Skepticism Quotes

[T]he longer you stay skeptical, doubtful, intellectually uncomfortable, the better it is for you.

Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.

On this rock we had built our church. We had founded our idealism on the most nihilistic implication...

Since total skepticism about ultimate beliefs is strictly impossible, in that no belief can be doubt...

If I were to construct a God I would furnish Him with some way and qualities and characteristics whi...

Skeptical scientists often point out, as Carl Sagan has, that the wonders of real science far surpas...

I believe the experiences reported in this book are reproducible by anyone who wishes to try. I went...

...Spinoza’s Conjecture:“Belief comes quickly and naturally, skepticism is slow and unnatural, and m...

Je hay entre autres vices, cruellement la cruauté, et par nature et par jugement, comme l'extreme de...

J'accuse toute violence en l'education d'une ame tendre, qu'on dresse pour l'honneur, et la liberté.

L'honneste est stable et permanent.

D'autant que nous avons cher, estre, et estre consiste en mouvement et action.

Heureuse la mort qui oste le loisir aux apprests de tel equipage.

L'utilité du vivre n'est pas en l'espace: elle est en l'usage.

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

Scepticism does not abolish the world, it turns it into questions.

Many in the church have turned their back on serious study, and have embraced an anti-intellectualis...

God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.

I'd ask [God] why he keeps trying to kill us all with disease, pestilence, and natural disasters. I'...

How have people come to be taken in by The Phenomenon of Man? We must not underestimate the size of ...

For a scientist must indeed be freely imaginative and yet skeptical, creative and yet a critic. Ther...

The fact that we can neither prove nor disprove the existence of something does not put existence an...

I have found it an amusing strategy, when asked whether I am an atheist, to point out that the quest...

We are talking about a bet, remember, and Pascal wasn't claiming that his wager enjoyed anything but...

Most institutions demand unqualified faith but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.

After that [father's death] I never cried with any real conviction, nor expected much of anyone's Go...

Are you really surprised by the endurance of religion? What ideology is likely to be more durable th...

I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of e...

Tell a devout Christian that his wife is cheating on him, or that frozen yogurt can make a man invis...

It is also worth noting that one can obtain a Ph.D. in any branch of science for no other purpose th...

Religious moderation is the product of secular knowledge and scriptural ignorance.

To point out nonepistemic motives in another’s view of the world, therefore, is always a criticism, ...

Questions invaded my mind and I was young and skeptical, wanting to believe in the power of the mind...

You can't just say there is a god because the world is beautiful. You have to account for bone cance...

It's natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natura...

It Begins with skepticism. The history of human folly, and our own susceptibility to illusions and f...

In post-Nietzschean spirit, the West appears to be busily undermining its own erstwhile metaphysical...

How can anyone trust scientists? If new evidence comes along, they change their minds.

Superstition would seem to be simply cowardice in regard to the supernatural.

Skepticism means not intellectual doubt alone but moral doubt.

For, from the time that the Bishop of Rome had gotten to be acknowledged for bishop universal, by pr...

[n regard to Jesus believing himself inspired]This belief carried no more personal imputation than t...

Question with boldness even the existence of aGod; because, if there be one, he must more approve of...

I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling...

If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlat...

The real reason why so few men believe in God is that they have ceased to believe that even a God ca...

I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different tha...

One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.

Is it more probable that nature should go out of her course or that a man should tell a lie? We have...

All the tales of miracles, with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for imposto...

Persecution is not an original feature in any religion but it is always the strongly marked feature ...

Though one believes in nothing, there are moments in life when one accepts the religion of the templ...

How could any Lord have made this world?... there is no reason, order, justice: but suffering, death...

Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.

I like the scientific spirit—the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to su...

The less he understands something, the more firmly he believes in it.

It is as if a man should hesitate indefinitely to ask a certain woman to marry him because he was no...

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that af...

Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, e...

Through the reading of popular scientific books I soon reached the conviction that much in the stori...

Those whose acquaintance with scientific research is derived chiefly from its practical results easi...

The short space of threescore years can never content the imagination of man; nor can the imperfect ...

We all ought to understand we're on our own. Believing in Santa Claus doesn't do kids any harm for a...

I don't differentiate much, except in degree, between people who believe in religion from those who ...

If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will tr...

Science has carried us to the gateway to the universe. And yet our conception of our surroundings re...

There is a horrifying loneliness at work in this time. No, listen to me. We lived six and seven to a...

You're looking at me as though I'm weird. My God! Are you so out of touch with most of America, most...

Different authors have different points of view. You can't just say, 'I believe in the Bible.

My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend ...

I don't believe in angels and I have trouble with the whole God thing. I don't want to say I don't b...

Good characters in fiction are the very devil. Not only because most authors have too little materia...

You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lif...

You could just as well say that an agnostic is a deeply religious person with at least a rudimentary...

Some information is classified legitimately; as with military hardware, secrecy sometimes really is ...

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may...

It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most sk...

The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to aband...

Who is more humble? The scientist who looks at the universe with an open mind and accepts whatever t...

Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following f...

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attenti...

You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don'...

Those who make uncritical observations or fraudulent claims lead us into error and deflect us from t...

Both [P. T.] Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one e...

The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And...

Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid ...

When I wake up I go through an abbreviated process of mourning all over again. Plainly, there’s some...

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for res...

Why do we put up with it? Do we like to be criticized? No, no scientist enjoys it. Every scientist f...

At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an op...

It is certainly true that all beliefs and all myths are worthy of a respectful hearing. It is not tr...

The chief deficiency I see in the skeptical movement is its polarization: Us vs. Them — the sense th...

But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily co...

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in ...

All science asks is to employ the same levels of skepticism we use in buying a used car or in judgin...

deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, wh...

The limit of man s knowledge in any subject possesses a high interest which is perhaps increased by ...