Quotes About Skepticism

the majority were of the species who, all the world over, look on the world and at everything that goes on in it and merely scratch their noses.

It seemed an important lesson for a young person. It wasn't only the angry people that should make one wary. The jolly ones could be even more dangerous.

To hell with God damned "L'Amour." It always causes far more trouble than it is worth. Don't run after it. Don't court it. Keep it waiting off stage until you're good and ready for it and even then treat it with the suspicious disdain that it deserves...

What's a handshake after all, except a socially acceptable way to make sure the other guy doesn't have a knife behind his back

What I believe is irrelevant. In the last year, belief in Bigfoot rose from eleven percent to twenty-five percent. Here's another figure: thirty percent of Americans believe that aliens have visited Earth in the not-too-distant past.

I have a disdain," he says, "for complicated fancy equipment because it takes a lot of time to learn how to use, and I'm suspicious when the distance between the raw data and the final conclusion is too long. It gives you plenty of opportunity to massage that data, and human beings are notoriously susceptible to self-deception, whether scientists or not." Ramachandran

A skeptic once said to me, 'I don't believe the Bible because it has miracles.' I said, 'Name one.' He said, 'Turning water into wine. Do you believe that?' I said, 'Yeah, it happens all the time.' He said, 'What do you mean?' I said, 'Well, rain goes through the grapevine up into the grape, and the grape turns into wine. All Jesus did was speed it up a little bit.

One who claims to be a skeptic of one set of beliefs is actually a true believer in another set of beliefs.

When it comes to the ever-elusive goal of achieving what is usually called "scientific literacy" for the general population, it is hard not to conclude that the task is hopeless.7b

I had sucked on the tit of disillusionment and teethed on the bitter root of cynicism. I was on the way to the misanthropy that would sour me.

In America few people will trust you unless you are irreverent.

?nanarak dinlememizi güçle?tiriyorlar. ?nsan her sözü ku?kuyla kar??l?yor art?k. Gerçekle dü? birbirine kar???yor; yalan?n nerede bitti?ini anlayam?yoruz. Tutunacak bir dal?m?z kalm?yor. Tutunam?yoruz.

Kitap okumakla, manav?n beni aldatmas?na engel olam?yorum bir türlü. Manava inanmad???m halde beni aldat?yor namussuz.

Most people have given up on politicians. After all, politicians have been promising to return us to the glory, wealth, and order of the twentieth century ever since I can remember.

She glanced at him. "What gods do you respect?" "None." "And why not?" "I help myself," he said.

I didn't like them when I heard them. I liked them even less when I met them. They look at us as though we smell and they don't. Of course, it doesn't matter whether I like them or not. There are other people in the neighborhood whom I don't like. But I don't trust the Payne-Parrishes. The kids seem all right, but the adults. … I wouldn't want to have to depend on them. Not even for little things.

I wonder what a badge is, other than a license to steal. What did it used to be to make people Bankole's age want to trust it. I know what the old books say, but still, I wonder.

O?wiecenie zaczyna si? wtedy, gdy cz?owiek traci wiar? w dobro i porz?dek ?wiata. O?wiecenie jest wyrazem nieufno?ci.

Do not trust the cheering, for those persons would shout as much if you or I were going to be hanged.

Do not trust to the cheering, for those very persons would shout as much if you and I were going to be hanged.

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so.

The word "doubt" may be interpreted as "becoming the object of doubt itself.

Look, Son of Anarchy, I appreciate the nice guy offer, but how do I even know you're legit?

Whereas in Europe new ideas were forced to compete against other doctrines and attitudes, with the results that people tended towards healthy skepticism about claims to absolute truth, and a climate of pluralism developed, In Russia there was a cultural void. The censor forbade all political expression, so that when ideas were introduced there they easily assumed the status of holy dogma, a panacea for all the world's ills, beyond questioning or indeed the need to test them in real life.