#skepticism

I wanted to cast doubt on the step he was about to take, to help him see there are other ways to live, other ways to seek knowledge, love...even self-transformation. I wanted to convince him his dignity depended on maintaining a free, skeptical attitude towards doctrine. I wanted...to save him... Doubt, like faith, has to be learned. It is a skill. But the curious thing about skepticism is that its adherents, ancient and modern, have so often been proselytizers. In reading them, I've often wanted to ask: "Why do you care?" Their skepticism offers no good answer to that question. ↗

— Mark Lilla

#skepticism #attitude

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding. ↗

— Xi Zhi

#leads #skepticism #small #understanding

Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will; but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge. ↗

— Robert G. Ingersoll

#religion #skepticism #superstition #faith

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

She says he says, but she could be lying to me, and he could be lying to her, so I can’t believe her, even if I could believe her.
 ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#believe #bizarre #funny #honest #honesty

It all depends on what people you're talking about helping. That's the wonderful think about just about every religion on the planet - they're all so incredibly selfish. ↗

— Derek Landy

#cynicism #helping-others #perspective #religion #selfishness

The catchword I use with my classes is: The authority of the writer always overcomes the skepticism of the reader. ↗

— Nikki Giovanni

#authority #classes #i #overcomes #reader

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

— George Eliot

#life