Quotes About Skepticism

I'm not in the business. 'Liking people' is often just another racket.

There are times, Sember, when I could believe your mother had a secret lover. Looking at you makes me wonder if it was one of my goats.

Of course, the political history of the United States is exactly the reverse. It is in large measure the history of a nation that led the world in eliminating slavery, in accommodating peoples it had previously defeated, in elevating nonwhites to a position of dignity and respect, in promoting opportunities and rights to women, and in fostering a healthy skepticism towards unworthy leaders and towards the dangers inherent in government itself.

Donald Trump = 9/11 cover-up conspirator.

If smart people are parodying it, that's a sure sign that some less smart people are believing it.

I'm sorry, he says. I don't usually like people. So when I do, part of me is really amused and the other part refuses to believe it's happening.

Sorry to be so cynical, but this is New York

I have spent years of my life sitting in my room, creating defenses of cynicism, darkness, and bleakness. Jed's friendship is the skeleton key to my fortress. He disarms me every time.

The world was full of waistrels and waifs, sycophants and spies - all of whom put words to the wrong use, who made everything that was said or written suspect

i can't help thinking that 'getting a life' is something only a complete idiot could believe. like you can just drive to a store and get a life. see it in its shiny box and look inside the plastic window and catch a glimpse of yourself in a new life and say, 'wow, i look much happier - i think this is the life i need to get!' take it to the counter, ring it up, put it on your credit card. if getting a life was that easy, we'd be one blissed-out race.

I don't believe a word you're saying... but say it again.

If you're used to people being shitty, it's hard to accept niceness. Your instinct is to fuck it up. And run the hell away.

If smart people are parodying it, that's a sure sign that some less smart people are believing it.

The whole entire world. There is no law. There is no right and wrong. The world is lies. There is no friendship. Every fucking thing. Every God-forsaken thing.

Thereafter, however, the rabbis, in response to the rise of Christianity, adopted a skeptical view of conversion; they now insisted on ascertaining the sincerity of the prospects' desires to join Judaism, as well as on warning them against the risks of belonging to a small and often persecuted people. In related and characteristic fashion, they rewrote the

Like most seasoned phonies, I roundly suspect that everyone is as disingenuous as I am.

Look," I'll say to Jesus, "enough is enough. I suggest we nail some boards together and have ourselves an old-fashioned crucifixion.

There's something about picking the psychic apart that I don't like. It's cynical and uninteresting.

Was it with a clear mind that she believed in us, or was it just the booze talking?

No," I corrected her, "I'm not a misogynist, I'm a misanthrope. I hate everyone equally.

It is always necessary to jump up and down on the scaffold of knowledge to make sure it is solid. If you are skeptical about a scientific claim, then jump up and down on it as hard as you can until you expose a weakness or convince yourself that it is solid.

Para hacer buenos negocios solo hay que tener buen ojo, dinero y falta de fe en la inteligencia humana.

That's the way people were. Nobody believed in the things you believed but yourself, nobody believed that even you were really sincere about it, people believed whatever was good business for them at the time. Nobody believed in anything but good business.

Listen, child—if you're at a party with a hundred people and one of them is the devil, he'll be the last one you'd suspect.