Quotes About Skepticism

We should distrust any enterprise that requires new clothes.

Skepticism, if by that we mean cautiousness, is the balance wheel of civilization.

Perhaps no word is more overworked nowadays than the word "democracy," and those who shout loudest about it, I think, as a rule, want it least. I am always suspicious of men who speak glibly of democracy.

I ask no one who may read this book to accept my views. I ask him to think for himself.

The more a man dreams, the less he believes

For men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.

No man ever quite believes in any other man.

Anyone who wants to help me doesn't. Anyone who wants to kill me might. Anyone who wants to love me better not.

Thare are people who dont do ennything but watch their simptoms. I have seen dogs ackt just az sensible, i hav seen a rat terrier watch the simptoms ov a knot hole, in a board fence, all day, for sum rat tew cum out, but no rat didn't cum out.

They talked about peace, but did not believe in its possibility.

While I doubted, I had hope; but now there is no hope left and all the same I doubt everything.

When I doubted, there was hope; but now there is no hope and even so I doubt everything.

The objection that the doctrine of Jesus is excellent but impracticable, comes not only from believers, but from sceptics, from those who do not believe, or think that they do not believe, in the dogmas of the fall of man and the redemption; from men of science and philosophers who consider themselves free from all prejudice. They believe, or imagine that they believe, in nothing, and so consider themselves as above such a superstition as the dogma of the fall and the redemption.

En la "tierra", precisamente ne esta tierra —digo señalando la campiña— no existe la verdad, todo es mal y mentira

The more people believe that others can improve their lives, the slower any improvement will occur.

There are two ways to think about all this. One way is that life is absurd to start with and that only a mad man goes out and tries to change the world, to fight for good and against evil. The other way is that life is indeed absurd to start with and that it can be given meaning only if you live it for your ideals, visions and poetic truths, and despite all the skepticism of all the Sancho Panzas' in the world, saddle up whatever worn out horse you've got and go after those visions.

Beware of programmers who carry screwdrivers.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed, Everybody knows that the war is over, Everybody knows the good guys lost.

There is only one emotion which money has ever extended to idealism - contempt." - Loneliness and History

I think the people who are making Christmas-themed movies today feel that people are more cynical about Christmas. There's more of an edge.

You're wasting your time," he said. "You don't learn how to discover things by reading books on it. And psychology is a bunch of bullshit.

By itself, the Holographic Principle was not enough to win the Black Hole War. It was too imprecise, and it lacked a firm mathematical foundation. The reaction to it was skepticism: The universe a hologram? Sounds like science fiction. The fictitious future physicist Steve passing to the "other side" while the emperor and the count watch him being immolated? Sounds like spiritualism.

The mere fact that a very large number of people believe such a thing and that the world would be a better place if it were true, is no reason for believing that it is true.

Lei non crede in niente - disse il professore. - Oh sì, in qualche cosa. Forse in troppe, per i tempi che corrono.