Daily Inspiration Quote by John Fund

“Rhetoric is cheap, evidence comes more dearly” is a neat little jab dressed as common sense, and it lands because it borrows the language of markets to police the language of politics. Fund isn’t just praising facts; he’s assigning them a cost structure. Talk is abundant, low-risk, infinitely renewable. Proof, by contrast, is scarce: it takes time, access, expertise, and the willingness to be pinned down.

The intent is disciplinary. It draws a bright line between those who perform conviction and those who can substantiate it, implicitly shaming the speaker who reaches first for slogans, vibes, or moral certainty. The subtext is also defensive: evidence is “dear” not only because it’s hard to gather, but because it can be inconvenient, messy, and, crucially, contestable. In a media ecosystem optimized for hot takes and instantaneous certainty, evidence demands friction. It slows the room down. It invites cross-examination. It exposes what you don’t know.

As a journalist’s line, it’s a small credo and a quiet accusation. The press wants to position itself as the cost-bearer: the institution that pays for verification while everyone else collects attention rents. But Fund’s framing also hints at why rhetoric keeps winning. If evidence is expensive, then someone has to fund it, value it, and wait for it. Democracies that won’t pay that price end up shopping for narratives instead.