Quotes for All
Suppose we wonder whether we should trust the deliverances of our basic epistemic competences. If those are indeed our basic competences, then in order properly to satisfy our curiosity we will inevitably rely on one or more of them. So, either we squelch our curiosity or we will have to fall into the circularity or … Read more
For the skeptic there remains only one consolation: if there should be such a thing as superhuman law it is administered with subhuman inefficiency. Eric Ambler
There are two possible outcomes: if the result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery. Enrico Fermi
\”The Holy Ghost,\” Luther instructs us, \”is not a skeptic.\” Not everyone can be, and that is really too bad. Emile M. Cioran
Several decades ago, a detachment of the American right cut itself loose from reason, and it has been drifting along happily ever since. If the birthers are more evidently kooky than the global-warming \”skeptics\” or the death-panellers or the supply-siders or the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, they are, in their fundamental disregard for the … Read more
Skepticism has never founded empires, established principals, or changed the world’s heart. The great doers in history have always been people of faith. Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Preaching Christianity to skeptics without first setting out the praeambula fidei [preambles of faith], and then complaining when they don’t accept it, is like yelling in English at someone who only speaks Chinese, and then dismissing him as a fool when he doesn’t understand you. In both cases, while there is certainly a fool in … Read more
One should not be deceived: great spirits are skeptics … Strength, FREEDOM which is born of the strength and overstrength of the spirit, proves itself by skepticism. Men of conviction are not worthy of the least consideration in fundamental questions of value and disvalue. Convictions are prisons. Friedrich Nietzsche
The skeptics who say it can’t be done are simply in extremely limited states of mind. They can’t even perceive the possibility of anybody doing something that they can’t do. Frederick Lenz
The shamanic realm is to get you out of the word set. For skeptics, that’s impossible, and they just can’t see that and it just makes no sense. Fred Alan Wolf