SKEPTICISM QUOTES II

quotations about skepticism

Where is the questioning? Where is the protest song?
Since when is skepticism un-American?
Dissent's not treason but they talk like it's the same
Those who disagree are afraid to show their face

SLEATER-KINNEY

"Combat Rock"


I conceive the skeptical writers to be a set of men whose business it is to pick holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty; and when these places are properly repaired, the whole building becomes more firm and solid than it was formerly.

THOMAS REID

The Works of Thomas Reid

Tags: Thomas Reid


Trying to debunk skeptics never works, and perhaps now we know why. Conspiracy theorists don't join social networks to learn, they join them to hear comforting reinforcements of their own ideas. And if you disrupt their happy place with scientific facts, you're not going to get very far.

JOSHUA A. KRISCH

"Why Facebook Is A Hotbed For Conspiracy Theories", Vocativ, June 18, 2016


If skepticism is the basis of knowledge, as such, then it actually says that refusing to infer from the particular we actually reassert the existence of the general.

ALEXANDER MITJASHIN

Liberalism and Skepticism


Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.

JOHN DEWEY

The Essential Dewey: Pragmatism, Education, Democracy

Tags: John Dewey


When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?

Tags: Bertrand Russell


Everyone, including skeptics, will generate delusions that match their views. That is how a normal and healthy brain works. Skeptics are not exempt from self-delusion.

SCOTT ADAMS

God's Debris: A Thought Experiment

Tags: Scott Adams


A thousand skeptic hands won't keep us from the things we plan
Unless we're clinging to the things we prize

HOWARD JONES

"Things Can Only Get Better"


To have a solid foundation of skepticism -- that is to say, the faculty of changing at any moment, of turning back, of facing successively the metamorphoses of life.

REMY DE GOURMONT

Philosophic Nights in Paris


It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.

NAJIB MAHFUZ

Sugar Street


As the ages passed so little evidence remained
We turned to mysticism for the unexplained
The modern day has made the skepticism grow
When comes Millennium the world will finally know

CAGE

"Unveiled"


If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

Letters to a Young Contrarian

Tags: Christopher Hitchens


It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to ideas. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish useful ideas from the worthless ones.

CARL SAGAN

"The Burden of Skepticism"

Tags: Carl Sagan


Absolute relativism, which is neither more nor less than skepticism, in the most modern sense of the term, is the supreme triumph of the reasoning reason.

MIGUEL DE UNAMUNO

The Tragic Sense of Life

Tags: Miguel de Unamuno


After all, if no one is happy who does not have what he wants and if the skeptics are always seeking the truth, but do not find it, they cannot be happy. Furthermore, the skeptics claim that their wise man is happy, and yet he cannot be happy since he does not have what he wants.

ST. AUGUSTINE

Trilogy on Faith and Happiness

Tags: St. Augustine


A skeptic is one who knows too much for a fool, and too little for a wise man.

H. W. SHAW

attributed, Day's Collacon


I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

ISAAC ASIMOV

The Roving Mind

Tags: Isaac Asimov


If you are searching for sacred knowledge and not just a palliative for your fears, then you will train yourself to be a good skeptic.

ANN DRUYAN

Editor's Introduction, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God


A skeptic, I would ask for consistency first of all.

SYLVIA PLATH

The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

Tags: Sylvia Plath


He walks with angels in his picket
They tell him what to do
His shopping cart's filled with newspapers
And thirty-six discarded shoes
He's met with heavy skepticism
Messiahs don't come everyday
Shopping cart Jesus
He wants to talk to you

58

"Shopping Cart Jesus"