Certainty Quote by H. L. Mencken
“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant.”
About This Quote
Source Essay: The American Scholar, 1915
Moral certainty signals cultural backwardness; progress comes from doubt and tolerance.
In simple terms: Doubt drives moral progress.
Key Takeaway
Question absolute morals.
Themes
philosophy
culture
progress
Mood
critical
thoughtful
Type
philosophical
inspirational
When to use this quote
- education
- public discourse
- policy making
Key Concepts
skepticism
tolerance
civilization
Questions to Reflect On
- How can societies foster healthy doubt?
- What role does tolerance play in progress?
A Different Perspective
May generalize cultures.
![“By profession a biologist, [Thomas Henry Huxley] covered in fact the whole field of the exact sciences, and then bulged through its four fences. Absolutely nothing was uninteresting to him. His curiosity ranged from music to theology and from philosophy to history. He didn't simply know something…” quote by H. L. Mencken](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f46/h-l-mencken-245_absolutely-nothing_by-profession-a-biologist-thomas-henry-h_5368.jpg)
![“[I]f in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge in mathematics, in so far as disposed through it we are able to reach certainty in other sciences and truth by the exclusion of error.” quote by Roger Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/d13/roger-bacon-15067_able_i-f-in-other-sciences-we-should-arrive-a_24209.jpg)