“But the secret of intellectual excellence is the spirit of criticism ; it is intellectual independence. And this leads to difficulties which must prove insurmountable for any kind of authoritarianism. The authoritarian will in general select those who obey, who… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share Image
“Most of us, it seems, have a strong inclination to accept the peculiarities of our social environment as if they were ‘natural’.” — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“The empirical basis of objective science has thus nothing ‘absolute’ about it.4 Science does not rest upon solid bedrock. The bold structure of its… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“Should you ever intend to dull the wits of a young man and to incapacitate his brains for any kind of thought whatever, then… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“Historically, all ethics undoubtedly begin with religion; but I do not now deal with historical questions. I do not ask who was the first… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“Society and the individual are thus interdependent. The one owes its existence to the other. Society owes its existence to human nature, and especially… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“All political ideals, that of making the people happy is perhaps the most dangerous one. It leads invariably to the attempt to impose our… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“There is only one further use of violence in political quarrels which I should consider justified. I mean the resistance, once democracy has been… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“The fascist appeal to ‘human nature’ is to our passions, to our collectivist mystical needs, to ‘man the unknown’. Adopting Hegel’s words just quoted,… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“Instead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, one should demand, more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all; and further,… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“According to this conception, the ultimate causes of all social changes and political revolutions are not increasing insight into justice; they are to be… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“(a) Nationalism, in the form of the historicist idea that the state is the incarnation of the Spirit (or now, of the Blood) of… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“What we should do, I suggest, is to give up the idea of ultimate sources of knowledge, and admit that all knowledge is human;… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
“What a monument of human smallness is this idea of the philosopher king. What a contrast between it and the simplicity of humaneness of… — Karl R. Popper Copy Share
