Rupert Sheldrake Quotes

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

I was raised with the notion that it was OK to ask questions, and it was OK to say, I'm not sure. I believe, but I'm not quite so certain about the resurrection.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty.

if you don't have doubts you're either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.

I think doubt is a very healthy way to live.

He believed in the primacy of doubt, not as a blemish upon our ability to know, but as the essence of knowing.

Doubting charms me not less than knowledge.

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.

Skepticism is not a position that you stake out ahead of time and stick to no matter what.

The job is to ask questions-it always was-and to ask them as inexorably as I can. And to face the absence of precise answers with a certain humility.

Oxford also taught me something else - it taught me scepticism.

In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.

I think that when we know that we actually do live in uncertainty, then we ought to admit it; it is of great value to realize that we do not know the answers to different questions. This attitude of mind - this attitude of uncertainty - is vital to the scientist, and it is this attitude of mind which the student must first acquire.

Doubt is the middle position between knowledge and ignorance. It encompasses cynicism but also genuine questioning.

I love to doubt as well as know.

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

What is important is that one utilizes one's intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one's convictions. One should always leave room for doubt.

Skepticism is the first step towards truth.

Question everything!

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.

If you question anything enough, you'll begin to doubt it.