#skepticism

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

Though one believes in nothing, there are moments in life when one accepts the religion of the temple nearest at hand. ↗

— Victor Hugo

#belief #in-the-foxholes #skepticism #life

We are on the road to producing a race of men too mentally modest to believe in the multiplication table. We are in danger of seeing philosophers who doubt the law of gravity as being a mere fancy of their own. Scoffers of old time were too proud to be convinced; but these are too humble to be convinced. ↗

— G.K. Chesterton

#humility #skepticism #men

I don't believe in angels and I have trouble with the whole God thing. I don't want to say I don't believe in God but I don't think I do. But I believe in people who do. ↗

— Billy Connolly

#atheism #belief #christianity #god #religion

You can get into a habit of thought in which you enjoy making fun of all those other people who don't see things as clearly as you do. We have to guard carefully against it. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#skepticism #science

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. Ideas must be distinct before reason can act upon them; and no man ever had a distinct idea of the trinity. It is the mere Abracadabra of the mountebanks calling themselves the priests of Jesus. ↗

— Thomas Jefferson

#knowledge #reason #ridicule #skepticism #jesus

The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be true. But our preferences do not determine what's true. ↗

— Carl Sagan

#skepticism #truth #determination

Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue. ↗

— Robert K. Merton

#skepticism #faith