Presuppositions - christiansquoting.org.uk

The mind of modern man is a curious mixture of decayed Calvinism and diluted Buddhism; and he expresses his philosophy without knowing that he holds it. We [i.e., Catholics] say what it is natural for us to say; but we know what we are saying; therefore it is assumed that we are saying it for effect. He says what it is natural for him to say; but he does not know what he is saying, still less why he is saying it . . . He is just as partisan; . . . just as much depending on one doctrinal system as distinct from another. But he has taken it for granted so often that he has forgotten what it is. So his literature does not seem to him partisan, even when it is. But our literature does seem to him propagandist, even when it isn't. G K Chesterton {The Thing, NY: Sheed & Ward, 1929, p. 120}

The discussions of every age are filled with the issues on which its leading schools of thought differ. But the general intellectual atmosphere of the time is always determined by the views on which the opposing schools agree. They become the unspoken presuppositions of all thought, and common and unquestioningly accepted foundations on which all discussion proceeds. - F.A. Hayek

Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.-- Thomas Henry Huxley

Assumptions based on faith are apparently an ever-present component in any system of belief -- whether these assumptions include the existence of a personal God, or whether they begin with non-rational directionally-emergent forces governed by statistical probabilities. Our argument does not claim that evidences are so clear that faith is not needed. We do intend to imply, however, that the choice of a set of assumptions is a moral choice. Adherence to an epistemology is not something which merely "happens to" a person, but instead it reflects a component of his moral development. In some sense he is, in my judgement, morally responsible for adopting an epistemology even though it can be neither proved nor disproved to the satisfaction of those who oppose it.
Kenneth L. Pike, With Heart and Mind [1962]

We have no right to assume that any physical laws exist, or if they have existed up until now, that they will continue to exist in a similar manner in the future. - Max Planck (1858-1947) The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics.

On seeing two women arguing across the street-"They will never agree. They are arguing from different premises. Sydney Smith

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions. When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts than to change the preconceptions. Jessamyn West