Skepticism Quotes - Page 6

• The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.

  Mary Catherine Bateson

  Commitment, Democracy, Essentials

  Mary Catherine Bateson (2007). “Composing a Life”, p.155, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death. So long as you are alive, your case is doubtful; you have a right only to their skepticism.

  Albert Camus

  Death, Men, Long

  Albert Camus (1964). “The fall, & Exile and the kingdom”, Random House Inc

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• Scepticism is an ability, or mental attitude, which opposes appearances to judgments in any way whatsoever, with the result that,owing to the equipollence of the objects and reasons thus opposed we are brought firstly to a state of mental suspense and next to a state of "unperturbedness" or quietude.

  Sextus Empiricus

  Attitude, Suspense, Owing

  Sextus (Empiricus.) (1933). “Sextus Empiricus”, Loeb Classical Library

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• My skepticism is strong, but my curiosity is stronger.

  Veronica Roth

  Strong, Curiosity, Stronger

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• Skepticism literally means a thoughtful inquiry, the looking at a problem in a disinterested spirit, the surveying of a question from many sides. In this sense it is the very essence of philosophy and science.

  Joseph Alexander Leighton

  Philosophy, Mean, Thoughtful

  Joseph Alexander Leighton (1918). “The Field of Philosophy: An Outline of Lectures on Introduction to Philosophy”

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• Skepticism about the potential to achieve the kinds of breakthroughs we need has been a self-fulfilling prophecy.

  Ted Nordhaus

  Self, Needs, Kind

  Source: www.omnivoracious.com

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• Let the greatest part of the news thou hearest be the least part of what thou believest, lest the greater part of what thou believest be the least part of what is true.

  Francis Quarles

  News, Greater

  "Enchiridion" by Francis Quarles, 1640.

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• It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.

  Ambrose Bierce

  Change, Feel Better, Men

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• Investors should start with a view of skepticism. They should become intellectual investors rather than emotional investors. They should be careful, and they should be skeptical.

  Arthur Levitt Jr

  Emotional, Views, Intellectual

  "Fool.com: Doing Hard Time With Arthur Levitt [Special]". The Motley Fool Radio Show, www.fool.com. July 09, 2002.

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• In real life, every field of science is incomplete, and most of them - whatever the record of accomplishment during the last 200 years - are still in their very earliest stages.

  Lewis Thomas

  Real, Years, Accomplishment

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• On any Tuesday morning, if asked, a good working scientist will tell you with some self-satisfaction that the affairs of his field are nicely in order, that things are finally looking clear and making sense, and all is well. But come back again on another Tuesday, and the roof may have just fallen in on his life's work.

  Lewis Thomas

  Morning, Self, Order

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• I'm the most cynical person, and I know what that sounds like when you say, I don't drink and drive, and I don't. But I know people look at that with skepticism, and I understand.

  Tracey Gold

  People, Cynical, Sound

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• Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method.

  Michael Shermer

  Way, Claims, Method

  Michael Shermer (2002). “Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time”, p.17, Holt Paperbacks

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• Consensus is invoked only in situations where the science is not solid enough.

  Michael Crichton

  Enough, Situation, Consensus

  "Aliens Cause Global Warming". Caltech Michelin Lecture, January 17, 2003.

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• It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Mistake, Moving, Men

  Charles Sanders Peirce, Nathan Houser, Christian J.W. J. W. Kloesel (1992). “The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)”, p.56, Indiana University Press

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• Do you call it doubting to write down on a piece of paper that you doubt? If so, doubt has nothing to do with any serious business. But do not make believe; if pedantry has not eaten all the reality out of you, recognize, as you must, that there is much that you do not doubt, in the least. Now that which you do not at all doubt, you must and do regard as infallible, absolute truth.

  Charles Sanders Peirce

  Believe, Writing, Reality

  Charles Sanders Peirce (1958). “Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)”, p.188, Courier Corporation

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• A man lives by believing something: not by debating and arguing about many things.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Life, Faith, Believe

  Thomas Carlyle (1840). “Works”, p.161

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• All that is active, all that is enveloped in time and space, is endowed with what might be described as an abstract, ideal and absolute impermeability.

  Samuel Beckett

  Reality, Space, Might

  Samuel Beckett (1970). “The collected works of Samuel Beckett”

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• No medicine man these days can afford to be without a portable tape recorder. Without the aid of this modern device, which may be easily concealed in the undergrowth of the jungle, the old tribal authority will rapidly become undermined by the mounting influenece of modern skepticism.

  Muriel Spark

  Technology, Men, Medicine

  Muriel Spark (1960). “The Ballad of Peckham Rye”, p.142, New Directions Publishing

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• I expressed skepticism, in the first chapter, about the utility of time machines in historical research. I especially advised against graduate students relying on them, because of the limited perspective you tend to get from being plunked down in some particular part of the past, and the danger of not getting back in time for your orals.

  John Lewis Gaddis

  Past, Perspective, Historical

  John Lewis Gaddis (2004). “The Landscape of History: How Historians Map the Past”, p.22, Oxford University Press, USA

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• Skepticism is my nature, freethought is my methodology, agnosticism is my conclusion after 25 years of being in the ministry, and atheism is my opinion.

  Jerry DeWitt

  Years, Atheism, Ministry

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• The question so often asked of modern painting, "What is it?", contains more than the dull skepticism of the man who is not going to have the wool pulled over his eyes. It speaks of a fundamental placement in relation to the work, that of a voyager in the world coming upon a strange object. The reader reconstitutes the work by his active participation, by approaching the object, tapping it, shaking it, holding it to his ear to hear the roaring within. It is characteristic of the object that it does not declare itself all at once, in a rush of pleasant naïveté.

  Donald Barthelme

  Eye, Men, Vets

  "After Joyce (1964)". "Not-Knowing: The Essays and Interviews of Donald Barthelme". Book by Donald Barthelme, p. 4, 1997.

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• I have serious problems with fundamentalist Christians and their creationist theories. Although I believe that scripture is divinely inspired and infallible, I have a hard time going along with the belief that the whole creation process occurred in six twenty-four hour days. My skepticism is due, in part, to the fact that the Bible says that the sun wasn’t created until the fourth day of creation (Genesis 1:16-19). I have a hard time figuring how twenty-four hour days could have been measured before that.

  Tony Campolo

  Christian, Believe, Hard Times

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• Education must enable young people to effect what they have recognized to be right, despite hardships, despite dangers, despite inner skepticism, despite boredom, and despite mockery from the world. . . .

  Kurt Hahn

  People, Boredom, Hardship

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• No one is infallible, and no one can claim a monopoly on truth or virtue. It would be contradictory for skepticism to seek to translate itself into a new faith.

  Paul Kurtz

  Would Be, Virtue, Claims

  "Multi-Secularism: A New Agenda" by Paul Kurtz, (p. 338), 2014.

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