Quotes About Skepticism

I shall not commit the fashionable stupidity of regarding everything that I can not explain as a fraud.

Ask yourself, "Why does this person need to convince me?" The answer turns out is not about him, it's about you. The reason someone promises something, the reason he needs to convince you is that he can see that you're not convinced, you have doubt, which is a messenger of intuition, likely because there is reason to doubt.

The unsolicited promise is one of the most reliable signals because it is nearly always of questionable motive.

you think the whole thing was an act? Was a fake?" I shake my head... "I daresay it was real in the moment," she says, measuring her words. "But men are different than women. Their emotions are capricious.

You could say, Oh, what a horrible time this is! and then it will go ahead and make things even more horrible. And no one will say, but these are good days, acche din! Except for the government, that is.

The world is full of women, and the women full of wile; so that a man, if he goeth not warily withal, shall surely fall a prey thereunto.

My son, beware of a plain damsel who charmeth thee, for she needeth much wile, and useth diverse weapons.

Why is it that when someone says "trust me", I always feel less inclined to do so?

What are you willing to discuss? You know what, never mind. You'll probably suggest the many ways to murder me.

Religion is still the very best way to get someone to accept something unabashedly ridiculous.

Once again, I can provide ample scientific—" "Yes, I know. But understand that at least twenty percent of the people reporting to me, think wireless internet access is witchcraft.

You know the saying, right? The way you can tell a vendor is lying is when their lips are moving.

There's a certain kind of lonely man who rejects love, because he believes that anyone who offers it wouldn't be a lover worth having.

Never trust any ruler, Librarian. They're all untrustworthy.

But trust them? Not on your life.

Ultimately the service that skeptics provide to high-tech marketers is to point continually to the discrepancies between the sales claims and the delivered product. These discrepancies, in turn, create opportunities for the customer to fail, and such failures, through word of mouth, will ultimately come back to haunt us as lost market share.

He had a glass eye.

I have witnessed the pleasant result of producing a human who faithfully claims to be a Christian, but who on some fundamental level does not think Christianity actually works. And just one Christian of this type turns off dozens from trying out Christianity for themselves.

Je le voie, mais je ne le crois pas.

First there is a time when we believe everything, then for a little while we believe with discrimination, then we believe nothing whatever, and then we believe everything again - and, moreover, give reasons why we believe.

With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another.

The same principles which at first view lead to scepticism, pursued to a certain point bring men back to common sense.

He who saith there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.

The liar's punishment is not in the least that he is not believed, but that he cannot believe anyone else.