Echoes

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.

Stubborn and ardent clinging to one's opinion is the best proof of stupidity.

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

To teach superstitions as truth is a most terrible thing.

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

I believe that the extraordinary should certainly be pursued. But extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Must you value what others value, avoid what others avoid? How ridiculous!

The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.

I know that I know nothing.

There is but one indefectibly certain truth, and that is the truth that pyrrhonistic scepticism itself leaves standing, — the truth that the present phenomenon of consciousness exists.

If freedom of speech is taken away, then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers, and possible beliefs, and different degrees of certainty about different things, but I'm not absolutely sure of anything. There are many things I don't know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask "Why are we here?" I might think about it a little bit, and if I can't figure it out then I go on to something else. But I don't have to know an answer. I don't feel frightened by not knowing things, by being lost in the mysterious universe without having any purpose — which is the way it really is, as far as I can tell. Possibly. It doesn't frighten me.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.

Truth is the daughter of time, not of authority.

For nonconformity the world whips you with its displeasure. And therefore a man must know how to estimate a sour face.

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided.