Quotes About Skepticism

How can you be certain that your whole life is not a dream?

The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.

All governments are run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.

Expose every belief to the light of reason, discourse, facts, scientific observations; question everything, be sceptical because this is the only chance at life you will ever get.

Questioning the ostensibly unquestionable premises of our way of life is arguably the most urgent of services we owe our fellow humans and ourselves.

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.

surely by now you realize that you can't trust anyone. But why not take a chance?' *

Are you laughing at me?" "No," he said. "No, I'm not. You're a curious person. You ask questions. That's why they don't like you. That's all." People who asked questions didn't necessarily like being asked questions. "What's wrong with asking questions?" "Nothing." Everything. Once the questions snuck in, whatever had been certain became uncertain. Questions opened the way for doubt.

Yes, I don't think hell will be a lot different from where I'm at now. In fact I'm fairly well convinced that I died in 1932 and this is it. I mean, just look at Norman in the Coach. All he needs is a trident in one hand -- I must get him to take his shoes off to see if he's got cloven hooves -- and there's your devil.

Americans so dearly love to be fooled. —Charles Baudelaire

Why continue to tolerate a kind of armchair skepticism that has everything to do with scientistic propaganda and nothing at all to do with honest, rigorously open-minded collection, classification, and theory building, that is, with real science and real humanistic inquiry?

He doubted the hand of God but did not discount it - discarding only the God of the pulpit and the pious.

By calling BS on so much of what goes on, this book gives people a closer, more scientific look at many dimensions of leadership behavior. Most important, it encourages everyone to finally stop accepting sugar-laced but toxic potions as cures.

In matters of religion a skeptical mind is not a higher manifestation of virtue than is a believing heart, and analytical deconstruction in the field of, say, literary fiction can be just plain old-fashioned destruction when transferred to families yearning for faith at home.

More than that, if we were going to continue to date, I wanted him close, so that I could keep my eye on him. I didn't trust him at all. I was still too young to know that there is no such thing as love without trust. There

You are very cross tonight, Hart. Perhaps the lady disappointed you." Hart stared at her over the glass he'd started to raise. "What lady?" "The one whose perfume you positively reak of." His brows went up."You mean the Countess von Hohenstahlen? She's eighty-two and drenches herself in scents that would make a tart blush. "Oh.

I don't like hope very much. In fact, I hate it. It's the crystal meth of emotions. It hooks you fast and kills you hard. It's bad news. The worst. It's sharp sticks and cherry bombs. When hope shows up, it's only a matter of time until someone gets hurt.

The thing is, you can't ever really know how rotten someone will turn out to be.

That's not the question, Isabelle," he said softly. "The question is, why do you believe them?

I bet you think things through, right? Accept candy from strangers and get into vans with a sign that reads free Kittens?

Life is full of drowning people, ready and willing to drown you, too.

Et tu, Henry?" Asher held a hand to his chest. Henry didn't bat an eye. He was clearly used to the dramatics.

was starting to sink in that for the rest of my life, the people I met, the people I became close to—there would always be a chance that they saw me as a payout.

Adam's blue eyes flicked briefly over to mine as he directed me to turn onto a major street. Once he was satisfied that I could, in fact, turn without causing my car—or any car in the near vicinity—to explode, he allowed himself to actually converse. "You don't trust people?" "Not to hit my car, or not to screw up my life?" "Either." That seemed like more of an answer than a question, so I didn't reply.