49 Quotes About Skepticism

Having a gap in your emotional health can leave you feeling less than complete. These quotes about skepticism will bring you the encouragement you need.

“A man receives only what he is ready to receive… The phenomenon or fact that cannot in any wise be linked with the rest of what he has observed, he does not observe.”

“Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.”

“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”

“Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.”

“Doubt everything or believe everything: these are two equally convenient strategies. With either we dispense with the need for reflection.”

“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”

“Founding a company is a sheer act of will and tenacity in the face of immense skepticism from everyone – investors, customers, friends, family, and employees, to name a few.”

“Genius in truth means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.”

“I am not very skeptical… a good deal of skepticism in a scientific man is advisable to avoid much loss of time, but I have met not a few men, who… have often thus been deterred from experiments or observations which would have proven servicable.”

“I don’t believe in astrology; I’m a Sagittarius and we’re skeptical.”

“I have always felt that doubt was the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of God was the end of wisdom.”

“I know of no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too desirous of evidence in support of their core beliefs.”

“I mean, you could claim that anything’s real if the only basis for believing in it is that nobody’s proved it doesn’t exist!”

“If we watch ourselves honestly we shall often find that we have begun to argue against a new idea even before it has been completely stated.”

“I’m convinced that most men don’t know what they believe, rather, they only know what they wish to believe. How many people blame God for man’s atrocities, but wouldn’t dream of imprisoning a mother for her son’s crime?”

“In an extroverted society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent.”

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

“It is not uncommon for engineers to accept the reality of phenomena that are not yet understood, as it is very common for physicists to disbelieve the reality of phenomena that seem to contradict contemporary beliefs of physics.”

“It would seem to me… an offense against nature, for us to come on the same scene endowed as we are with the curiosity, filled to overbrimming as we are with questions, and naturally talented as we are for the asking of clear questions, and then for us to do nothing
about, or worse, to try to suppress the questions…”

“It’s a most distressing affliction to have a sentimental heart and a skeptical mind.”

“It’s natural to think that living things must be the handiwork of a designer. But it was also natural to think that the sun went around the earth. Overcoming naive impressions to figure out how things really work is one of humanity’s highest callings.”

“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.”

“Modern science should indeed arouse in all of us a humility before the immensity of the unexplored and a tolerance for crazy hypotheses.”

“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong.”

“My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them.”

“My humor is my creativity, and my skepticism is a gift.”

“One good schoolmaster is of more use than a hundred priests.”

“People have moved beyond apathy, beyond skepticism into deep cynicism.”

“Racism is not merely a simplistic hatred. It is, more often, broad sympathy toward some and broader skepticism toward others…”

“Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.”

“She believed in nothing. Only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.”

“Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.”

“Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.”

“Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.”

“Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.”

“The easy confidence with which I know another man’s religion is folly teaches me to suspect that my own is also.”

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.”

“The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.”

“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.”

“The justifications of men who kill should always be heard with skepticism, said the monster.”

“The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.”

“The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.”

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what’s true.”

“Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”

“Vaccines don’t cause autism. Vaccines, instead, prevent disease. Vaccines have wiped out a score of formerly deadly childhood diseases. Vaccine skepticism has helped to bring some of those diseases back from near extinction.”

“What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence.”

“What I have denied and what my reason compels me to deny, is the existence of a Being throned above us as a god, directing our mundane affairs in detail, regarding us as individuals, punishing us, rewarding us as human judges might.”

“When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.”

“You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don’t see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it.”

Many people have some strange beliefs that are brought on by skepticism and conspiracies.