#skeptic

Suicide, moreover, was at the time in vogue in Paris: what more suitable key to the mystery of life for a skeptical society? ↗

— Honore de Balzac

#life #more #moreover #mystery #paris

There are those who believe we have need of more literature, of a large international publishing house, of a great peace newspaper, or the like. I am rather skeptical about this idea. ↗

— Fredrik Bajer

#am #believe #great #house #i

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

— Mary Catherine Bateson

#combine #commitment #democracy #essential #skepticism

The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found. ↗

— Miguel de Unamuno

#does #doubts #found #him #investigates

Imagine if it happened to you: All of a sudden you find this thing on your wrist and people are telling you it has powers. I would be a little skeptical myself. ↗

— Yancy Butler

#happened #i #imagine #little #myself

I'd say there was a fair amount of skepticism at the time about whether the Internet held any promise. And of course I felt that it did. ↗

— Jim Clark

#amount #any #course #did #fair

A majority of American citizens are now becoming skeptical of the claim that our carbon footprints, resulting from our use of fossil fuels, are going to lead to climatic calamities. But governments are not yet listening to the citizens. ↗

— John Coleman

#american citizens #becoming #calamities #carbon #citizens

I think you can be cynical about religion on occasion, and certainly skeptical about the degree to which some people use religion to manipulate other people. ↗

— Peter Jennings

#certainly #cynical #degree #i #i think

I think that my career speaks for itself and shows the type of player I am. I have never had a teammate who didn't enjoy playing with me. There are always going to be skeptics, but chemistry will definitely not be an issue. ↗

— Chris Webber

#am #career #chemistry #definitely #enjoy

Suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let us say a lamp-post, which many influential persons desire to pull down. A grey-clad monk, who is the spirit of the Middle Ages, is approached upon the matter, and begins to say, in the arid manner of the Schoolmen, "Let us first of all consider, my brethren, the value of Light. If Light be in itself good--" At this point he is somewhat excusably knocked down. All the people make a rush for the lamp-post, the lamp-post is down in ten minutes, and they go about congratulating each other on their unmediaeval practicality. But as things go on they do not work out so easily. Some people have pulled the lamp-post down because they wanted the electric light; some because they wanted old iron; some because they wanted darkness, because their deeds were evil. Some thought it not enough of a lamp-post, some too much; some acted because they wanted to smash municipal machinery; some because they wanted to smash something. And there is war in the night, no man knowing whom he strikes. So, gradually and inevitably, to-day, to-morrow, or the next day, there comes back the conviction that the monk was right after all, and that all depends on what is the philosophy of Light. Only what we might have discussed under the gas-lamp, we now must discuss in the dark. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#marriage #moral-revolution #philosophy #politics #skepticism