Quotes About Skepticism

The passion for prophesying then seizes everyone; skeptics and fanatics alike delight in the idea of disaster and give themselves up in concert to the pleasure of having foreseen and trumpeted it abroad. But it is especially the theoreticians of Reaction who exult (tragically, no doubt) over the reality or the imminence of the worst - of the worst that is their raison d'être.

The flayed man as theoretician of detachment...The convulsionary as skeptic...

It is disturbing to think that we carry our secret – our illusion – into the grave, that we have not survived the mysterious mistake that vivified our every breath, that, except for the sceptics and whores among us, all founder in falsehood because they fail to divine the equivalence, in nullity, of triumphs and truths.

Sloth is a somatic scepticism, the way the flesh doubts.

To deliver blows none of which land, to attack everyone without anyone's noticing, to shoot arrows whose poison you alone receive!

Per i patrizi repubblicani degli Stati Uniti, profondamente diffidenti verso la plebaglia e la democrazia, l'esito della Rivoluzione francese confermava che la democrazia dei plebei conduce alla tirannia del demagogo. «I

What could be more absurd than to assemble a crowd to witness a man and woman promising to love each other for the rest of their lives, when we know what human creatures are, — men so thoroughly selfish and unprincipled, women so vain and frivolous?

The quaking bystanders in a superstitious age would soon have slain an isolated bold man in the beginning of his innovations.

You made up the truth and then buried the real thing under so much garbage that people grew weary of trying to dig through it and instead just accepted what you offered. It was the easy way out and humans were programmed to always go that way.

I listen to what white people say and, still more, to what they don't say. I must: my life may depend on what I hear: I cannot afford to be surprised.

There are, no doubt, sceptics in religion who treat skepticism as a luxury which can be safely enjoyed only by the few. Religion they think good for morals; morals they think good for society; society they think good for themselves.

Remember, the police are neutral -- they hate everybody.

But also remember: if you have any genuine feelings, hide them like treasure; never let anyone so much as suspect them, or you're lost. Instead of being the executioner, you'll be the victim. And if you ever fall in love, keep that absolutely secret! Never breathe a word until you're completely sure of the person to whom you open your heart. And to protect that love, even before you feel it, learn to despise the world.

Suicide, moreover, was at that time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society?

I am like an old attorney, unswayed by any sentiment whatever. I never accept any statement unless it be confirmed, according to the poetic maxim of Lord Byron, by the testimony of at least two false witnesses.

That's the trouble with people like them, I suppose; whenever you think you're detecting the first signs of them starting to behave responsibly, it's just them being even more devious and underhand than usual.

There's no way you're going to get a quote from us to use on your book cover.

I need someone to protect me from all the measures they take in order to protect me.

If I have any expertise, it is in the realm of spiritual darkness: fear of the unknown, familiarity with divine absence, mistrust of conventional wisdom, suspicion of religious comforters, keen awareness of the limits of all language about God and at the same time shame over my inability to speak of God without a thousand qualifiers, doubt about the health of my soul, and barely suppressed contempt for those who have no such qualms. These are the areas of my proficiency.

Beware the pull on your heartstrings -- it's often the pursestrings that are actually being reached for.

The age of innocent faith in science and technology may be over.

If I have to err, it's on the side of assuming the worst. This way, if I'm wrong, I can always apologize. Or send flowers. You err on the other side, the flowers will be coming to you.

I wouldn't trust Nixon from here to that phone.

She's not buying [the lie], but there's nothing else on the shelves.