Quotes About Skepticism

As with all truth, there would be those who refused to believe it and would not even look at the proof.

People are stupid. They will believe a lie because they want to believe it's true, or because they are afraid ti might be true. Zed

People are stupid; given proper motivation, almost anyone will believe almost anything

She doesn't like cheese! I don't think I could ever trust anyone who doesn't like cheese. It's not natural.

His philosophy was a mixture of three famous schools -- the Cynics, the Stoics and the Epicureans -- and summed up all three of them in his famous phrase, 'You can't trust any bugger further than you can throw him, and there's nothing you can do about it, so let's have a drink.

If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life.

Always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.

But here's some advice, boy. Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions.

Seeing, contrary to popular wisdom, isn't believing. It's where belief stops, because it isn't needed any more.

I get it,' said the prisoner. 'Good Cop, Bad Cop, eh?' If you like.' said Vimes. 'But we're a bit short staffed here, so if I give you a cigarette would you mind kicking yourself in the teeth?

I don't hold with paddlin' with the occult, said Granny firmly. Once you start paddlin' with the occult you start believing in spirits, and when you start believing in spirits you start believing in demons, and then before you know where you are you're believing in gods. And then you're in trouble. But all them things exist, said Nanny Ogg. That's no call to go around believing in them. It only encourages 'em.

Some people think this is paranoia, but it isn't. Paranoids only think everyone is out to get them. Wizards know it.

Death strode away, stopped, and came back. He pointed a skeletal finger at The Duck Man. WHY, he said, ARE YOU WALKING AROUND WITH THAT DUCK? What duck? AH. SORRY.

Anyway, why would you trust anything written down? She certainly didn't trust Mothers of Borogravia! and that was from the government. And if you couldn't trust the government, who could you trust? Very nearly everyone, come to think of it...

But you ain't part of it, are you? said Granny conversationally. You try, but you always find yourself watchin' yourself watchin' people, eh? Never quite believin' anything? Thinkin' the wrong thoughts?

I dinna trust him, said Slightly Mad Angus. He reads books an' such.

Everyone says it's going to be Snapcase at the palace. He listens to the people. Yeah, right, said Vimes. And I listen to the thunder. But I don't do anything about it.

And if you couldn't trust the government, who could you trust? Very nearly everyone, come to think of it...

Don't trust the cannibal just 'cos he's usin' a knife and fork!

Joshua, cynicism is the only reasonable response to the antics of humanity.

Think critically about what you are told. Do not accept the word of authority unthinkingly. Science is not a belief system: no belief system instructs you to question the system itself. Science does. (There are many scientists, however, who treat it as a belief system. Be wary of them.)

I like the idea of democracy. You have to have someone everyone distrusts, said Brutha. That way, everyone's happy.

Science is not about building a body of known 'facts'. It is a method for asking awkward questions and subjecting them to a reality-check, thus avoiding the human tendency to believe whatever makes us feel good.

It is considered in the Sto Plains that only scoundrels know the second verse of their national anthem, since anyone spending time memorizing that would be up to no good purpose.