Karl Popper Quotes - Page 3

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• no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.

  Karl Popper

  Swans, White, Doe

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.4, Routledge

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• We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.

  Karl Popper

  Freedom, Ethics, Reason

  The Open Society and its Enemies (1945) vol. 2, ch. 21

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• We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.

  Karl Popper

  Names, Tolerance, Claims

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and its Enemies”, p.668, Routledge

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• Whenever we propose a solution to a problem, we ought to try as hard as we can to overthrow our solution, rather than defend it.

  Karl Popper

  Trying, Problem, Propose

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.19, Routledge

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• Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle - the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative.

  Karl Popper

  Happiness, Fighting, Inner Peace

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.465, Routledge

  41 Copy quote

• We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.

  Karl Popper

  Freedom, Political, Promise

  Karl Popper (2013). “All Life is Problem Solving”, p.92, Routledge

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• Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.

  Karl Popper

  Mistake, Interesting, Objective Truth

  Karl Popper (2012). “In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years”, p.4, Routledge

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• While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.

  Karl Popper

  Ignorance, Littles, Infinite

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.38, Routledge

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• I don't know whether God exists or not. ... Some forms of atheism are arrogant and ignorant and should be rejected, but agnosticism—to admit that we don't know and to search—is all right. ... When I look at what I call the gift of life, I feel a gratitude which is in tune with some religious ideas of God. However, the moment I even speak of it, I am embarrassed that I may do something wrong to God in talking about God.

  Karl Popper

  Gratitude, Religious, Talking

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• Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations.

  Karl Popper

  Beautiful, Dream, Men

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.485, Routledge

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• It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.

  Karl Popper

  Freedom, Government, Office

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• There is no pure, disinterested, theory-free observation.

  Karl Popper

  Theory, Observation, Pure

  Karl Popper, M.A. Notturno (2014). “The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality”, p.8, Routledge

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• I think that there is only one way to science - or to philosophy, for that matter: to meet a problem, to see its beauty and fall in love with it; to get married to it and to live with it happily, till death do ye part - unless you should meet another and even more fascinating problem or unless, indeed, you should obtain a solution. But even if you do obtain a solution, you may then discover, to your delight, the existence of a whole family of enchanting, though perhaps difficult, problem children, for whose welfare you may work, with a purpose, to the end of your days.

  Karl Popper

  Falling In Love, Children, Philosophy

  80 Copy quote

• Astrologers were greatly impressed, and misled, by what they believed to be confirming evidence-so much so that they were quite unimpressed by any unfavorable evidence. Moreover, by making their interpretations and prophecies sufficiently vague they were able to explain away anything that might have been a refutation of the theory had the theory and the prophecies been more precise. In order to escape falsification they destroyed the testability of their theory. It is a typical soothsayer's trick to predict things so vaguely that the predictions can hardly fail: that they become irrefutable.

  Karl Popper

  Order, Typical, Might

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• The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance

  Karl Popper

  Ignorance, Knowledge, World

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.38, Routledge

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• We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.

  Karl Popper

  Gratitude, Humility, Math

  "Karl Popper". Book by Bryan Magee, 1973.

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• The future is always present, as a promise, a lure and a temptation.

  Karl Popper

  Temptation, Promise, Lure

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• Why do I think that we, the intellectuals, are able to help? Simply because we, the intellectuals, have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years. Mass murder in the name of an idea, a doctrine, a theory, a religion - that is all "our" doing, "our" invention: the invention of the intellectuals. If only we would stop setting man against man - often with the best intentions - much would be gained. Nobody can say that it is impossible for us to stop doing this.

  Karl Popper

  Men, Thinking, Ideas

  Karl Popper (2012). “In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years”, p.189, Routledge

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• We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell.

  Karl Popper

  Love, Religious, War

  Karl Popper (2014). “Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge”, p.479, Routledge

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• The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.

  Karl Popper

  Men, Decision, Authority

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and its Enemies”, p.590, Routledge

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• The quest for precision is analogous to the quest for certainty and both - precision and certainty are impossible to attain.

  Karl Popper

  Quests, Impossible, Precision

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• For myself, I am interested in science and in philosophy only because I want to learn something about the riddle of the world in which we live, and the riddle of man's knowledge of that world. And I believe that only a revival of interest in these riddles can save the sciences and philosophy from an obscurantist faith in the expert's special skill and in his personal knowledge and authority.

  Karl Popper

  Philosophy, Believe, Men

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.26, Routledge

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• A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others - not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others

  Karl Popper

  Ideas, Important, Opinion

  Karl Popper (2013). “All Life is Problem Solving”, p.84, Routledge

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• It is complete nihilism to propose laying down arms in a world where atom bombs are around. It is very simple: there is no way of achieving peace other than with weapons.

  Karl Popper

  Simple, Nihilism, Atoms

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• Nature consists of facts and of regularities, and is in itself neither moral nor immoral. It is we who impose our standards upon nature, and who in this way introduce morals into the natural world, in spite the fact that we are part of this world. We are products of nature, but nature has made us together with our power of altering the world, of foreseeing and of planning for the future, and of making far-reaching decisions for which we are morally responsible. Yet, responsibility, decisions, enter the world of nature only with us

  Karl Popper

  Responsibility, Decision, Together

  55 Copy quote

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