Bo Bennett Quotes

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

The skeptic does not mean him who doubts, but him who investigates or researches, as opposed to him who asserts and thinks that he has found.

I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew. To say you've got to inquire, you've got to be testing your knowledge all the time in order to be more effective in what you're doing.

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

To become properly acquainted with a truth, we must first have disbelieved it, and disputed against it.

Believe those who seek the truth; doubt those who find it.

The mind God is looking for in man is a doubting, questioning mind, not a dogmatic mind; dogmatic reasoning is wrong reasoning. Dogmatic reason ties a huge rock to a man’s foot and stops him forever from advancing.

Skepticism is the lifeblood of scientific progress. By constantly asking whether there is a different answer, a better approach or an alternative view, scientists drive improvements and innovations that ultimately benefit everyone. It is not “antiscience” to be skeptical—it’s definitively pro-science.

I believe that people should be able to question things.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. People have a lot of knowledge.

I have a very inquisitive mind, and I like to know. Like, if somebody uses a term and I don't understand, I always look it up.

People don't care to read what they already think or what any people think - they know all that well enough. They want to know what they ought to think.

I protest against any absolute conclusion.

I say with my own authority that if you go on questioning without accepting anybody's answer, including mine, by and by you will find that the answer is not found but the question disappears.

Basically, the Buddhist attitude is that you should not accept certain things through sheer faith. And for that you need a skeptical attitude. Buddha himself made this clear to his followers. He said you should not accept those things I taught out of respect for me, but rather through investigation by yourself.

Get the facts. Ask questions and listen intently to the answers before responding.

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.

It is the function of a liberal university not to give right answers, but to ask right questions.

I think the problem with polemics is that it's general and it's lazy. When you say, "This is bad," that's a general thing. We're more interested in asking the question.

So then there was the Greek, Socrates, he was great... He invented questioning. Before Socrates, no questioning. Everyone sort of went, ''Yeah, I suppose so.

Look wide, and even when you think you are looking wide - look wider still.

The essence of the liberal outlook lies not in what opinions are held, but in how they are held; instead of being held dogmatically, they are held tentatively, and with a consciousness that new evidence may at any moment lead to their abandonment.

Instead of assuming everything you're being told is the truth, ask plenty of questions.

In dealing with the arrogant asserter of doubt, it is not the right method to tell him to stop doubting. It is rather the right method to tell him to go on doubting, to doubt a little more, to doubt every day newer and wilder things in the universe, until at last, by some strange enlightenment, he may begin to doubt himself.

A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.