Skepticism
Explore wisdom and insights from Skepticism
"Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"The fundamental cause of trouble in the world today is that the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"Mathematics may be defined as the subject in which we never know what we are talking about."
Bertrand Russell
"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as necessary to avoid starvation."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"If you wish to avoid disbelief, you must avoid saying what is false."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation should accept beliefs on authority."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"The fundamental defect of fathers is that they want their children to resemble them."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"A sense of duty is useful in work but offensive in personal relations."
Bertrand Russell
"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good."
Bertrand Russell
Attributed
"I never strove for anything but to make few people wiser."
David Hume
Attributed
"A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence."
David Hume
"Custom, then, is the great guide of human life."
David Hume
"There is no method of reasoning more common, yet more blamable."
David Hume
"All knowledge degenerates into probability."
David Hume
Attributed
"Nothing is more surprising than the easiness with which the many are governed by the few."
David Hume
"Beauty in things exists merely in the mind which contemplates them."
David Hume
"Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions."
David Hume
"Causation is not discoverable by reason."
David Hume
Attributed
"Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man."
David Hume
"Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am."
René Descartes
"The reading of all good books is like a conversation with the finest minds."
René Descartes
"I am, I exist, whenever it is put forward by me or conceived."
René Descartes
"There is nothing so strange and so unbelievable."
René Descartes
Attributed
"Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power."
René Descartes
"The first precept was never to accept anything for true which I did not clearly know."
René Descartes
"When it is not in our power to follow what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable."
René Descartes
"Perfect knowledge consists in knowing things, not words."
René Descartes
Attributed
"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible."
René Descartes
"If you would be a real seeker of truth, doubt all things."
René Descartes