Skepticism Quotes · Page 9

You cannot knock a man down who will not stand up, nor argue with a skeptic.

— Austin O'Malley

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

— Denis Diderot

“The faces of the panel listening were the very embodiment of skepticism made flesh.”

— Lorrie Moore

Skepticism cannot be revolutionary, even though it speaks the language of revolution.

— Raymond Aron

A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.

— James Russell Lowell

To deny, to believe, and to doubt well, are to a man what the race is to a horse.

— Blaise Pascal

Skepticism is the highest duty and blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

— Thomas Huxley

I have a lot of skepticism about marriage and monogamy.

— Rashida Jones

“scepticism by means of classical arguments, the most effective means initially to promote arousal. And,”

— Peter Unger

Fifteen years of skepticism has done more for me than 20 years of force-fed religion and 30 years of indifference in between.

— Victor J. Stenger

“Believe those who are seeking the truth; doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.”

— André Gide

The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

— Paul Ricoeur

You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see…

— Carl Sagan

“You have opposition to love?” “Not opposition so much as skepticism. I make it a practice not to believe in things I…

— Sarah MacLean

The great, the fundamental need of any nation, any race, is for heroism, devotion, sacrifice; and there cannot be heroism, devotion, or…

— Anna Julia Cooper

I believe there is no source of deception in the investigation of nature which can compare with a fixed belief that certain…

— William James

I used to be skeptical when educators and technologists predicted that we may be entering a new era of oral culture, in…

— Tom Peters

Let me know your faults and I will remind you of your strengths and gifts. Look at the world through skeptical eyes…

— The Forgotten

Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer; there…

— George Santayana

[The sceptic] must acknowledge, if he will acknowledge any thing, that all human life must perish, were his principles to prevail.All discourse,…

— David Hume

The magical thinking encouraged by any belief in the supernatural, combined with the vilification of rationality and skepticism, is more conducive to…

— Wendy Kaminer

In European countries and some Asian countries I've been to, there's a lot less hesitation and skepticism when it comes to enjoying…

— Andrew W.K

As for Lindbergh, another eminent servant of science, all he proved by his gaudy flight across the Atlantic was that God takes…

— H. L. Mencken

As a man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable…

— Charles Caleb Colton

The author brings to the table a healthy skepticism of the conventional wisdom, an admirable ability to separate fact from fancy, and…

— Alan Abelson

“That Muhammad could predict certain events does not prove that he was a prophet: he may have been able to guess successfully,…

— Muhammad al Warraq

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely…

— H.L. Mencken

“Among us, on the other hand, 'the righteous man lives by faith.' Now, if you take away positive affirmation, you take away…

— Augustine of Hippo

I think the appropriate kind of skepticism is this: you've got to be asking questions all the time, you've also got to…

— Julian Baggini

“I had hoped, as a broadcaster, to be merely ludicrous, but this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so…

— Kurt Vonnegut

Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human…

— Carl Sagan

But merely accepting authoritarian truth, even if that truth has some virtue, does not bring skepticism to an end. To blindly accept…

— Albert Schweitzer

The closer we scrutinize what God has made, the more perfect it appears!

— Glen Rambharack

Sceptics are generally ready to believe anything, provided it is sufficiently improbable.

— Karl Ludwig von Knebel

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

— Napoleon Bonaparte

There is no better soporific and sedative than skepticism.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

I am opposed to any form of tyranny over the mind of man.

— Thomas Jefferson

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.

— Walter Gilbert

I just witnessed an event so mysterious that it shook my skepticism.

— Michael Shermer

Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough.

— Michael Crichton