Quotes About Skepticism

My default state is wariness.

In case you don't watch much TV or spend time with anyone under 40, 'Really?' is pop culture's pithiest way to deliver a withering put-down.

Americans like to say we're fighting for democracy, and yet young Americans have come to the view that democracy doesn't deliver.

People just don't believe we'll deliver what we say we will. They don't believe we want to listen or to understand their lives. And they don't believe we are able to do much to make their lives better.

I'm a cynic about corporate democracy and boards.

The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts.

Marketing is the devil.

One seldom recognizes the devil when he is putting his hand on your shoulder.

I don't really believe in palm readers and crystal balls and tarot cards, but I respond to the need for them.

A certain portion of the human race has certainly a taste for being diddled.

I don't believe in ghosts and have never seen one. I wish I could see one, and I would like to have seen one because then I could believe in God. If I can see it, feel it and taste it, then I believe in it.

If you can take my tax money and assure me that it'll go to the right purpose, that it will help the poor, then fine. But I'm not sure a lot of it does. In fact, I know a lot of it doesn't.

A majority of Americans support Social Security and Medicare, a progressive tax system and a government that regulates business in the public interest, but most share deep skepticism about the government's ability to do all this well.

The '60s weren't my cup of tea. I never bought that philosophy that, you know, we're all brothers and that'll solve everything. And I never believed that music dictated the times. I always thought it reflected them.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.

Experience teaches you that the man who looks you straight in the eye, particularly if he adds a firm handshake, is hiding something.

When you write a business fable, people get caught up in the story and don't get judgmental about what you're teaching them. If you're teaching a bunch of concepts, people get skeptical and say, 'Where'd you get that research?' But if you tell them a story, they get caught up in it while they learn.

Some in his community were suspicious, too—how convenient that people always managed to almost drown themselves whenever young Reagan was around, and how annoying that he never seemed to shut up about it.

H. L. Mencken: no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.

In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

many experts assert that this may be the most gullible and easy-to-deceive generation that has ever lived.

She wanted me to betray you guys, and I was like, 'Pfft, right, I'm gonna listen to a face in the potty sludge'.

The paranormal is so inherently fascinating that for any valid conclusions to be reached from investigation, a searching and objective skepticism must leaven the desire to discover wonders.

It annoys me that the burden of proof is on us. It should be "You came up with the idea. Why do you believe it?" I could tell you I've got superpowers. But I can't go up to people saying "Prove I can't fly." They'd go: "What do you mean 'Prove you can't fly'? Prove you can!