“It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.”

You will do me a middle-sized favor by telling me which story that's from. I've been quoting for some time my "favorite" Sherlock Holmes pronouncement, as "It is futile to theorize in advance of the data." and been unable to locate it. It sounds as if you have the accurate version, and I would appreciate the identification !

And following this thread it still isn't quite clear to me - is "falsifiable" then the same thing as "verifiable" (except for half-full-half-empty considerations), and both of them are surrogates for "susceptible of being proved true or false"?