Sceptic Quotes - Page 3

• Human affairs are so obscure and various that nothing can be clearly known. This was the sound conclusion of the Academic sceptics, who were the least surly of philosophers.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Sound, Philosopher, Affair

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• As a man of pleasure, by a vain attempt to be more happy than any man can be, is often more miserable than most men are, so the sceptic, in a vain attempt to be wise beyond what is permitted to man, plunges into a darkness more deplorable, and a blindness more incurable than that of the common herd, whom he despises, and would fain instruct.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Wise, Men, Darkness

  Charles Caleb Colton (1837). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words : Addressed to Those who Think”, p.97

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• It is effectively BBC policy to ignore climate change sceptics.

  Peter Sissons

  Climate, Global Warming, Policy

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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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• Nothing fortifies scepticism more than that there are some who are not sceptics; if all were so, they would be wrong.

  Blaise Pascal

  Would Be, Facts, Scepticism

  "Thoughts, Letters & Minor Works".

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• Sceptics are yet the most credulous.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Skepticism

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• A phenomenon often seen. A sceptic adhering to a believer; that is as simple as the law of the complementary colours. What we lack attracts us. Nobody loves the light like the blind man.

  Victor Hugo

  Simple, Men, Light

  Victor Hugo (1994). “Les Miserables Volume One”, p.441, Wordsworth Editions

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• Materialism prevails in Europe today. You may pray for the salvation of the modern sceptics, but they do not yield, they want reason.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Yield, Europe, May

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “Jnana Yoga: The Yoga of Knowledge”, p.54, editionNEXT.com

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• A sceptic finds Dallas absurd. A cynic thinks the public doesn't

  Clive James

  Thinking, Dallas, Classic

  Clive James (1983). “Glued to the box: television criticism from the Observer, 1979-82”, Jonathan Cape

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• From the apparent usefulness of the social virtues, it has readily been inferred by sceptics, both ancient and modern, that all moral distinctions arise from education, and were, at first, invented, and afterwards encouraged ... in order to render men tractable, and subdue their natural ferocity and selfishness, which incapacitated them for society.

  David Hume

  Men, Order, Selfishness

  David Hume (2006). “An Inquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals”, p.48, Cosimo, Inc.

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• Seeing clearly within himself and always able to dodge around the ends of any position, including his own, Shaw assumed from the start the dual role of prophet and gadfly. To his contemporaries it appeared frivolous and contradictory to perform as both superman and socialist, sceptic and believer, legalist and heretic, high-brow and mob-orator. But feeling the duty to teach as well as to mirror mankind, Shaw did not accept himself as a contradictory being.

  Jacques Barzun

  Mirrors, Feelings, Gadflies

  "Bernard Shaw in Twilight" by Jacques Barzun in "The Kenyon Review", Volume 5, No. 3 (pp. 321-345), Part II, www.jstor.org. Summer 1943.

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• The world would be astonished if it knew how great a proportion of its brightest ornaments, of those distinguished even in popular estimation for wisdom and virtue, are complete sceptics in religion.

  John Stuart Mill

  Religion, Ornaments, Would Be

  John Stuart Mill (2015). “Autobiography John Stuart Mill: Top Biography”, p.20, 谷月社

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• Mr Howard's problem is for so long he's been a climate change sceptic, how can he, therefore, put himself to the country as part of a climate change solution for the future.

  Kevin Rudd

  Country, Australia, Long

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• The sceptic, when he plunges into the depths of infidelity, like the miser who leaps from the shipwreck, will find that the treasures which he bears about him will only sink him deeper in the abyss.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Infidelity, Depth, Treasure

  Charles Caleb Colton (1836). “Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.109

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• The want of faith, as well as faith itself, is best shewn by works. If a sceptic avoid the fire as much as those who believe it dangerous to go into it, we can hardly avoid thinking his scepticism to be feigned, and not real.

  Thomas Reid

  Real, Believe, Thinking

  Thomas Reid, William Hamilton, Harry M. Bracken, Thomas Reid, Sir William Hamilton (1967). “Philosophical Works”, p.489, Georg Olms Verlag

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• The Holy Ghost is not a Sceptic, and He has not inscribed in our hearts uncertain opinions, but, rather, affirmations of the strongest sorts.

  Martin Luther

  Heart, Opinion, Affirmation

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• My position is such that there is no necessity for me to enter into competition with struggling humanity. As to expensive and ruinous pleasures, I am a sceptic who knows how much they are worth, or rather, knows that they are not worth anything.

  Henryk Sienkiewicz

  Struggle, Competition, Humanity

  Henryk Sienkiewicz (1897). “Without Dogma: A Novel of Modern Poland”

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• The Bible has a human history as well as a divine inspiration. It is a history full of interest, and it is one which all those who value their Bible should know, at least in outline, if only that they may be able to meet the criticisms of sceptics and the ignorant.

  Frederic G. Kenyon

  Inspiration, Ignorant, Criticism

  "The Story Of The Bible" by Frederic G. Kenyon. Ch. I, The Bible And Recent Discoveries, p. 2, 1949.

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• You cannot prove realism to a complete sceptic or idealist; but you can show an honest man that he is not a complete sceptic or idealist, but a realist at heart. So long as he is alive his sincere philosophy must fulfil the assumptions of his life and not destroy him.

  George Santayana

  Philosophy, Heart, Reality

  Durant Drake, Arthur Oncken Lovejoy, James Bissett Pratt, Arthur Kenyon Rogers, George Santayana (1920). “Essays in critical realism: a co-operative study of the problem of knowledge”

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• While the dogmatist is harmful, the sceptic is useless ...; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or of ignorance. Knowledge is not so precise a concept as is commonly thought. Instead of saying 'I know this', we ought to say 'I more or less know something more or less like this'. ... Knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic.

  Bertrand Russell

  Philosophy, Ignorance, Knowledge

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• I'm an ambitious self-publicist out of necessity. I've never been one to miss an opportunity because I've never had any illusions about how hard it is to survive as a painter... It's been an extra driving force to be able to prove the sceptics wrong.

  Stuart Pearson Wright

  Opportunity, Self, Missing

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• The problems with this world cannot possibly be solved by sceptics or cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who can dream of things that never were.

  John F. Kennedy

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• When we're interested in something, everything around us appears to refer to it (the mystics call these phenomena "signs," the sceptics "coincidence," and psychologists "concentrated focus," although I've yet to find out what term historians should use).

  Paulo Coelho

  Passion, Focus, Use

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• What of Art? -It is a malady. --Love? -An Illusion. --Religion? -The fashionable substitute for Belief. --You are a sceptic. -Never! Scepticism is the beginning of Faith. --What are you? -To define is to limit.

  Oscar Wilde

  Art, Limits, Belief

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