Quotes About Skepticism

I just wish this social institution [religion] wasn't based on what appears to me to be a monumental hoax built on an accumulation of customs and myths directed toward proving something that isn't true.

In a secular age, an authentic miracle must purport to be a hoax, in order to gain credit in the world.

Smile pretty, and watch your back

Hiya... Sorry, it you're selling something, I'm skint. And if you're selling religion, I'm an atheist. The resident God-botherer is out. So, there's nothing for you here.

Interviewer: Didn't Sagan want to believe? Druyan: he didn't want to believe. he wanted to know.

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.

With the first 'Heartless,' I was just tryna get my feet wet in the game, and it was like, 'nobody wanna help me, nobody wanna show me love,' so I ain't feel the love, nowhere. That's what made me heartless.

I never believed that U2 wanted to save the whales. I don't believe that The Beastie Boys are ready to lay it down for Tibet.

I liked the idea of having actual magic performed as stage magic, so you could assume that it was just a trick, that something is all smoke and mirrors, but there's that, like, feeling at the back of your mind: What if it's not?

There were offers from a few Bollywood filmmakers, but I was sceptical as to whether those films will do justice to my vision or even my life. I was also apprehensive because what if I sign an agreement and give the rights to some filmmaker, and he shelves the project?

How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?

When people talk about fake news, you know, a lot of folks just roll their eyes, like 'Oh, you know, whatever; people will figure it out.' The truth is, they don't always figure it out.

It is the press that has taken these charges and accusations and blown them up without any kind of skepticism whatsoever - blown them into realities and treated them as if they were true.

What's even more unsettling is the way these people hide what they're doing from the public. They strip the labels off miracle wheat when they ship it, for instance, and say, 'Watch out. Don't plant too much and don't depend on it too much.'

I really don't have a lot of interest in national politics, and it's because I'm a skeptic. I think you can accomplish a lot more locally. I don't want to spin the wheels and not get anything done.

Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had.

I think whenever you see what may be the seeds of a third party, you need to be very skeptical because there's not a very good track record for third parties.

I cannot help fearing that men may reach a point where they look on every new theory as a danger, every innovation as a toilsome trouble, every social advance as a first step toward revolution, and that they may absolutely refuse to move at all.

We're a social species, and we want to get along with the people we like and who are like us. That's just good adaptive behaviour. We're more likely to accept something if we hear it from a friend, whereas we're sceptical of people who are not like us - which is what leads to racism, nationalism, sexism and all forms of bigotry.

Perhaps Europeans are a bit more skeptic whereas Americans are more believers.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

I'm not sure whether Jeff Bezos is the greatest thing in the world coming along or if he may be the emperor with no clothes.

Some people will believe anything if you whisper it to them.

Anything that needs to be labelled 'The Entertainment' usually isn't - especially when it is provided by the endlessly enthusiastic Joel or Nadia wearing trainers and a whistle.