| All superstition is much the same whether it be that of astrology, dreams, omen, retributive judgment, or the like, in all of which the deluded believers observe events which are fulfilled, but neglect and pass over their failure, though it be much more common. (Francis Bacon, Novum Organum) | Ubi dubium ibi libertas: Where there is doubt, there is freedom. (Latin Proverb) | The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth. (Edith Sitwell) |
| An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it. (Don Marquis, The Sun Dial) | Science is always simple and profound. It is only the half truths that are dangerous. (George Bernard Shaw) | As a human being, you have no choice about the fact that you need a philosophy. Your only choice is whether you define your philosophy by a conscious, rational, disciplined process of thought and scrupulously logical deliberation-or let your subconscious accumulate a junk heap of unwarranted conclusions, false generalizations, undefined contradictions, undigested slogans, unidentified wishes, doubts and fears, thrown together by chance, but integrated by your subconscious into a kind of mongrel philosophy and fused into a single, solid weight: self-doubt, like a ball and chain in the place where your mind's wings should have grown. (Ayn Rand, Philosophy: Who Needs It?) |
| If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. (Voltaire) | Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness. (George Santayana) | Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat. (Mark Twain) |
| It is human reason which has destroyed all illusions; but reason herself wears mourning for it, so as to induce us to console her. (Alfred de Musset) | Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise. (Shakespeare) | Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations) |
| Men freely believe that which they desire. (Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico) | Great intellects are skeptical. (Friedrich Nietzsche) | Fear of things invisible is the natural seed of that which every one in himself calleth religion. (Thomas Hobbes, 1651) |
| Not only is there no God, but try finding a plumber on Sunday. (Woody Allen) | 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. (On the Advisableness of Improving Natural Knowledge, 1866) | I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't. (Jules Renard) |
| Our reason must be considered as a kind of cause, of which truth is the natural effect... (David Hume) | Skepticism is the first step toward truth. (Diderot) | Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily. (William of Ockham, Quodlibeta - known as Ockham's Razor) |
| Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future. (Neils Bohr) | The pragmatist knows that doubt is an art which has to be acquired with difficulty. (C.S. Peirce) | In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. (Thomas Jefferson) |
| Superstition, which is widespread among the nations, has taken advantage of human weakness to cast its spell over the mind of almost every man. (Cicero, De Divinatione) | It is easier to attribute UFO sightings to the known irrationalities of terrestrials than to the unknown efforts of extraterrestrials. (Richard Feynmann, physicist) | De omnibus dubitandum. All is to be doubted. (Rene Descartes) |
| Tell a man there are 300 billion stars in the universe and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint on it and he'll have to touch it to be sure. (Jaeger's Facts) | An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness. (Margaret Atwood) | The public will believe anything, so long as it is not founded on truth. (Edith Sitwell) |
| To follow foolish precedents, and wink with both our eyes, is easier than to think. (William Cowper) | Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong. (Thomas Jefferson) | The Religions disperse, kingdoms fall apart, but works of science remain for all ages. (Words carved on stone astronomical observatory erected by Ulugh-Beg, Tamerlane's grandson, in Samarkand in 1528-29) |
| To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those things that lie beyond. (Hypatia) | Science must begin with myth and with the criticism of myth. (Karl Popper) | To be rational is to look the universe in the face and not flinch. (unknown author) |