#skeptic

Nevertheless, (Jefferson) believed that the habit of skepticism is an essential prerequisite for responsible citizenship. He argued that the cost of education is trivial compared to the cost of ignorance, of leaving government to the wolves. He taught that the country is safe only when the people rule. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#ignorance #skepticism #thomas-jefferson #education

That's all right," she told him. "I can manage. I can sleep outside just fine." Four pairs of eyes looked at her with a distinctly male skepticism. ↗

— Ilona Andrews

#fate-s-edge #funny #gaston #george #ilona-andrews

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#faith #science #skepticism #faith

But then it is easy, too easy, to sermonize about the dangers of paternalism and the need to take responsibility for our own lives, from the comfort of our couch in our safe and sanitary home. Aren't we, those who live in the rich world, the constant beneficiaries of a paternalism now so thoroughly embedded into the system that we hardly notice it? ↗

— Abhijit V. Banerjee

#poverty #skeptics #home

scepticism, as we know, can never be thoroughly applied, else life would come to a standstill ↗

— George Eliot

#life

I am too much of a skeptic to deny the possibility of anything... ↗

— Thomas Henry Huxley

#skepticism #thinking #skepticism

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy. ↗

— Napoleon Bonaparte

#philosophy #skepticism #virtue #well

Though one believes in nothing, there are moments in life when one accepts the religion of the temple nearest at hand. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#belief #in-the-foxholes #skepticism #life

Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others' welfare. This world is not a vale of sorrows if you will recognize discriminatingly what is truly excellent in it; and if you will avail yourself of it for mutual happiness and well-being. Therefore, let us explain as often as possible, and particularly at the departure of life, that we base our faith on firm foundations, on Truth for putting into action our ideas which do not depend on fables and ideas which Science has long ago proven to be false. ↗

— Kurt Vonnegut

#clemens-vonnegut #freethinker #funeral #science #skeptic

Present global culture is a kind of arrogant newcomer. It arrives on the planetary stage following four and a half billion years of other acts, and after looking about for a few thousand years declares itself in possession of eternal truths. But in a world that is changing as fast as ours, this is a prescription for disaster. No nation, no religion, no economic system, no body of knowledge, is likely to have all the answers for our survival. There must be many social systems that would work far better than any now in existence. In the scientific tradition, our task is to find them. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#science #skepticism #change