Raymond Smullyan Quotes

In my life, the only certainty is to be uncertain. I'm an unbeliever who believes in skepticism. I'm only sure about being unsure.

I believe it is impossible to be sure of anything.

I believe in God, but I'm not too clear on the other details.

Do you believe in God, doctor?" No - but what does that really mean? I'm fumbling in the dark, struggling to make something out. But I've long ceased finding that original.

I think maybe it is better to believe than not to believe. But I couldn't tell you why.

In the minds of most men, the kingdom of opinion is divided into three territories,--the territory of yes, the territory of no, and a broad, unexplored middle ground of doubt.

You believe by doubting and you doubt by believing; yet this state too is not the final one.

I do not believe in Belief.

I choose to believe in God, but I have serious doubts.

There's something in every atheist, itching to believe, and something in every believer, itching to doubt.

Not believing has a sickness which is believing a little.

...if you ask me whether or not I'm an atheist, I wouldn't even answer. I would first want an explanation of what it is that I'm supposed not to believe in, and I've never seen an explanation.

Agnosticism is the everlasting perhaps.

They haven't left us much to believe, have they? — even disbelief. I can't believe in anything bigger than a home, or anything vaguer than a human being.

On the other hand, I view the whole matter from a cosmic perspective. I don't take a position. I believe that there are no more positions to take, no certainties, no facts. Many people find this confusing about my films; they say I am hiding out behind irony. But from a cosmic viewpoint, it is eternally unimportant whether one lives or not.

I can believe things that are true and things that aren't true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they're true or not.

It is not that there are no certainties, it is that it is an absolute certainty that there are no certainties.

This is what I see, and what troubles me. I look on all sides, and everywhere I see nothing but obscurity. Nature offers me nothing that is not a matter of doubt and disquiet.

One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.

I believe that we will move forward a little tomorrow but I have my doubts that we will achieve a result.

The unanswerable mysteries... the attitude that all is uncertain... to summarize it - the humility of the intellect.

But I could be wrong.

Absurdism, like methodical doubt, has wiped the slate clean. It leaves us in a blind alley. But, like methodical doubt, it can, by returning upon itself, open up a new field of investigation, and in the process of reasoning then pursues the same course. I proclaim that I believe in nothing and that everything is absurd, but I cannot doubt the validity of my proclamation and I must at least believe in my protest.

Who couldn't believe there's a God?

I believe in the gods; or rather I believe that I believe in the gods. But I don't believe that they are great brooding presences watching over us; I believe they are completely absent minded.