Karl Popper Quotes

Quotes about:

• The only way to test a hypothesis is to look for all the information that disagrees with it.

  Karl Popper

  Looks, Tests, Information

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• Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.

  Karl Popper

  Names, Tolerance, Claims

  "The Open Society and Its Enemies". Book by Karl Popper, Volume 1. Notes to Chapter 7, Note 4, 1945.

  257 Copy quote

• The growth of knowledge depends entirely upon disagreement.

  Karl Popper

  Growth, Depends, Disagreement

  Karl Popper, M.A. Notturno (2014). “The Myth of the Framework: In Defence of Science and Rationality”, p.10, Routledge

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• Ignorance is not a simple lack of knowledge but an active aversion to knowledge, the refusal to know, issuing from cowardice, pride, or laziness of mind.

  Karl Popper

  Ignorance, Pride, Simple

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• True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.

  Karl Popper

  Ignorance, Paradise On Earth, Absence

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• The question is not how to get good people to rule; THE QUESTION IS: HOW TO STOP THE POWERFUL from doing as much damage as they can to us.

  Karl Popper

  Powerful, People, Good People

  144 Copy quote

• If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.

  Karl Popper

  Quiet, Ifs

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• If we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.

  Karl Popper

  Tolerance, Tolerate, Prepared

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

  11 Copy quote

• Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

  Karl Popper

  Libertarian, Problem, Theory

  "Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach". Book by Karl Popper, 1972.

  195 Copy quote

• In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.

  Karl Popper

  Reality, Doe, Speak

  1959 The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1934), appendix to1959 edition.

  141 Copy quote

• Optimism is a duty. The future is open. It is not predetermined. No one can predict it, except by chance. We all contribute to determining it by what we do. We are all equally responsible for its success.

  Karl Popper

  Optimism, Chance, Responsible

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• No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

  Karl Popper

  Attitude, Men, Doe

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and its Enemies”, p.503, Routledge

  162 Copy quote

• You cannot have a rational discussion with a man who prefers shooting you to being convinced by you.

  Karl Popper

  Men, Shooting, Rational

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

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• The defence of democracy must consist in making anti-democratic experiences too costly for those who try them; much more costly than a democratic compromise

  Karl Popper

  Democracy, Trying, Compromise

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• Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.

  Karl Popper

  Paradise On Earth, Keeping Promises, Kept Promises

  "In Passing: Condolences and Complaints on Death, Dying, and Related Disappointments". Book by Jon Winokur, p. 144, 2005.

  66 Copy quote

• Every solution of a problem raises new unsolved problems.

  Karl Popper

  Obstacles, Problem, Raises

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

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• Every intellectual has a very special responsibility. He has the privilege and the opportunity of studying. In return, he owes it to his fellow men (or 'to society') to represent the results of his study as simply, clearly and modestly as he can. The worst thing that intellectuals can do - the cardinal sin - is to try to set themselves up as great prophets vis-à-vis their fellow men and to impress them with puzzling philosophies. Anyone who cannot speak simply and clearly should say nothing and continue to work until he can do so.

  Karl Popper

  Philosophy, Responsibility, Opportunity

  "In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years".

  195 Copy quote

• It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it.

  Karl Popper

  Freedom, Thinking, Victory

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

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• It can't happen here is always wrong: a dictatorship can happen anywhere.

  Karl Popper

  Dictatorship, Always Wrong, Happens

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• The best thing that can happen to a human being us to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.

  Karl Popper

  Falling In Love, Trying, Problem

  135 Copy quote

• I remained a socialist for several years, even after my rejection of Marxism; and if there could be such a thing as socialism combined with individual liberty, I would be a socialist still. For nothing could be better than living a modest, simple, and free life in an egalitarian society.

  Karl Popper

  Beautiful, Dream, Simple

  "The Lesson of this Century: With Two Talks on Freedom and the Democratic State".

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• In my view, aiming at simplicity and lucidity is a moral duty of all intellectuals: lack of clarity is a sin, and pretentiousness is a crime.

  Karl Popper

  Views, Simplicity, Moral

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• The survival value of intelligence is that it allows us to extinct a bad idea, before the idea extincts us.

  Karl Popper

  Ideas, Survival, Bad Ideas

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• We do not know. We can only guess.

  Karl Popper

  Objectivity, Subjectivity, Knows

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.278, Routledge

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• The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not even want to convince; all the time he is aware that he may be wrong. Above all, he values the intellectual independence of others too highly to want to convince them in important matters. He would much rather invite contradiction, preferably in the form of rational and disciplined criticism. He seeks not to convince but to arouse - to challenge others to form free opinions.

  Karl Popper

  Free Opinion, Challenges, Intellectual

  "On Freedom (All Life is Problem Solving)". Essay by Karl Popper, translated by Patrick Camiller, 1994.

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