Quotes about Skepticism

When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.

I only believe in what I see and hear with my own eyes and ears.

I think, therefore I doubt.

Ah, ladies and gentlemen, a man lives a sad life when he cannot take anything or anyone seriously.

Optimism is the opium of the people.

Anyone who starts doubting details will end by doubting life itself.

Scepticism does not abolish the world, it turns it into questions.

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs.

It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.

Deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with real feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.

The scientific way of thinking is at once imaginative and disciplined. This is central to its success. Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don't conform to our preconceptions. It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which best fit the facts. It urges on us a delicate balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything—new ideas and established wisdom.

But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.