Quotes About Skepticism

I have what passes for an education in this day and time, but I am not deceived by it.

By the time [John Adams] came to write his Defence of the Constitutions of the United States in 1787 he had as dark a view of the American character as that of any critic in our history.

If mankind is naturally good, he is sure going against his nature more and more of the time. It sounds like a bad joke: the paranoids are after us.

..children know such a lot now, they soon don't believe in fairies, and every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.

Youcanfooltoomanyofthepeopletoomuchofthetime. See Lincoln 510:35.

The reality is that most of the time, the more bizarre the trend, the more bogus the results.

I don't believe in miracles because it's been a long time since we've had any.

Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.

Promising something that seems popular at the time that you know you're never going to deliver - that's the kind of cynical politics that I don't want any part of.

why shouldnt things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? they are so, and we are so, and they and we go together.

I mistrust all frank and simple people, especially when their stories hold together

When they tell me things I wish to hear, I invariably believe them.

She did not wish the girl to be beguiled by such a practiced and heartless charmer.

everyone lies.

It's not easy to be obedient if you suspect your superiors are asses.

What is it in humans that makes us so eager to believe ill of one another? ... What makes us so hungry for it? Failed idealism, he suspected. We disappoint ourselves and then look around for other failures to convince ourselves: it's not just me. (15)

It wasn't in John Candotti's nature to be suspicious of motives. There were people who loved to play organizational chess, to pit one person against another, to maneuver and plot and anticipate everyone else's next three moves, but John had no talent for the game

Maybe it's different in Georgia," Wyatt said. "Out here, pretty much anything in the newspaper is a cheat or a lie.

What does a man have to do to be taken at his word in this town? Do I have to shoot someone? Because I am making a list!

Honey," Bessie's mamma used to say, "politicians and judges and coppers are money-grubbing thieves. They'll screw you, and rob you, and win elections for doing it, but there's no way around them. Smile and pay the sonsabitches off." The

Very little," Ash said honestly. "I'd believe very little you told me." "Because I'm a traitor, in your eyes?" "No," she said. "Because you're a traitor in your eyes.

The American religion-so far as there is one anymore-seems to be doubt. Whoever believes the least wins, because he'll never be found wrong.

our strange cynicism about truth as a possibility has permitted us to accept all manner of bullshit

The American religion—so far as there is one anymore—seems to be doubt. Whoever believes the least wins, because he'll never be found wrong.