Given that the topic is phrases that should be abandoned, can we do away with "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" ?
This repellent remark is glibly repeated to justify the bias of whoever happens to be using it. It should be asked, "extraordinary to whom"? There are large numbers of equally educated people in other cultures such as Brazil or China who have no problem believing in any number of phenomena denied here, as with ESP or UFOs. The phrase should be honestly reworked into "I REQUIRE extraordinary evidence". Claims require evidence. Saying "extraordinary" makes the matter relative and is often associated with deception in switching between the fixed and the relative, as with "extraordinary claims......." and "there is no evidence for [ fill in the blank, UFO's, Cold Fusion, ESP, whatever]". If this phrase was started by Carl Sagan, then I would rather think of him as a brilliant scientist who aided in our appreciation of the Cosmos and not a pothead who cursed us with this foolish 'aphorism'. .... and and if that sounds ad hominem, I'm sorry.
