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 hate the very idea that our own ideas may be mistaken, so we cling dogmatically to our conjectures.

  Karl Popper

  Hate, Ideas, May

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• The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.

  Karl Popper

  Games, One Day, Principles

  Karl Popper (2005). “The Logic of Scientific Discovery”, p.32, 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• 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

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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

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• The use of violence is justified only under a tyranny which makes reforms without violence impossible, and should have only one aim, that is, to bring about a state of affairs which makes reforms without violence possible.

  Karl Popper

  Should Have, Atheism, Use

  Karl Popper (2012). “The Open Society and Its Enemies”, p.360, Routledge

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• 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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• 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 know a great deal, but our ignorance is sobering and boundless. With each step forward, with each problem which we solve, we not only discover new and unsolved problems, but we also discover that where we believed that we were standing on firm and safe ground, all things are, in truth, insecure and in a state of flux.

  Karl Popper

  Ignorance, Insecure, Safe

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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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• There is no history, only histories.

  Karl Popper

  History

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

  Karl Popper

  Temptation, Promise, Lure

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• No number of sightings of white swans can prove the theory that all swans are white. The sighting of just one black one may disprove it.

  Karl Popper

  Swans, White, Numbers

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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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• No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.

  Karl Popper

  May, Theory, Certain

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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 we shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look upon science as a 'body of knowledge,' but rather as a system of hypotheses; that is to say, as a system of guesses or anticipations which in principle cannot be justified, but with which we work as long as they stand up to tests, and of which we are never justified in saying that we know they are 'true' or 'more or less certain' or even 'probable.'

  Karl Popper

  Knowledge, Science, Thinking

  The Logic of Scientific Discovery (p. 317)

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• If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted.

  Karl Popper

  Pet, Looks, Favors

  Karl Popper (2013). “The Poverty of Historicism”, p.124, Routledge

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