Quotes About Doubt

When a man tells you he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring he is an inexact man.

Religion is based, I think, primarily and mainly upon fear. It is partly the terror of the unknown and partly, as I have said, the wish to feel that you have a kind of elder brother who will stand by you in all your troubles and disputes. Fear is the basis of the whole thing -- fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.

The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder's lack of rational conviction.

But if the reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what it is like?

Naive realism leads to physics, and physics, if true, shows naive realism to be false. Therefore naive realism, if true, is false; therefore it is false.

Il mondo non ha bisogno di dogmi, ha bisogno di libera ricerca.

tener fe, es decir, tener una convicción que no puede ser debilitada por la evidencia contraria.

Uno de los aspectos más dolorosos de nuestros tiempos es que los estúpidos están muy seguros de sí mismos mientras los inteligentes están llenos de dudas

Hence, two very difficult questions at once arise; namely, (1) Is there a real table at all? (2) If so, what sort of object can it be?

When admitting that nothing is certain, one must also, I think, admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.

one should not regard anything that one accepts as quite certain, but only as probable in a greater or a less degree. Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Gran parte de las dificultades por las que atraviesa el mundo se deben a que los ignorantes están completamente seguros y los inteligentes llenos de dudas.

Descartes (1596-1650), the founder of modern philosophy, invented a method which may still be used with profit--the method of systematic doubt.

As soon as we abandon our own reason, and are content to rely upon authority, there is no end to our troubles.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wiser people so full of doubts.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wise people so full of doubts.

The fundamental cause of trouble in the world is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt. Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

If any one asks: 'Why should I accept the results of valid arguments based on true premisses?' we can only answer by appealing to our principle. In fact, the truth of the principle is impossible to doubt, and its obviousness is so great that at first sight it seems almost trivial. Such principles, however, are not trivial to the philosopher, for they show that we may have indubitable knowledge which is in no way derived from objects of sense. The

Throughout the long period of religious doubt, I had been rendered very unhappy by the gradual loss of belief, but when the process was completed, I found to my surprise that I was quite glad to be done with the whole subject.

The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure, and the intelligent are full of doubt.

in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.

manevi bir çöküÅŸün en büyük belirtisi, kiÅŸinin yapt??? iÅŸin çok önemli olduÄŸunu düÅŸünmeye baÅŸlamas?d?r" insanlar bilgisiz doÄŸar, aptal deÄŸil, eÄŸitilerek aptal olurlar... dünyan?n en büyük problemi, ak?ls?z ve fanatik kiÅŸilerin kendilerinden son derece emin olmas?, buna kar??l?k zeki insanlar?n sürekli ÅŸüpheler içinde olmas?d?r.

fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wise people so full of doubts.

The demand for certainty is an intellectual vice.