Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [61-80] of 121 Skepticism quotesSkepticism QuotesSkepticism Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intelligence.~ Dr. Samuel Johnson The truth is sometimes a poor competitor in the market place of ideas -- complicated, unsatisfying, full of dilemmas, always vulnerable to misinterpretation and abuse.~ George F. Kennan To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself.~ Soren Kierkegaard Free inquiry entails recognition of civil liberties as integral to its pursuit, that is, a free press, freedom of communication, the right to organize opposition parties and to join voluntary associations, and freedom to cultivate and publish the fruits of scientific, philosophical, artistic, literary, moral and religious freedom.~ Paul Kurtz Dogma is a defensive reaction against doubt in the mind of the theorist, but doubt of which he is unaware.~ Harold D. Lasswell A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.~ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing Hitherto the plans of the educationalists have achieved very little of what they attempted, and indeed we may well thank the beneficent obstinacy of real mothers, real nurses, and (above all) real children for preserving the human race in such sanity as it still possesses.~ C. S. Lewis One's first step in wisdom is to question everything -- and one's last is to come to terms with everything.~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.~ Robert Lindner A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.~ James Russell Lowell If we are ever in doubt about what to do, it is a good rule to ask ourselves what we shall wish on the morrow that we had done.~ John Lubbock Many politicians are in the habit of laying it down as a self-evident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim.~ Thomas Babington Macaulay All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.~ James Madison Whilst we assert a freedom to embrace, to profess, and to observe the Religion which we believe to be of divine origin, we cannot deny an equal freedom to choose minds who have not yet yielded to the evidence which has convinced us.~ James Madison All men having power ought to be mistrusted.~ James Madison I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.~ 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, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure.~ H. L. Mencken Human progress is furthered, not by conformity, but by aberration.~ H. L. Mencken I am beginning to realize that "sanity" is no longer a value or an end in itself. If modern people were a little less sane, a little more doubtful, a little more aware of their absurdities and contradictions, perhaps there might be the possibility of their survival.~ Thomas Merton If you do not specify and confront real issues, what you will do will surely obscure them. If you do not alarm anyone morally, you will yourself remain morally asleep. If you do not embody controversy, what you say will be an acceptance of the drift to the coming human hell.~ C. Wright Mills Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print