Skeptic Quotes - Page 5

• When I began my humanitarian work, I understood that in order to gain credibility I needed patience, commitment and unwavering perseverance. I needed to ignore the skeptics.

  Bianca Jagger

  Perseverance, Commitment, Order

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• Accordingly, France Had Voltaire, and his school of negative thinkers, and England (or rather Scotland) had the profoundest negative thinker on record, David Hume: a man, the peculiarities of whose mind qualified him to detect failure of proof, and want of logical consistency, at a depth which French skeptics, with their comparatively feeble powers of analysis and abstractions stop far short of, and which German subtlety alone could thoroughly appreciate, or hope to rival.

  John Stuart Mill

  Religious, School, Men

  John Stuart Mill (2008). “Utilitarianism and On Liberty: Including 'Essay on Bentham' and Selections from the Writings of Jeremy Bentham and John Austin”, p.55, John Wiley & Sons

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• Something that I wanted to do through the film is try to explore the roots of belief, because everything has to do with beliefs. When I studied the side of the rationalists and the skeptics, and the side of the believers and so-called psychics, I found out that both of them, no matter what they claim to do, behave in a very similar way. They only accepted what confirmed their previous positions, and tended to reject everything that put them at risk.

  Rodrigo Cortes

  Risk, Trying, Belief

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• What I am suggesting is that each of us turn from the negativism that permeates our society and look for the remarkable good among those with whom we associate, that we speak of one another’s virtues more than we speak of one another’s faults, that optimism replace pessimism, that our faith exceed our fears. When I was a young man and was prone to speak critically, my father would say: “Cynics do not contribute, skeptics do not create, doubters do not achieve.

  Gordon B. Hinckley

  Happiness, Father, Positive Thinking

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• A faith without some doubts is like a human body with no antobodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask the hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic. A person's faith can collapse almost overnight if she failed over the years to listen patiently to her own doubts, which should only be discarded after long reflection.

  Timothy Keller

  Smart, Believe, Reflection

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• I am a personal optimist but a skeptic about all else. What may sound to some like anger is really nothing more than sympathetic contempt. I view my species with a combination of wonder and pity, and I root for its destruction. And please don't confuse my point of view with cynicism; the real cynics are the ones who tell you everything's gonna be all right.

  George Carlin

  Real, Views, Roots

  George Carlin (2007). “The Best of Brain Droppings”, p.11, Peter Pauper Press, Inc.

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• My wish for you... is that your skeptic-eclectic brain be flooded with the light of truth.

  Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

  Light, Brain, Wish

  Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn (1973). “The First Circle”

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• It is hard to see how a great man can be an atheist. Without the sustaining influence of faith in a divine power we could have little faith in ourselves. We need to feel that behind us is intelligence and love. Doubters do not achieve; skeptics do not contribute; cynics do not create. Faith is the great motive power, and no man realizes his full possibilities unless he has the deep conviction that life is eternally important, and that his work, well done, is a part of an unending plan.

  Calvin Coolidge

  Atheist, Men, Important

  Telephone Remarks to a Group of Boy Scouts: "What it Means to Be a Boy Scout", July 25, 1924.

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• Authority has every reason to fear the skeptic, for authority can rarely survive in the face of doubt.

  Robert M. Lindner

  Fear, Doubt, Atheism

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• A skeptic, I would ask for consistency first of all.

  Sylvia Plath

  Consistency, Firsts, Asks

  Sylvia Plath (2007). “The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath”, p.120, Anchor

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• Among so many conflicting ideas and so many different perspectives, the honest man is confused and distressed and the skeptic becomes wicked ... Since one must take sides, one might as well choose the side that is victorious, the side which devastates, loots, and burns. Considering the alternative, it is better to eat than to be eaten.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Confused, Army, Men

  "The Age of Napoleon" by J. Christopher Herold, (p. 8), 2002.

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• It is assumed that the skeptic has no bias; whereas he has a very obvious bias in favour of skepticism.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Favour, Obvious, Skepticism

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• Skepsis. I am a true skeptic, born under the noble sign of skepsis, the sign of the man who knows that all astrology is absolutely and without reservation the bullest of bullsh*t that ever there was. It is a senseless delusion that does not even have the benefit of being harmless fun. It is a harmful bore. Harmful to the human spirit, harmful to the dignity and wonder of the real universe and the real power of the mind to think for itself. I hate astrology with a fervor that is almost frightening. - Stephen Fry (when asked what sign he would be if he could create his own zodiac)

  Stephen Fry

  Fun, Real, Hate

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• The ultimate freedom for creative groups is the freedom to experiment with new ideas. Some skeptics insist that innovation is expensive. In the long run, innovation is cheap. Mediocrity is expensive—and autonomy can be the antidote.”   TOM KELLEY General Manager, IDEO

  Daniel H. Pink

  Running, Business, Ideas

  Daniel H. Pink (2010). “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us”, p.90, Canongate Books

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• Am I a liar in your eyes?" he asked passionately. "Little skeptic, you shall be convinced. What love have I for Miss Ingram? None: and that you know. What love has she for me? None: as I have taken pains to prove; I caused a rumor to reach her that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed, and after that I presented myself to see the result; it was coldness both from her and her mother. I would not-I could not-marry Miss Ingram. You-you strange-you almost unearthly thing!-I love as my own flesh. You-poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are-I entreat to accept me as a husband.

  Charlotte Bronte

  Mother, Pain, Husband

  Jane Eyre ch. 23 (1847)

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• I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.

  Daniel J. Boorstin

  Atheist, Ignorance, Humility

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• When Edison first started out with his "crazy" idea for the light bulb, skeptics were unmoved. They called Thomas Edison a con man and taunted him to prove his bulb could really work. Despite the naysayers, Edison pushed on, demonstrating the importance of sticking with his "crazy" idea which would go on to turn him into one of the world's most well-known entrepreneurs. The key here is to fan the foolish fire no matter what!

  Linda Rottenberg

  Crazy, Men, Entrepreneur

  Source: bobmorris.biz

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• I take notice of those who have argued consistently for the modernisation of the E.U., but so many of the skeptics in Britain are just hostile to the whole European idea.

  Neil Kinnock

  Ideas, Britain, Modernisation

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• The governor of Texas was a real climate change, well, "skeptic" would be a nice way of phrasing it. Still, though, Texas is a leader in renewables. So, what I care about is what politicians are actually doing, not what they are saying.

  Michael Bloomberg

  Real, Nice, Leader

  Source: www.spiegel.de

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• Even David Hume, one of history most famous skeptics, said it's just barely possible that God exists.

  Peter Kreeft

  Atheist, Said, Hume

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• When on life's journey it becomes our lot to travel with criticism of skeptics, the hate of some, the rejection of others, the impatience of many, or a friend's betrayal, we must be able to pray in such a manner that an abiding faith and a strong testimony that the Lord will be with us to the end, will compel us to say, "Nevertheless, Father, Thy will be done, and with Thy help, in patience I will follow firmly on the path that takes me back to Thee."

  Angel Abrea

  Life, Faith, Strong

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• The sceptic ultimately undermines democracy (1) because he can see no significance in death and such things of a literal equality; (2) because he introduces different first principles, making debate impossible: and debate is the life of democracy; (3) because the fading of the images of sacred persons leaves a man too prone to be a respecter of earthly persons; (4) because there will be more, not less, respect for human rights if they can be treated as divine rights.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Men, Rights, Divine Right

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• Liberty has produced scepticism, and scepticism has destroyed liberty. The lovers of liberty thought they were leaving it unlimited, when they were only leaving it undefined. They thought they were only leaving it undefined, when they were really leaving it undefended.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Leaving, Liberty, Lovers

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• No sceptical philosopher can ask any questions that may not equally be asked by a tired child on a hot afternoon.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Children, Tired, Hot

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• The sceptics, like bees, give their one sting and die.

  Gilbert K. Chesterton

  Giving, Bees, Dies

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