Michael Burry Quotes

Intelligent people simply aren’t willing to accept answers that they don’t understand — no matter how many other people try to convince them of it, or how many other people believe it, if they aren’t able to convince them selves of it, they won’t accept it.

I don't believe in holy writ. Buy fifty books or twenty-five books, take three weeks off, read them and make up your own theory. The fact that you end up literally burning twenty-two out of twenty-five books is beside the point.

I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make my own judgments.

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

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

The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody's word about them.

Listen and watch the world around you. Don't be satisfied with answers others give you.

Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.

Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt.

Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, "Is it reasonable?

I have always found myself trying to study and analyze the world around me - not just taking everything for granted and following whatever is popular.

The faculty of doubting is rare among men. A few choice spirits carry the germs of it in them, but these do not develop without training.

An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind. It is not satisfied with explanation, with conclusions. Nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion.

Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it their duty to accept the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon, have given, forgetful that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries, when they wrote these books.

Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing

...I'm no longer prepared to accept what people say and what's written in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to find my own answer.

Great intellects are skeptical.

Never accept an expert's opinion if it violates your own because the experts can change their minds.

Do not believe a thing because you have read about it in a book. Do not believe a thing because another man has said it was true. Do not believe in words because they are hallowed by tradition. Find out the truth for yourself. Reason it out. That is realization.

I try to encourage people to think for themselves, to question standard assumptions... Don't take assumptions for granted. Begin by taking a skeptical attitude toward anything that is conventional wisdom. Make it justify itself. It usually can't. Be willing to ask questions about what is taken for granted. Try to think things through for yourself.

Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great Minds are Skeptical.

Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.

The real world out there isn't nearly as nice as some people prefer it to be, so don't swallow everything your high-born teachers tell you without takinga long hard look at it yourselves.

You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasion.

Don’t just teach your children to read… Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything.