Quotes About Skepticism

It is prudent never to trust those who have deceived us, even if only once.

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt

I will follow this strategy until I discover something that is certain or, at least, until I discover that it is certain only that nothing is certain.

If I find some reason for doubt in each of my beliefs, that will be enough to reject all of them.

we ought also to consider as false all that is doubtful.

while I wanted thus to think that everything was false, it necessarily had to be the case that I, who was thinking this, was something. And noticing that this truth—I think, therefore I am—was so firm and so assured that all the most extravagant suppositions of the skeptics were incapable of shaking it, I judged that I could accept it without scruple as the first principle of the philosophy I was seeking.

Je sais combien nous sommes sujets à nous méprendre en ce qui nous touche, et combien aussi les jugements de nos amis nous doivent être suspects, lorsqu'ils sont en notre faveur.

Tüm yöntem akl?n birtak?m gerçeklere varmak için çabas?n? yönlendirmek zorunda olduÄŸu konular?n s?ras?na ve konumuna dayan?r. Bunu sürdürebilmek için güçlük içeren ve muÄŸlak önermeleri aÅŸamal? olarak daha basite indirgemek, sonra da bunlar?n sezgisinden hareket ederek ayn? ÅŸekilde diÄŸer önermelerin bilgisine varmak gerekir.

Son olarak yanl?? veya düzmece öÄŸretilere gelince, ne bir simyac?n?n verdiÄŸi sözler, ne bir astroloÄŸun kehanetleri, ne bir sihirbaz?n düzenbazl?klar?, ne de bildiklerinden fazlas?n? bilir görünmeyi meslek edinmiÅŸlerin hileleri ve övüngenlikleri taraf?ndan art?k aldat?lamayacak kadar bunlar?n deÄŸerinin ne olduÄŸunu zaten yeterince bildiÄŸimi düÅŸünüyordum.

I did not imitate the skeptics who doubt only for doubting's sake, and pretend to be always undecided; on the contrary, my whole intention was to arrive at a certainty, and to dig away the drift and the sand until I reached the rock or the clay beneath.

Pour examiner la vérité, il est besoin, une fois dans sa vie, de mettre toutes choses en doute autant qu'il se peut.

punto de partida es la duda metódica. La duda cartesiana no es escepticismo, sino un procedimiento dialéctico de investigación, encaminado a desprender y aislar la primera verdad evidente, la primera idea clara y distinta, la primera naturaleza simple.

En realidad, la hipótesis del genio maligno ni es un juego ni un círculo de hierro, sino un movimiento dialéctico, muy importante en el curso del pensamiento cartesiano. Repárese en que la hipótesis del genio maligno, necesita, para ser destruida, la demostración de la existencia de Dios. Sólo cuando sabemos que Dios existe y que Dios es incapaz de engañarnos, sólo entonces queda deshecha la última

It is only prudent never to place complete confidence in that by which we have even once been deceived.

In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.

It would be wrong to believe that the deceivers at this game are sharply separated from the deceived, that the world is neatly divided between the cold calculators and the innocent dupes. Everybody is a little of both; you must be a dupe of your own comedy to play it with conviction. The romantic and satanic vision of the cold calculator, of the totally lucid manipulator of other people's desires, is a more sophisticated version of the narcissistic illusion.

When Jesus says something that seems banal, it is necessary to be wary.

My father always said that it is a reasonable expectation of life that no one will go out of his way, against his own interest, to break his word or to hurt another person. And this turns out, not just in obvious cases, for example haters, pathological people and institutions, sadists, but in everyday life itself to be plain untrue. I wonder why. A reasonable expectation of life, I have found, is hardly ever quite borne out.

I suppose therefore that all things I see are illusions; I believe that nothing has ever existed of everything my lying memory tells me. I think I have no senses. I believe that body, shape, extension, motion, location are functions. What is there then that can be taken as true? Perhaps only this one thing, that nothing at all is certain.

At last I will devote myself sincerely and without reservation to the general demolition of my opinions.

I have a basic rule of thumb that about 2 percent of any large group will believe literally anything, no matter how preposterous it seems to the rest of us.

You know what my boss says? He says that skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off.

If you collected all the good faith in this room right now you might fill a teaspoon.

Wolfe grunted. "That's admirably specious, but drop it. I give you my word that I haven't the faintest notion of who killed Ellen Tenzer." Cramer eyed him. "Your word?" "Yes, sir.