able to be utterly wrong for at least the rest of his lifetime. He has made up his mind, not upon principle, but upon expedient practice.
[Source, Frank Lloyd Wright: An Autobiography, Book 5 "Form" (1943)]

An expert? Generally a man who has stopped thinking because he knows!
[Source]

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking -- he knows.
[Source, in Earl Nesbit, Taliesin Reflections (2006)]

To me an expert is a man who has stopped thinking. He thinks he knows everything.
[Source, in Patrick J. Meehan, Truth Against the World (1987)]

Now, an "expert" is a man who has stopped thinking. He has had to stop thinking or he would be no expert. You can't call a man an "authority" who is growing and so changing his mind about things, can you? No, the expert has got to know or profess he knows. He's got to stand there and be knowledgeable! Well, too bad, because there's no such human except he be somewhat a phoney.
[Source, in Patrick J. Meehan, Truth Against the World (1987)]

An expert is a man who has stopped thinking because he knows and you can do nothing with him if you got a good idea.
[Source, in Patrick J. Meehan, The Master Architect (1984)

 
Added on 25-Jun-21 | Last updated 25-Jun-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Wright, Frank Lloyd

EXPERT, n. A modern seer, often self-styled, whose pronouncements are received as if emanating from an oracle. A “recognized expert” is one whose pronouncements are closest to conventional wisdom.

Edmund H. Volkart (1919-1992) American sociologist, researcher, editor
The Angel’s Dictionary: A Modern Tribute to Ambrose Bierce (1986)
 
Added on 4-Jun-21 | Last updated 4-Jun-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Volkart, Edmund H.

But don’t you know, there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight? Awkwardness and stupidity can. The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn’t prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do: and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, ch. 34 (1889)
    (Source)

Origin of more simplified versions of the phrase. More discussion: The Best Swordsman in the World Doesn’t Need To Fear the Second Best Swordsman – Quote Investigator.
 
Added on 28-Apr-21 | Last updated 28-Apr-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Twain, Mark

Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts.

Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
“What Is Science?” address, National Science Teachers Association, New York (1966)
    (Source)
 
Added on 4-Mar-20 | Last updated 4-Mar-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Feynman, Richard

Even the best cooks were saucepan throwers when the soufflé collapsed.

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
The Green Mill Murder (1993)
    (Source)
 
Added on 19-Oct-17 | Last updated 19-Oct-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Greenwood, Kerry

If I want to stop a research program I can always do it by getting a few experts to sit in on the subject, because they know right away that it was a fool thing to try in the first place.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)
 
Added on 25-Sep-15 | Last updated 25-Sep-15
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Kettering, Charles F.

That’s just the trouble, Sam Houston — it’s always my move. And damnit, I sometimes can’t tell whether I’m making the right move or not. Now take this Vietnam mess. How in the hell can anyone know for sure what’s right and what’s wrong, Sam? I got some of the finest brains in this country — people like Dean Rusk, Walt Rostow, and Dean Acheson — making some strong and convincing arguments for us to stay in there and not pull out. Then I’ve got some people like George Ball and Fulbright — also intelligent men whose motives I can’t rightly distrust — who keep telling me we’ve got to de-escalate or run the risk of a total war. And, Sam, I’ve got to listen to both sides. […] I’ve just got to choose between my opposing experts. No way of avoiding it. But I sure as hell wish I could really know what’s right.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment to Sam Houston Johnson (1968-02)
    (Source)

Recalled in Sam Houston Johnson, My Brother Lyndon, ch. 1 (1969).
 
Added on 23-Jan-13 | Last updated 21-Jul-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Lyndon

A Prince who will not undergo the Difficulty of Understanding must undergo the Danger of Trusting.

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633-1695) English politician and essayist
“Of Princes,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
    (Source)

Full text.

 
Added on 16-Jul-09 | Last updated 30-Jan-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of

The function of the expert is not to be more right than other people, but to be wrong for more sophisticated reasons.

David Butler (b. 1924) British social scientist, psephologist
The Observer (1969)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 5-Sep-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Butler, David