Quotes About Skepticism

No volveré a creer nunca en lo que dicen, lo que piensan. De los hombres, y de ellos sólo, es de quien hay que tener miedo, siempre.

To put your trust in men is to get yourself killed a little. In

If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.

If a person tells me he has been to the worst places I have no reason to judge him; but if he tells me it was his superior wisdom that enabled him to go there, then I know he is a fraud.

Beard," said Patrick, which was their school slang for "I don't believe you.

She didn't mind fish-and-chip-type fish, but she had never cared for the fishy flavor some fish had and that fish down on the table in the kitchen had looked pretty fishy to her.

Voltaire abolished Christianity by believing in God.

Nada tenho que ver com a ciência; mas, se tantos homens em quem supomos são reclusos por dementes, quem nos afirma que o alienado não é o alienista?

desconfia sempre dos que mais falam, sejam homens ou mulheres. (Linha reta e linha curva)

Believe in yourself; but do not always doubt others.

O coração humano é a região do inesperado, dizia consigo o cético subindo as escadas da repartição.

Meg cut up some celery and mixed it in with the tuna. After a moment's hesitation she opened the refrigerator door and brought out a jar of little sweet pickles.-Though why I'm doing it for her I don't know, she thought, as she cut them up.-I don't trust her one bit.

dollar. It sickened me to watch it. I tried to warn anyone who

You believe someone not because you have no doubts about them. Belief is not the absence of doubt. You believe someone because you don't have enough doubts about them.

The right way to talk to strangers is with caution and humility.

We start by believing. And we stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away.

Because we do not know how to talk to strangers, what do we do when things go awry with strangers? We blame the stranger.

We fall out of truth-default mode only when the case against our initial assumption becomes definitive. We do not behave, in other words, like sober-minded scientists, slowly gathering evidence of the truth or falsity of something before reaching a conclusion. We do the opposite. We start by believing. And we stop believing only when our doubts and misgivings rise to the point where we can no longer explain them away.

point. You believe someone not because you have no doubts about them. Belief is not the absence of doubt. You believe someone because you don't have enough doubts about them.

doubts trigger disbelief only when you can't explain them away.

higher. If everyone on Wall Street behaved like Harry Markopolos, there would be no fraud on Wall Street—but the air would be so thick with suspicion and paranoia that there would also be no Wall Street.1

We are nuanced and complex and enigmatic. But the stranger is easy. If I can convince you of one thing in this book, let it be this: Strangers are not easy.

human beings never developed sophisticated and accurate skills to detect deception as it was happening because there is no advantage to spending your time scrutinizing the words and behaviors of those around you. The advantage to human beings lies in assuming that strangers are truthful. As

The magician Ian Rowland, in his classic The Full Facts Book of Cold Reading