Skepticism Quotes - Page 16

• The religion that is afraid of science dishonors God and commits suicide. Every influx of atheism, of skepticism, is thus made useful as a mercury pill assaulting and removing a diseased religion, and making way for truth.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Suicide, Religion, Atheism

  Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson, March 04, 1831.

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• Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.

  Thomas Huxley

  Motivational, Science, Open Minded

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.359, University of Georgia Press

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• One does not have to be a 'climate change denier' to see that a degree of skepticism about the present consensus might be in order....Most likely, now - as in the past - many analysts have become carried away by the results of their models, which purport to look into a far distant future, and have convinced themselves that they must embark on a crusade to enlighten others.

  Colin Robinson

  Past, Order, Climate

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• I used everything as a positive
  to make me a better person and
  a better player. I have no regrets.
  Everytime I had to play a big game,
  I played a big game. I used some of
  the skepticism as a positive and motivation.

  Chris Osgood

  Motivation, Regret, Player

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• In practice, the goal of skepticism is not the discovery of truth, but the exposure of other people's errors. It plays a useful role in science, religion, scholarship, and common sense. But we need to remember that it is a weapon serving belief or self-interest; we need to be skeptical of skeptics. The more militant the skeptic, the stronger the belief.

  Rupert Sheldrake

  Truth, Discovery, Self

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• I came in with a healthy skepticism about these programs. My team evaluated them. We scrubbed them thoroughly. We actually expanded some of the oversight, increased some of the safeguards. But my assessment, and my team's assessment was that they help us prevent terrorist attacks. In the abstract, you can complain about 'Big Brother' and how this is a potential program run amok. But when you actually look at the details, then, I think we've struck the right balance.

  Barack Obama

  Running, Brother, Team

  Obama's Remarks on Health Care and Surveillance, www.nytimes.com. June 7, 2013.

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• As for Lindbergh, another eminent servant of science, all he proved by his gaudy flight across the Atlantic was that God takes care of those who have been so fortunate as to come into the world foolish. Expressing skepticism that adventure does not necessarily contribute to scientific knowledge.

  H. L. Mencken

  Adventure, World, Care

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• The theater requires an essential gullibility that you can't get through life without having. If all you can feel is skepticism-well , you meet people like this. Run away from them. They're not good people.

  Tony Kushner

  Running, People, Essentials

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• Commitment is what transforms a promise into a reality... Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Integrity, Character, Commitment

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• The concept of military necessity is seductively broad, and has a dangerous plasticity. Because they invariably have the visage of overriding importance, there is always a temptation to invoke security "necessities" to justify an encroachment upon civil liberties. For that reason, the military-security argument must be approached with a healthy skepticism.

  William J. Brennan

  Military, Temptation, Healthy

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• Doubt, skepticism, innovation, and inquiry are the only means by which wonder, beauty, awe, and symmetry will be discovered.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Mean, Innovation, Doubt

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• Everything we know is only some kind of approximation, because we know that we do not know all the laws yet. Therefore, things must be learned only to be unlearned again or, more likely, to be corrected.

  Richard P. Feynman

  Law, Kind, Knows

  Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, Matthew Sands (2013). “The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Desktop Edition Volume I”, Basic Books

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• Know that, as in life, there is much that many have looked upon but few have seen because, as my father told me and his father told him, you will come to learn a great deal if you study the insignificant in depth.

  Odysseas Elytis

  Father, Depth, Study

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• What should such fellows as I do crawling between earth and
  heaven?

  William Shakespeare

  Heaven, Humanity, Hamlet And Ophelia

  William Shakespeare (1823). “The Dramatic Works of William Shakspeare: From the Text of Johnson, Stevens, and Reed; with Glossarial Notes, His Life, and a Critique on His Genius & Writings”, p.920

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• When I was a boy, I read with great interest but skepticism about as magic lamp which was used with success by a certain Aladdin. Today I have no skepticism whatsoever about the magic of the xenon flash lamp which we use so effectively for many purposes. (1970)

  Harold Eugene Edgerton

  Xenon, Boys, Magic

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• There is nothing disastrous in the temporary nature of our ideas. They are always that. But there may very easily be a train of evil in the self-deception which regards them as final. I think God will forgive us our skepticism sooner than our Inquisitions.

  Walter Lippmann

  Thinking, Self, Ideas

  Walter Lippmann (1914). “A Preface to Politics”

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• No other book has been so chopped, knifed, sifted, scrutinized, and vilified. What book on philosophy or religion or psychology or belles lettres of classical or modern times has been subject to such a mass attack as the Bible? With such venom and skepticism? With such thoroughness and erudition? Upon every chapter, line and tenet?

  Bernard Ramm

  Philosophy, Book, Psychology

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• The purpose of the Federalist Society was to bring together young people who had this skepticism about what they were being taught and to let them know that there were others who shared this skepticism.

  Antonin Scalia

  People, Together, Purpose

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• There's a very healthy tradition in America of skepticism of centralized power. If we ever lose the skepticism of centralized power, we'll lose the essence of the country.

  Howard Fineman

  Country, Essence, America

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• The latest trade of a security creates a dangerous illusion that its market price approximates its true value. This mirage is especially dangerous during periods of market exuberance. The concept of "private market value" as an anchor to the proper valuation of a business can also be greatly skewed during ebullient times and should always be considered with a healthy degree of skepticism.

  Seth Klarman

  Anchors, Healthy, Degrees

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• Infidelity and skepticism abound everywhere. In one form or another they are to be found in every rank and class of society. Thousands are not ashamed to say that they regard the Bible as an old obsolete Jewish book, which has no special claim on our faith and obedience, and that it contains many inaccuracies and defects. In a day like this, the true Christian should be able to set his foot down firmly, and to render a reason of his confidence in God's Word. He should be able by sound arguments to show good cause why he thinks the Bible is from heaven, and not of men.

  J. C. Ryle

  Christian, Book, Men

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• Very few men can be genuinely happy in a life involving continual self-assertion against the skepticism of the mass of mankind, unless they can shut themselves up in a coterie and forget the cold outer world. The man of science has no need of a coterie, since he is thought well of by everybody except his colleagues. The artist, on the contrary, is in the painful situation of having to choose between being despised and being despicable.

  Bertrand Russell

  Men, Artist, Self

  Bertrand Russell (2013). “The Conquest of Happiness”, p.55, W. W. Norton & Company

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• Superstition is rooted in a much deeper and more sensitive layer of the psyche than skepticism.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Layers, Superstitions, Sensitive

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• Because of the war on drugs, pain patients are treated with skepticism and pain doctors live in fear of being prosecuted for overprescribing. The end result is that addicts still get their opioids without much trouble, while genuine patients often can't find treatment. Those who do must typically be tracked in a database and must schedule frequent, expensive doctor visits for surveillance like urine testing.

  Maia Szalavitz

  Pain, War, Doctors

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• Is it not better to remain in suspense than to entangle yourself in the many errors that the human fancy has produced? Is it not better to suspend your convictions than to get mixed up in these seditious and quarrelsome divisions?

  Michel de Montaigne

  Errors, Suspense, Division

  Michel de Montaigne (1958). “Complete Essays”, p.373, Stanford University Press

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