QuoteProject
You are entitled to your opinion. But you are not entitled to your own facts.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

While everyone is entitled to their own opinions, facts remain objective and should not be altered based on individual beliefs.

This quote emphasizes the distinction between subjective opinions and objective facts. It serves as a reminder that personal beliefs do not change reality; therefore, one must adhere to facts when engaging in discussions or debates. Ultimately, it promotes the value of truth and accuracy in communication, suggesting that while we can have varied interpretations, the foundation of any argument should be rooted in established facts.

Themes

OpinionFactsTruthCommunicationReality

In practice

Example use cases

In a debate on social media where someone misrepresents scientific data.

More from Daniel Patrick Moynihan

No one is innocent after the experience of governing. But not everyone is guilty.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanRead
If the newspapers of a country are filled with good news, the jails of that country will be filled with good people.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanRead
When a person goes to a country and finds their newspapers filled with nothing but good news, he can bet there are good men in jail.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanRead
The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanRead
The richest inheritance any child can have is a stable, loving, disciplined family life.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanRead
We must not let ourselves be seen as rushing around the world looking for arguments... Nor should we let ourselves be seen as ignoring allies, disillusioning friends, thinking only of ourselves in the most narrow terms. That is not how we survived the 20th century. Nor will it serve in the 21st.
Daniel Patrick MoynihanRead

Similar quotes

...conversation can be as mutually incomprehensible as foreign languages. We need the different and complementary perspectives of the various yogas - and ideally of all religions - not only to reach God but to reach each other.
Huston SmithRead
If He had not known with certainty that He would be Master over sin and that out of evil would evolve the noblest display of His own glory, He would not have permitted it to enter the world.
Charles SpurgeonRead
Place a substantial meal before a tired man and he will eat with effort and be little better for it at first. Give him a glass of wine or brandy, and immediately he feels better: you see him come to life again before you.
Jean Anthelme Brillat-SavarinRead
There's always a sense that people will do things quite differently if they think they have privacy.
Peter ThielRead
History is always best written generations after the event, when clouded fact and memory have all fused into what can be accepted as truth, whether it be so or not.
Theodore WhiteRead
I believe that the entire effort of modern society should be concentrated on the endeavor to outlaw war as a method of the solution of problems between nations.
Douglas MacarthurRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Daniel Patrick Moynihan | QuoteProject