Quotes About Skepticism

It's understandable that we would believe many things as children that our parents and others in our society have passed on to us as if they were absolute truths, even though they may be nothing but traditional prejudices. But why do we cling to what Mencken called the "palpably false" after we're old enough to think for ourselves?

If you believe the doctors, nothing is wholesome if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent if you believe the military, nothing is safe.

But he could have been lying." "I don't know that he ever lied, Tyler. He was just a little stingy with the truth.

Sometimes this fear of speculation masquerades as skepticism. We see this in people who delight in shooting down any theory or explanation before it gets anywhere. They are trying to pass off skepticism as a sign of high intelligence, but in fact they are taking the easy route—it is quite simple to find arguments against any idea and knock it down from the sidelines.

For a long time I have not said what I believed, nor do I ever believe what I say, and if indeed sometimes I do happen to tell the truth, I hide it among so many lies that it is hard to find. Niccolò Machiavelli, in a letter to Francesco Gnicciardini, May 17, 1521

You want to retain the elasticity of spirit you had as a child, interested in everything, while retaining the hard-nosed need to verify and scrutinize for yourself all ideas and beliefs.

Gardez-vous de vos amis : beaucoup vous trahiront par envie. D'autres se montreront gâtés, tyranniques. Un ancien ennemi que vous engagez sera plus loyal qu'un ami parce qu'il devra faire ses preuves. En fait, vous avez plus à craindre de vos amis que de vos ennemis. Si vous n'avez pas d'ennemis, trouvez le moyen de vous en faire.

When people seem to share your ideas exactly, be wary: they are probably mirroring them to charm you.

Daily Law: If you see such looks in the first few encounters with someone, and they happen more than once, be on the lookout for a dangerous envier entering your life.

I told you this would happen. I am Cassandra—doomed to see the future yet destined never to be believed.

Jericho lowered himself carefully to his knees. He covered his eyes and moved his lips like all the others, but he had no faith in any of it. Faith in mathematics, yes; faith in logic, of course; faith in the trajectory of the stars, yes, perhaps. But faith in a God, Christian or otherwise?

Do you honestly think we would have left something so important to the Italians?

It's your Church I don't believe in, sir. Your God I treat

What is too absurd to be believed is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.

There's an old saying in the Two Rivers Rand said dryly. 'The louder a man tells you he's honest, the harder you must hold on to your purse.' Another said, The fox often offers to give the duck its pond.

And the quickest to harm a stranger are the soonest to think a stranger will harm them.

A man who trusts everyone is a fool, Lews Therin said, and a man who trusts no one is a fool. We are all fools, if we live long enough.

Ragan gave him a guarded look that said he agreed with every word but strongly doubted Uno's wisdom in voicing them. Ragan, it seemed, had the makings of a wise man in him.

I kept telling them I didn't know anything about it, but half of them seemed to think that I was lying, and the other half that I was hinting at something.

people with devious minds saw calculation in his honesty.

You are quite beautiful, child. Perhaps you should beware of Perrin. I never see him but in the company of beautiful girls." Faile gave Perrin a flat, considering look, then tried to gloss it over quickly.

What is too absurd to believe is believed because it is too absurd to be a lie.

If you shook hands with a Taren Ferry man, people said, you counted your fingers afterwards.

As sure as peaches are poison.