Quotes by Ben Goldacre

“You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.”

“You are a placebo responder. Your body plays tricks on your mind. You cannot be trusted.”

“And if, by the end [of this book], you reckon you might still disagree with me, then I offer you this: you'll still be wrong, but you'll be wrong with a lot more panache and flair than you could po...”

“I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.”

“Homeopathy pills are, after all, empty little sugar pills which seem to work, and so they embody [..] how we can be misled into thinking that any intervention is more effective than it really is.”

“Children can be disgusting, and often they can develop extraordinary talents, but Im yet to meet any child who can stimulate his carotid arteries inside his ribcage.”

“In females, the author has found the application of pure carbolic acid to the clitoris an excellent means of allaying the abnormal excitement.”

“This process of professionalising the obvious fosters a sense of mystery around science, and health advice, which is unnecessary and destructive. More than anything, more than the unnecessary owner...”

“Here we will see that pharmaceutical companies spend tens of billions of pounds every year trying to change the treatment decisions of doctors: in fact, they spend twice as much on marketing and ad...”

“If you put me in charge of the medical research budget, I would cancel all primary research, I would cancel all new trials, for just one year, and I would spend the money exclusively on making sure...”

“Yes. I'm a doctor, an epidemiologist, and lots of my professional colleagues flip back and forth between industry and medical roles. I know them; they are not bad people. But it is possible for goo...”

“You cannot reason people out of a position that they did not reason themselves into.”

“You are a placebo responder. Your body plays tricks on your mind. You cannot be trusted.”