quotations about skepticism
Where is the questioning? Where is the protest song?
Since when is skepticism un-American?
Dissent's not treason but they talk like it's the same
Those who disagree are afraid to show their face
SLEATER-KINNEY
"Combat Rock"
Trying to debunk skeptics never works, and perhaps now we know why. Conspiracy theorists don't join social networks to learn, they join them to hear comforting reinforcements of their own ideas. And if you disrupt their happy place with scientific facts, you're not going to get very far.
JOSHUA A. KRISCH
"Why Facebook Is A Hotbed For Conspiracy Theories", Vocativ, June 18, 2016
Everyone, including skeptics, will generate delusions that match their views. That is how a normal and healthy brain works. Skeptics are not exempt from self-delusion.
SCOTT ADAMS
God's Debris: A Thought Experiment
Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.
JOHN DEWEY
The Essential Dewey: Pragmatism, Education, Democracy
A thousand skeptic hands won't keep us from the things we plan
Unless we're clinging to the things we prize
HOWARD JONES
"Things Can Only Get Better"
As the ages passed so little evidence remained
We turned to mysticism for the unexplained
The modern day has made the skepticism grow
When comes Millennium the world will finally know
CAGE
"Unveiled"
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Am I an Atheist or an Agnostic?
I conceive the skeptical writers to be a set of men whose business it is to pick holes in the fabric of knowledge wherever it is weak and faulty; and when these places are properly repaired, the whole building becomes more firm and solid than it was formerly.
THOMAS REID
The Works of Thomas Reid
If skepticism is the basis of knowledge, as such, then it actually says that refusing to infer from the particular we actually reassert the existence of the general.
ALEXANDER MITJASHIN
Liberalism and Skepticism
A skeptic, I would ask for consistency first of all.
SYLVIA PLATH
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
It's a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.
NAJIB MAHFUZ
Sugar Street
To have a solid foundation of skepticism -- that is to say, the faculty of changing at any moment, of turning back, of facing successively the metamorphoses of life.
REMY DE GOURMONT
Philosophic Nights in Paris
Through a vicious circle of pure reason skepsis itself becomes dogma.
JOHANN GEORG HAMANN
Briefwechsel
It seems to me what is called for is an exquisite balance between two conflicting needs: the most skeptical scrutiny of all hypotheses that are served up to us and at the same time a great openness to ideas. If you are only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You become a crotchety old person convinced that nonsense is ruling the world. (There is, of course, much data to support you.) But every now and then, a new idea turns out to be on the mark, valid and wonderful. If you are too much in the habit of being skeptical about everything, you are going to miss or resent it, and either way you will be standing in the way of understanding and progress. On the other hand, if you are open to the point of gullibility and have not an ounce of skeptical sense in you, then you cannot distinguish useful ideas from the worthless ones.
CARL SAGAN
"The Burden of Skepticism"
There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made.
RICHARD FEYNMAN
letter to Armando Garcia Jr., December 11, 1985
Inquisitive and restless spirits frequently take refuge from their own skepticism in the bosom of a church which pretends to infallibility, and after questioning the existence of a Deity, bring themselves to worship a wafer.
THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY
The History of England: From the Accession of James the Second
After all, if no one is happy who does not have what he wants and if the skeptics are always seeking the truth, but do not find it, they cannot be happy. Furthermore, the skeptics claim that their wise man is happy, and yet he cannot be happy since he does not have what he wants.
ST. AUGUSTINE
Trilogy on Faith and Happiness
A healthy dose of skepticism is always necessary in the age of misinformed consumerism.
SINCLAIRE SPARKMAN
"1,000 ways to diet", Lebanon Democrat, August 11, 2017
If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.
CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Letters to a Young Contrarian
The only part of my character that I can say I'm really proud of is a skepticism about my own bull***t.
JOSH OZERSKY
Eat Like a Man