"Facts are stubborn things. They cannot be altered by our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions."

Facts should be objective, clear from personal bias and inclinations. Facts are matters of universal acceptability because it has been tested and validated, and is clear to the eye. The topic statement concludes that facts are stubborn things and cannot be altered by our wishes, inclinations and dictates of passion. I am in concordance with the sentiments expressed because facts are often the product of the observations of our forefathers that have been tested and validated. Also, there are facts that are simply axiomatic and to refute it is to argue with the logical framework we have been taught.

We spend most part of our lives learning facts—facts that we pick up from numerous sources; academic institutions, our parents, the media, our peers and many others. The facts we learn, especially facts that we attain from institutionalized entities, are usually product of our forefathers' observations which have mostly been tried, tested and then presented to us as foundation of how we perceive the world around us. From scientists and philosophers and other luminaries of the past, we learned about the theory of gravitational forces, that the world is round, that the Earth revolves around the sun, and many other theories that we know as fact today. In this sense, established facts and knowledge are not malleable according to our subjective inclinations and desires. By introducing our personal whims, we inject a biased and subjective aspect which could potentially compromise the objective universality of the established fact.

Facts can also be of an axiomatic nature. We attribute certain characteristics to things around us. For example, when we see a cat, we recognize it as a cat based on its feline features, its fur, the paws, its size, its movements and so on. If the animal is universally recognized as a cat, it would be illogical to argue that the animal is a dog, or a cow or any other sort of animal, though we might wish it otherwise. Let us look at another simple illustration. Take for example the situation where there are two employees that are working in a identical environment, with identical workloads. Despite the identical backgrounds, the performance level of one employee exceeds the other. Which employee should be rewarded accordingly?The answer is clear; to reward the employee with higher performance level. It would be unjust to reward the lower performing employee when facts stand clear, especially if personal motivations were involved.

In sum, I would like to reiterate my agreement that facts are stubborn things. They cannot be altered by our personal wishes, inclinations and dictates of passion. To do that is to potentially compromise the objective universality of the established facts and argue with axiomatic truths.