Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [21-40] of 121 Skepticism quotesSkepticism QuotesSkepticism Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes There are all kinds of devices invented for the protection and preservation of countries: defensive barriers, forts, trenches, and the like... But prudent minds have as a natural gift one safeguard which is the common possession of all, and this applies especially to the dealings of democracies. What is this safeguard? Skepticism. This you must preserve. This you must retain. If you can keep this, you need fear no harm.~ Demosthenes If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.~ Rene Descartes The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.~ William O. Douglas I know no class of my fellowmen, however just, enlightened, and humane, which can be wisely and safely trusted absolutely with the liberties of any other class.~ Frederick Douglass We find few historians who have been diligent enough in their search for truth; it is their common method to take on trust what they help distribute to the public; by which means a falsehood once received from a famed writer becomes traditional to posterity.~ John Dryden The important thing is never to stop questioning.~ Albert Einstein Who shall forbid a wise skepticism, seeing that there is no practical question on which anything more than an approximate solution can be had?~ Ralph Waldo Emerson The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical, to demand the credentials of all statements that claim to be facts.~ Bergan Evans Freedom of speech and freedom of action [is meaningless] without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.~ Bergan Evans We must not overlook the role that extremists play. They are the gadflies that keep society from being too complacent.~ Abraham Flexner Increasingly constructive doubt is the sign of advancing civilization.~ Jerome D. Frank As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes; and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity.~ Benjamin Franklin A civilized society is one which tolerates eccentricity to the point of doubtful sanity.~ Robert Frost I know of no inquiry which the impulses of man suggests that is forbidden to the resolution of man to pursue.~ Margaret Fuller Curiosity is the kernal of forbidden fruit.~ Dr. Thomas Fuller It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.~ Mahatma Mohandas K. Gandhi I love agitation and investigation and glory in defending unpopular truth against popular error.~ James A. Garfield Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother.~ Khalil Gibran Humanity's most valuable assets have been the non-conformists. Were it not for the non-conformists, he who refuses to be satisfied to go along with the continuance of things as they are, and insists upon attempting to find new ways of bettering things, the world would have known little progress, indeed.~ Josiah William Gitt The freedom of speech and the freedom of the press have not been granted to the people in order that they may say things which please, and which are based upon accepted thought, but the right to say things which displease, the right to say the things which convey the new and yet unexpected thoughts, the right to say things, even though they do a wrong.~ Samuel Gompers Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print