"Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true."
"Where lies are easily admitted the father of lies will not easily be excluded."
Francis Quarles, poet 1592-1664
"...self-government was only possible because citizens could argue themselves into founding the institutions that facilitated the changes that the facts warranted: an executive branch limited by a legislature and an independent judiciary, justified by a study of historical abuses by monarchs, for example. Principles of action derived from facts were, in short, what the commonwealth had, well, in common. This process couldn’t have worked if facts were treated as things that people just cherry-picked to justify their prejudices." from 'Democracy and Facts in the Age of Trump' by Bernard Avishai, The New Yorker, December 29th, 2017
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