#skepticism

I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate. ↗

— Scarlett Thomas

#religion #scepticism #sceptics #skepticism #skeptics

Where journalists have gotten themselves in trouble over the last few decades is that their skepticism often extends only to American officials, the U.S. military and Republican politicians. ↗

— Linda Chavez

#decades #extends #few #gotten #journalists

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong. ↗

— William Osler

#truth #attitude

If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#freethought #skepticism #life

The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil. ↗

— Simone Weil

#becomes #diseases #hitherto #like #more

The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought. ↗

— Walter Gilbert

#science #skepticism #thought #virtues

Its attitude, which it has preached and practiced, is skepticism. Now, it finds, the public is applying that skepticism to the press. ↗

— Thomas Griffith

#attitude #finds #now #practiced #preached

Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls. ↗

— Emile M. Cioran

#sadism #skepticism #souls

The same principles which at first view lead to skepticism, pursued to a certain point, bring men back to common sense. ↗

— George Berkeley

#bring #certain #certain point #common #common sense

I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#skepticism #religion