Skepticism Quotes
191 quotes
"Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever the universe has to teach us, or somebody who says everything in this book must be considered the literal truth and never mind the fallibility of all the human beings involved?"
"I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them: this is ultimately fine—it always keeps the way beyond open—always gives life, thought, affection, the whole man, a chance to try over again after a mistake—after a wrong guess."
"My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at because the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as not to seem worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it."
"The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true."
"I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom."
"Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith! Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge!"
"It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity's highest callings.[Can You Believe in God and Evolution? Time Magazine, August 7, 2005]"
"In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence."
"I'm convinced that most men don't know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man's atrocities, but wouldn't dream of imprisoning a mother for her son's crime?"
"I will not attack your doctrines nor your creeds if they accord liberty to me. If they hold thought to be dangerous - if they aver that doubt is a crime, then I attack them one and all, because they enslave the minds of men.I attack the monsters, the phantoms of imagination that have ruled the world. I attack slavery. I ask for room -- room for the human mind."
"I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything."
"All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for impostors to preach and fools to believe."
"Scepticism is the first step towards truth."
"Isn't this enough? Just this world? Just THIS?"
"The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom."
"If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good skeptic."
"Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule."
"There was a time when skepticism was an act of rebellion. Since to a degree I both believe in evolution and have faith, I can only conclude that, as prophesied, to have faith will someday be an act of rebellion."
"I believe that we do not know anything for certain, but everything probably."
"God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance."
"Skepticism is thus a resting-place for human reason, where it can reflect upon its dogmatic wanderings and make survey of the region in which it finds itself, so that for the future it may be able to choose its path with more certainty. But it is no dwelling-place for permanent settlement. Such can be obtained only through perfect certainty in our knowledge, alike of the objects themselves and of the limits within which all our knowledge of objects is enclosed."
"Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn't there, and finding it."
"L'utilité du vivre n'est pas en l'espace: elle est en l'usage."
"Heureuse la mort qui oste le loisir aux apprests de tel equipage."
"D'autant que nous avons cher, estre, et estre consiste en mouvement et action."
"L'honneste est stable et permanent."
"J'accuse toute violence en l'education d'une ame tendre, qu'on dresse pour l'honneur, et la liberté."
"Je hay entre autres vices, cruellement la cruauté, et par nature et par jugement, comme l'extreme de tous les vices."
"Il n'est rien qui tente mes larmes que les larmes."
"Les naturels sanguinaires à l'endroit des bestes, tesmoignent une propension naturelle à la cruauté."
"Nature a, (ce crains-je) elle mesme attaché à l'homme quelque instinct à l'inhumanité"
"Not one of the orthodox ministers dare preach what he thinks if he knows a majority of his congregation think otherwise. He knows that every member of his church stands guard over his brain with a creed, like a club, in his hand. He knows that he is not expected to search after the truth, but that he is employed to defend the creed. Every pulpit is a pillory, in which stands a hired culprit, defending the justice of his own imprisonment."
Robert G. Ingersoll, Individuality From 'The Gods and Other Lectures'
"Atheism is the opium of the mathematicians. Atheism is the religion of Mathematics."
"Belief is a wonderful way to pass the time until the facts come in."
"I’m saying there is evil in the world,” Master Kit said, hefting the box on his hip, “and doubt is the weapon that guards against it.Yardem took the box from the old actor's hands and lifted it to the top of the pile."But if you doubt everything," the Tralgu said, "how can anything be justified?""Tentatively. And subject to later examination. It seems to me the better question is whether there's any virtue in committing to a permanent and unexamined certainty. I don't believe we can say that."
"It seems all spirits need theatrics, eh? Even Christ himself requires incense and holy water. We're a skeptical people. We need convincing."
"Most reject the more repugnant or indefensible dogmas while still holding onto some core belief. Many believers will proudly describe themselves as "reasonable" or "rational" based on how little of their religion they still embrace versus how much they now reject. I think it's funny when people realize that the less you believe the more reasonable you are, but they stop before they reach the logical conclusion."
"If life is music, I sometimes feel as though I was born on the off-beat of the song, and I love it. As Christian numbers reportedly decrease in America, my love for Christ feels as though it increases. Perhaps that is a little strange, yes, but in all honesty, I now want to be thought unfaithful about as much as a smug aristocrat wants to be thought a hobo."
"No idea is above scrutiny and no people are beneath dignity."
"Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those with the courage to explore the weave and structure of the Cosmos, even where it differs profoundly from their wishes and prejudices, will penetrate its deepest mysteries."
"I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence."
"To be a philosophical Sceptic is the first and most essential step towards being a sound, believing Christian."
David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and The Natural History of Religion
"If we want to set out on the aruous search for the truth, we must all summon up the courage to leave the lines along which we have thought until now and as the first step begin to doubt everything that we previously accepted as correct and true. Can we still afford to close our eyes and stop up our ears because new ideas are supposed to be heretical and absurd?"
"The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by its close neighbourhood to the realms of imagination."
"I don't differentiate much, except in degree, between people who believe in religion from those who believe in astrology, magic or the supernatural."
"We should be cautiously open to the spiritual and non-rational, and skeptical of the more invisible magical thinking—what we might call “magical reason”—pervading secular thought and experience in modern society. Science and technology are for most people a new religion, and their orthodoxies are believed with the same fervor."
David Watson, Against The Megamachine: Essays On Empire And Its Enemies
"The less he understands something, the more firmly he believes in it."
"It sometimes requires ignorance and arrogance to know something for sure."
"Being skeptical is a balancing act it doesn't mean being dismissive."
"Always doubtful is the one who always looks for certainty."
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