Age appears to be best in four things: old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.
Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.
The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. We have a method, and that method helps us to reach not absolute truth, only asymptotic approaches to the truth — never there, just closer and closer, always finding vast new oceans of undiscovered possibilities. Cleverly designed experiments are the key.
Truth will ultimately prevail where there is pains to bring it to light.
It is not truth that makes man great, but man that makes truth great.