Scepticism Quotes

“Progress isn't achieved by preachers or guardians of morality, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and sceptics”
― Stephen Fry

“A person who peremptorily denies the existence of anything which is beyond the horizon of his understanding because he cannot make it harmonise with his accepted opinions is as credulous as he who believes everything without any discrimination. Either of these persons is not a freethinker, but a slave to the opinions which he has accepted from others, or which he may have formed in the course of his education, and by his special experiences in his (naturally limited) intercourse with the world. If such persons meet with any extraordinary fact that is beyond their own experience, they often either regard it with awe and wonder, and are ready to accept any wild and improbable theory that may be offered to them in regard to such facts, or they sometimes reject the testimony of credible witnesses, and frequently even that of their own senses. They often do not hesitate to impute the basest motives and the most silly puerilities to honourable persons, and are credulous enough to believe that serious and wise people had taken the trouble to play upon them “practical jokes,” and they are often willing to admit the most absurd theories rather than to use their own common sense.”
― Franz Hartmann, Life and Doctrines of Paracelsus

“When everything impossible had been eliminated and what remains is supernatural, then someone is lying.”
― Isaac Asimov, Tales of the Black Widowers

“The majority of mankind is lazy-minded, incurious, absorbed in vanities, and tepid in emotion, and is therefore incapable of either much doubt or much faith.”
― T.S. Eliot

“Do not let yourself be deceived: great spirits are sceptical. Zarathustra is a sceptic. The power, the freedom that comes from the strength and super-strength of spirit, proves itself through scepticism.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ

“Now this religion happens to prevail
Until by that religion overthrown,–
Because men dare not live with men alone,
But always with another fairy-tale”
― Abu al-A'lā al-Ma'arrī

“The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.”
― Carl Sagan

“The merits and services of Christianity have been industriously extolled by its hired advocates. Every Sunday its praises are sounded from myriads of pulpits. It enjoys the prestige of an ancient establishment and the comprehensive support of the State. It has the ear of rulers and the control of education. Every generation is suborned in its favor. Those who dissent from it are losers, those who oppose it are ostracised; while in the past, for century after century, it has replied to criticism with imprisonment, and to scepticism with the dungeon and the stake. By such means it has induced a general tendency to allow its pretensions without inquiry and its beneficence without proof.”
― Joseph Mazzini Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity

“The idea that water has a memory can be refuted by any one of several easily understood, invalid, arguments.”
― Brian Josephson

“Traditions and dogmas rub one another down to a minimum in such centers of varied intercourse; where there are a thousand faiths we are apt to become sceptical of them all.”
― Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The lives and opinions of the world's greatest philosophers from Plato to John Dewey

“It wearied Carter to see how solemnly people tried to make earthly reality out of old myths which every step of their boasted science confuted.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft

“A prudent scepticism is the most profitable quality a man can have.”
― Euripides

“. . . I don’t believe that celebrity spokeswomen get their hair colour from a box.”
― Roberta Pearce, The Value of Vulnerability

“[Charles] Nodier’s later view was that fantasy reconciles men to their fate. Fantasy and the taste for chimeras, he wrote, are symptoms of a time of political decay and transition, when the unpleasant realities of political life are too hard to bear. They serve a useful purpose in that they give men hope when scepticism and disillusion would otherwise drive them to despair.”
― Peter Partner, Murdered Magicians

“Nothing exists, though if it did exist, it could not be known, but even if it could be known, it could not be communicated, and, if it could be communicated, it could not be understood. - Gorgias, On Nature or the Non-Existent”
― Gorgias

“I do not want to believe. I want to know.”
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“Cogitatur" depends on "Est;" and there's no avoiding it.”
― Crowley Aleister

“The ingrained scepticism of the cold North fought a battle against mysterious and exciting forces from the ancient East.”
― H.R.F. Keating, The Perfect Murder

“Being sceptical about technology is like deciding whether or not you should breath.”
― pfano percy rathogwa

“...în general cu oamenii, cel mai înțelept era să te aștepți întotdeauna la răutate, la răceala și la refuz. Când contai pe așa ceva, cel puțin nu puteai fi dezamăgit.”
― Peter Rosei, Frühe Prosa

“For better or worse we're in an age of disbelief," Rico said, "An age of science and a need for proof.”
― Bryan Islip, Like An Angel Sings

“There are no ghosts. Belief in ghosts is a backward idea, a superstition and a sign of cowardice. This is a matter of common sense today among people.”
― Chi-fang Ho, Stories About Not Being Afraid of Ghosts

“MPD [Dissociative Identity Disorder] is one of the oldest Western psychiatric diagnoses. We have clearly described cases dating back two or more centuries. In addition to the contributions of Pierre Janet, Monon Prince, and others, we have descriptions of early MPD cases by such important historical figures as Benjamin Rush, father of U.S. psychiatry (Carlson, 1981). Thus MPD is consistent across time and cultures; such a claim can be documented for few other psychiatric disorders. And, as this book demonstrates, MPD and other forms of pathological dissociation are found in children and have features that fit with developmental data and theories.

Criticisms of the existence of MPD often appear to be directed more at the mass media stereotype described earlier than at the actual condition.”
― Frank W. Putnam, Dissociation in Children and Adolescents: A Developmental Perspective

“Religion is scepticism with God occupying the seat of reason.”
― Raheel Farooq, Kalam

“A prudent scepticism is the most profitable quality a man can have.”
― Euripidies

“The irony with mainstream atheism is that it does not deny but opposes the existence of God.”
― Raheel Farooq, Why I Am a Muslim: And a Christian and a Jew

“The understanding of the operation of unconscious elements has taught us to be sceptical towards words and not to take them at face value.”
― Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom

“And yet I am by nature sceptical - a questioner, a doubter, an instinctive agnostic.”
― Penelope Lively, Moon Tiger

“Η ανθρώπινη λογική λειτουργούσε ως εξής: πάρα πολλοί θεωρούσαν εαυτούς εξτρεμιστές. Οσο οι Σουηδοί Δημοκράτες ήταν ό,τι πιο εξτρεμιστικό είχε να προσφέρει η Σουηδία, θα υπήρχαν πάντα αρκετοί που δε θα τους ψήφιζαν, όσο δίκαιο και να συμφωνούσαν οτι είχαν. [...] Αν παρ'όλα αυτά συνέβαλλε σε μια εναλλακτική ψήφο, δεξιά απο αυτούς που ήταν στην άκρα δεξιά, τότε θα συνέβαιναν 2 πράγματα: πρώτον, οι Σουηδοί Δημοκράτες θα σήκωναν το δάχτυλο δείχνοντας τους νεοναζιστές και θα έλεγαν: «Κοιτάξτε πόσο απαίσιοι είναι! Εμείς, ασφαλώς, δεν είμαστε σαν κι αυτούς»· και δεύτερον, ο κόσμος θα συμφωνούσε. Το να ψηφίσει κανείς τους Σουηδούς Δημοκράτες θα ήταν μεμιάς πολύ περισσότερο ευπρεπές και κοινωνικά αποδεκτό.[...] Ο πολιτικός χάρτης ομως θα είχε αλλάξει όρια. Οι συντηρητικοί, οι φιλελεύθεροι και οι σοσιαλδημοκράτες θα είχαν λόγο να αλλάξουν την εξωτερική πολιτική τους. Ελάχιστοι θέλουν να πεθάνουν.”
― Jonas Jonasson, The Accidental Further Adventures of the Hundred-Year-Old Man

“Scepticism is an illness that kills Dreams”
― Sandeep Sahajpal, The Twelfth Preamble: To all the authors to be!