Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Comment on this quote Share via Email Print this Page [81-100] of 121 Skepticism quotesSkepticism QuotesSkepticism Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Access to knowledge is the superb, the supreme act of truly great civilizations. Of all the institutions that purport to do this, free libraries stand virtually alone in accomplishing this.~ Toni Morrison The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism.~ George Jean Nathan There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.~ J. Robert Oppenheimer All the progress we have made in philosophy… is the result of that methodical skepticism which is the element of human freedom.~ Charles S. Pierce The believer is happy, the doubter is wise.~ Hungarian Proverb There is no inherent misdirection in holding unorthodox views. Indeed, the autonomous individual, free from compulsive conformance and unquestioned assumptions, is likely to be unorthodox... They stimulate the climate of controversy without which political democracy becomes an empty formalism.~ Snell Putney A liberal society stands on the proposition that we should all take seriously the idea that we might be wrong. This means we must place no one, including ourselves, beyond the reach of criticism (no final say); it means that we must allow people to err, even where the error offends and upsets, as it often will.~ Jonathan Rauch What a state of society is this in which freethinker is a term of abuse, and in which doubt is regarded as sin?~ William Winwood Reade In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.~ Bertrand Russell Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.~ Bertrand Russell The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.~ Bertrand Russell The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent are full of doubt.~ Bertrand Russell The practical objection to Puritanism, as to every form of fanaticism, is that it singles out certain evils as so much worse than others that they must be suppressed at all costs. The fanatic fails to recognise that the suppression of a real evil, if carried out too drastically, produces other evils which are even greater.~ Bertrand Russell It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions make it impossible to earn a living.~ Bertrand Russell There is a lurking fear that some things are not meant “to be known,” that some inquiries are too dangerous for human beings to make.~ Carl Sagan At the heart of science is an essential tension between two seemingly contradictory attitudes -- an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense.~ Carl Sagan Without doubt the greatest injury of all was done by basing morals on myth. For, sooner or later, myth is recognized for what it is, and disappears. Then morality loses the foundation on which it has been built.~ Lord Herbert Louis Samuel Skepticism is a discipline fit to purify the mind of prejudice and render it all the more apt, when the time comes, to believe and to act wisely.~ George Santayana Liberalism regards all absolutes with profound skepticism, including both moral imperatives and final solutions... Insistence upon any particular solution is the mark of an ideologue...~ Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. The State…has had a vested interest in promoting attitudes that would tend to make us skeptical of our own abilities, fearful of the motives of others, and emotionally dependent upon external authorities for purpose and direction in our lives.~ Butler D. Shaffer Previous 20 quotes Next 20 quotes Share on Facebook Tweet Email Print