Skepticism Quotes

Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily. (George Santayana)
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy. View quote
Denis Diderot
The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism. View quote
George Jean Nathan
Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls. View quote
Emil Cioran
The fear of God is not the beginning of wisdom. The fear of God is the death of wisdom. Skepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. View quote
Clarence Darrow
She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. View quote
Jean-Paul Sartre
I've encountered a lot of people who sound like critics but very few who have substantive criticisms. There is a lot of skepticism, but it seems to be more a matter of inertia than it is of people having some real reason for thinking something else. View quote
K. Eric Drexler
Few men speak humbly of humility, chastely of chastity, skeptically of skepticism. View quote
Blaise Pascal
The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin. View quote
Thomas Henry Huxley
The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism. View quote
Paul Ricœur
When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless. (Bertrand Russell)
A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic. View quote
James Russell Lowell
Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow. View quote
Romain Rolland
Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public. View quote
Immanuel Kant
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. View quote
Linda Chavez
In the torments of the intellect, there is a certain bearing which is to be sought in vain among those of the heart. Skepticism is the elegance of anxiety. View quote
Emil Cioran
The skepticism which fails to contribute to the ruin of our health is merely an intellectual exercise. View quote
Emil Cioran
As long as we try to project from the relative and conditioned to the absolute and unconditioned, we shall keep the pendulum swinging between dogmatism and skepticism. The only way to stop this increasingly tiresome pendulum swing is to change our conception of what philosophy is good for. But that is not something which will be accomplished by a few neat arguments. It will be accomplished, if it ever is, by a long, slow process of cultural change – that is to say, of change in common sense, changes in the intuitions available for being pumped up by philosophical arguments. View quote
Richard Rorty
The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought. View quote
Walter Gilbert
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect... View quote
George Santayana
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer; there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness. (George Santayana)
There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far. View quote
George Santayana
Profound skepticism is favorable to conventions, because it doubts that the criticism of conventions is any truer than they are. View quote
George Santayana
Skepticism is the beginning of Faith. View quote
Oscar Wilde
It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science. View quote
Carl Sagan