Skepticism Quotes - Page 12

• There are good intentions behind many peoples conversion to veganism, including an admirable devotion to the well-being of animals and a justified skepticism about the crap the USDA allows manufacturers to put in our food. But its hard to ignore the often sanctimonious nature of what some nutritionists view as an extremist way of eating.

  Julie Klausner

  Animal, Views, Way

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• Truth exists. The sole purpose of this proposition is to assert the existence of truth against imbeciles and sceptics.

  Edward Herbert, 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury

  Truth, Purpose, Imbeciles

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• The new statement is always hated by the old, and, to those dwelling in the old, comes like an abyss of skepticism.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Hate, Dwelling, Innovation

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.264, Harvard University Press

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• Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect. A man does not see, that, as he eats, so he thinks: as he deals, so he is, and so he appears; he does not see that his son is the son of his thoughts and of his actions; that fortunes are not exceptions but fruits; that relation and connection are not somewhere and sometimes, but everywhere and always; no miscellany, no exemption, no anomaly,--but method, and an even web; and what comes out, that was put in.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Son, Men, Thinking

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2010). “Essays and English Traits by Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Five Foot Shelf of Classics, Vol. V (in 51 Volumes)”, p.294, Cosimo, Inc.

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• One needs the invented, the spontaneous, the impromptu for ritual. Skepticism, that grain of salt, is inappropriate.

  E. M. Broner

  Grain Of Salt, Needs, Inappropriate

  E. M. Broner (1999). “Bringing Home the Light: A Jewish Woman's Handbook of Rituals”, Council Oaks Distribution

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• The sceptic only stumbles at matter of fact.

  Karl Ludwig von Knebel

  Matter, Facts, Sceptic

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• ... skepticism about past returns is crucial. The truth is, much as you may wish you could know which funds will be hot, you can't - and neither can the legions of advisers and publications that claim they can. That's why building a portfolio around index funds isn't really settling for average. It's just refusing to believe in magic.

  Bethany McLean

  Believe, Past, Average

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• We are not final because we are infallible, but infallible only because we are final.

  Robert H. Jackson

  Law, Justice, Honor

  Brown v. Allen (concurring opinion) (1953)

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• 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.

  Faith, Freedom, Knowledge

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• We, especially those of us in depoliticized and pacified societies, need to cast a colder eye at our self-perceptions, now and in the past, as sentinels and embodiments of Enlightenment virtues of reason, dissent, and skepticism.

  Pankaj Mishra

  Eye, Past, Self

  Source: www.guernicamag.com

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• Everywhere, except in theology, there has been a vigorous growth of skepticism about skepticism itself.

  C. S. Lewis

  Growth, Theology, Has Beens

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• The human understanding, when any preposition has been once laid down... forces everything else to add fresh support and confirmation; and although more cogent and abundant instances may exist to the contrary, yet it either does not observe them or it despises them, or it gets rid of and rejects them by some distinction, with violent and injurious prejudice, rather than sacrifice the authority of its first conclusions.

  Francis Bacon

  Sacrifice, Support, Understanding

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• The registering of doubts hath two excellent uses: the one, that it saveth philosophy from errors and falsehoods; when that which is not fully appearing is not collected into assertion, whereby error might draw error, but reserved in doubt: the other, that the entry of doubts are as so many
  suckers or sponges to draw use of knowledge; insomuch as that which, if doubts had not preceded, a man should never have advised, but passed it over without note, by the suggestion and solicitation of doubts, is made to be attended and applied.

  Francis Bacon

  Philosophy, Men, Errors

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• Another error is an impatience of doubt and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation; if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

  Francis Bacon

  Men, Errors, Two

  The Advancement of Learning bk. 1, ch. 5, sec. 8 (1605)

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• True courage is mixed with circumspection, the kind of healthy skepticism that asks, 'Is this the best way to do this?' True cowardice is marked by chronic skepticism, which always says, 'It can't be done.'

  William Bennett

  Healthy, Way, Done

  William J. Bennett (1993). “The Book of Virtues: A Treasury of Great Moral Stories”, Simon and Schuster

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• I grew up a child of Watergate. It gave me a good dose of skepticism about authority. One of my favorite movies is 'All the President's Men.' Woodward and Bernstein, those guys were my heroes. I have a degree in journalism.

  Chris Carter

  Children, Hero, Men

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• Sanctions are a strong and agreed element of the West's response to Russia's aggression. It is puzzling to me that there is so much skepticism about the sanctions. I don't understand it.

  Daniel Fried

  Strong, Russia, Elements

  Source: www.politico.com

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• Every good historian is almost by definition a revisionist. He looks at the accepted view of a particular historic episode or period with a very critical eye.

  Paul Johnson

  Eye, Views, History

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• You have to do a show as honestly as you can. But you also can't afford skepticism, because it's preparing for failure, which is useless.

  Louis C. K.

  Useless, Honestly, Shows

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• In that kind of environment, where there's so much skepticism about information that's coming in, we're gonna have to spend a lot more time thinking about how do we protect our democratic process.

  Barack Obama

  Thinking, Information, Kind

  Source: abcnews.go.com

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• Skepticism is essential to the quest for knowledge, for it is in the seedbed of puzzlement that genuine inquiry takes root. Without skepticism, we may remain mired in unexamined belief systems that are accepted as sacrosanct yet have no factual basis in reality.

  Paul Kurtz

  Reality, Roots, Essentials

  Paul Kurtz “Skepticism and Humanism: The New Paradigm”, Transaction Publishers

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• No man ever quite believes in any other man. One may believe in an idea absolutely, but not in a man. In the highest confidence there is always a flavor of doubt--a feeling, half instinctive and half logical, that, after all, the scoundrel may have something up his sleeve.

  H. L. Mencken

  Trust, Believe, Men

  H.L. Mencken (2012). “Mencken Chrestomathy”, p.10, Vintage

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• Mainstream economic theories popular in the last several decades have tended to downplay the government's role in markets and to increase skepticism about even that more limited role. Austerity, particularly in Europe, has added to the problem. It has not worked, even on its own terms.

  Mariana Mazzucato

  Government, Europe, Roles

  Source: www.salon.com

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• Old heads as well as young may sometimes be charged with ignorance and presumption. The natural course of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Ignorance, Mind, May

  Thomas Jefferson (1829). “Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellanies: From the Papers of Thomas Jefferson”, p.94

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• We must be skeptical even of our skepticism.

  Bertrand Russell

  Skeptical

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