Quotes by Ben Goldacre

About Ben Goldacre:

Ben Michael Goldacre is a British physician, academic and science writer. As of March 2015, he is a Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, based at Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford. He is a founder of the AllTrials campaign to require open science practices in clinical trials.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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 possibly manage right now.

Ben Goldacre

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.

Ben Goldacre

...the real threat from cranks is not that their customers might die -- there is the odd case, although it seems crass to harp on about them - but that they systematically the public's understanding about the very nature of evidence.

Ben Goldacre

...the real threat from cranks is not that their customers might die - there is the odd case, although it seems crass to harp on about them - but that they systematically undermines the public's understanding about the very nature of evidence.

Ben Goldacre

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

Ben Goldacre

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

Ben Goldacre

You will do it because you know that knowledge is beautiful, and because if only a hundred people share your passion, that is enough.

Ben Goldacre

In the past, [medicalization]has been portrayed as something that doctors inflict on a passive and un-suspecting world - an expansion of the Medical Empire. But in reality, it seems that these reductionist bio-medical stories can appeal to us all, be...

Ben Goldacre

Amazing things happen when you pull individual pieces of information together into larger linked datasets: meaning emerges, as you produce facts from figures.

Ben Goldacre

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 that we make the best possible use of the clinical e...

Ben Goldacre

Doctors and patients need as much data as possible to make an informed decision about what treatment is best.

Ben Goldacre

There are many differences between medicine and teaching, but they have much in common. Both involve craft and personal expertise, learned through experience; but both can be informed by the experience of others.

Ben Goldacre

Alternative therapists don't kill many people, but they do make a great teaching tool for the basics of evidence-based medicine, because their efforts to distort science are so extreme.

Ben Goldacre

In general, drug companies are reasonably good at developing new treatments, and there's also a lot of good in the industry.

Ben Goldacre

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 good people in bad systems to do things that inflict eno...

Ben Goldacre

Data is the fabric of the modern world: just like we walk down pavements, so we trace routes through data, and build knowledge and products out of it.

Ben Goldacre

I agree, the world would be a better place if doctors were less enthusiastic about adopting very new drugs.

Ben Goldacre

Teaching needs an ecosystem that supports evidence-based practice. It will need better systems to disseminate the results of research more widely, but also a better understanding of research, so that teachers can be critical consumers of evidence.

Ben Goldacre

More academics should blog, post videos, post audio, post lectures, offer articles and more. You'll enjoy it: I've had threats and blackmail, abuse, smears and formal complaints with forged documentation.

Ben Goldacre

The value of a scientific publication goes beyond this simple benefit, of all relevant information appearing, unambiguously, in one place. It's also a way to communicate your ideas to your scientific peers, and invite them to express an informed view...

Ben Goldacre

Author Bio

  • NameBen Goldacre
  • DescriptionBritish science writer and doctor
  • Born1974
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionScience Journalist; Psychiatrist