Quotes About Skepticism

They say it works sometimes, but even if it does, how could you depend on anything you got that way? Not to mention that after you did it a few times any decent garbage can would be ashamed to have you found in it.

skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off.

Manifestly, sir, either your mental processes are badly constipated or you think mine are.

What?' Cramer's eyes widened. 'Where the hell does Shepherd come in?' 'I don't know. Archie doesn't like him, and I have learned that it is always quite possible that anyone he doesn't like may be a murderer.

In a world that operates largely at random, coincidences are to be expected, but any one of them must always be mistrusted.

Because an argument is used hypocritically, it does not necessarily follow that it is untrue.

In case you haven't noticed, people aren't nice,

Idealistic? Ruddy stupid, if you'll pardon the language, miss,: Mr Roberts said. "All this talk about power for the people and down with the ruling classes and everyone should govern themselves. It can never happen, I told him. The ruling classes are born to rule. They know how to do it. You take a person like you or me and you put us up there to run a country and we'd make a ruddy mess of it.

Lord Kilhenny's gaze moved from me to Darcy and back again. "A friend from London, eh?" There was almost the hint of a smile. "Didn't fool me for a second. You were the thing that was important to him, weren't you?

Maybe. Occam's disposable Bic razor might suggest so.

We're up against a public that wants a smoking gun . . .We know the public wants, demands, something simple. And we're also very much aware that we live in a time of rampant science denial. Nobody does nuance anymore.

Piensa mal y acertarás.

Sorry, Roy, I just don't trust you enough to believe that you lied.

What nonsense! What arrogance! What blind, ignorant balderdash!

We must grow out of religion. It is either bugaboo, formalism, or hysteria. Besides, what proof is there that "the churches" know more about "God" than the Cockney sentry on duty outside the camp? We have only their say-so.

Young scholars, learning their historical method from Gospel scholars, often treat it as self-evident that the more skeptical they are toward their sources, the more rigorous will be their historical method. It has to be said, over and over, that historical rigor does not consist in fundamental skepticism toward historical testimony but in fundamental trust along with testing by critical questioning…

LADY SNEERWELL. I'm not disappointed in Snake, I never suspected the fellow to have virtue enough to be faithful even to his own Villany.

The old adage, 'If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is' isn't always correct. In fact, the suspicion, cynicism, and doubt that are inherent in this belief can and does keep people from taking advantage of excellent opportunities.

These virtuosi maintained that whatever has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, is likely to be untrue.

An atheist is just somebody who feels about Yahweh the way any decent Christian feels about Thor or Baal or the golden calf. We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.

By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.

Do not indoctrinate your children. Teach them how to think for themselves, how to evaluate evidence, and how to disagree with you.

Michael was silent. "Too often," I said, "technology evokes a sense of wonder instead of understanding, and I think this makes it a corrosive force which sometimes requires opposition.

Almost all arguments for skepticism make reference to seemingly ridiculous possibilities—we are being deceived by an evil demon, life is just a dream, we are brains in vats. You might propose psychoanalysis, rather than philosophical reflection, for anyone who worries about these possibilities.