Questioning Beliefs Quotes

• Advances are Made by Answering Questions. Discoveries are Made by Questioning Answers.

  Bernard Haisch

  Wisdom, Science, Discovery

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  A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

  William James

  Motivational, Inspiring, Attitude

  "American Treasury, 1455 - 1955". Book by Clifton Fadimany, 1455 - 1955, 1955.

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• The soft-minded man always fears change. He feels security in the status quo, and he has an almost morbid fear of the new. For him, the greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Change, Pain, Fear

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Religious, Atheist, Fear

  Thomas Jefferson, Jerry Holmes (2002). “Thomas Jefferson: A Chronology of His Thoughts”, p.90, Rowman & Littlefield

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• In religion and politics people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue but have taken them at second-hand from other non-examiners, whose opinions about them were not worth a brass farthing.

  Mark Twain

  Life, Inspiring, Truth

  Autobiography ch. 78 (1959)

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• The most erroneous stories are those we think we know best - and therefore never scrutinize or question.

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Science, Thinking, Fog

  Stephen Jay Gould (2011). “Full House”, p.57, Harvard University Press

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  Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

  Frank Zappa

  Positive, Inspiring, Science

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• In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.

  Galileo Galilei

  Truth, Inspiration, Independent

  "Biographies of Distinguished Scientific Men". Book by François Arago, as translated by Baden Powell, Robert Grant, and William Fairbairn, p. 365, 1859.

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• The universe is wider than our views of it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Science, Views, Space

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.185, Simon and Schuster

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• Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in their readiness to doubt.

  H. L. Mencken

  Believe, Men, Thinking

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• New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common.

  John Locke

  Business, Philosophy, War

  An Essay Concerning Human Understanding "Dedicatory Epistle" (1690)

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  All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Inspirational, Witty, Truth

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2016). “101 Facts of life”, p.4, Publishdrive

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• Genius... means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.

  William James

  Creativity, Mean, Science

  William James (2012). “Psychology: The Briefer Course”, p.195, Courier Corporation

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• If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated.

  Wilfred Trotter

  Science, Ideas, Watches

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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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• The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Positive, Knowledge

  "János : The Story of a Doctor" by János Plesch, translated by Edward FitzGerald, 1947.

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• Biologists can be just as sensitive to heresy as theologians.

  H. G. Wells

  Science, Sensitive, Theologian

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• There is no better soporific and sedative than skepticism.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Science, Skepticism, Scientific Truth

  Friedrich Nietzsche (2016). “BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL - Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future: The Critique of the Traditional Morality and the Philosophy of the Past”, p.76, e-artnow

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• Who never walks save where he sees men's tracks makes no discoveries.

  J. G. Holland

  Science, Men, Discovery

  J. G. HOLLAND (1867). “KATHRINA: HER LIFE AND MINE, IN A POEM”, p.230

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• Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.

  Howard Aiken

  Life And Love, Business, Congratulations

  "A Computer Science Reader : Selections from Abacus" by Eric A. Weiss, (p. 404), 1988.

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• The greatest pain is the pain of a new idea.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Pain, Science, Ideas

  Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012). “A Gift of Love: Sermons from Strength to Love and Other Preachings”, p.3, Beacon Press

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• The truth knocks on the door and you say, go away, I'm looking for the truth, and it goes away. Puzzling.

  Robert M. Pirsig

  Truth, Science, Discovery

  Robert M. Pirsig (2009). “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values”, p.6, Harper Collins

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• A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.

  Max Planck

  Death, Truth, Growing Up

  Scientific Autobiography, and Other Papers "Scientific Autobiography" (1948) (translation by Frank Gaynor)

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• The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Science, Power, Errors

  "Counsels and Maxims". Book by Arthur Schopenhauer, Vol. 2, Ch. 1, § 17, 2007.

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• For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.

  Jasper Fforde

  Science, Opposites, Experts

  Jasper Fforde (2011). “One of our Thursdays is Missing: Thursday Next”, p.122, Hachette UK

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