Thomas Huxley Quotes

Be an atheist if you want, but do not believe in anything unquestioningly.

Carl did not want to believe. He wanted to know.

And that is why the man who wants to see clearly, before he will believe, never starts on the journey.

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

It is not by believing but by doubting that one can attain to the truth, which is ever changing form and condition.

William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

Doubting everything and believing everything are two equally convenient solutions that guard us from having to think

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.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

What do we believe? Why do we believe it?

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

Constant and frequent questioning is the first key to wisdom … For through doubting we are led to inquire, and by inquiry we perceive the truth.

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…

My only weapon is the question.

That's something I learned as a philosophy major: The philosophy ethos is, always question, never rest.

Sometimes my doubt seems intuitive, but most likely it derives from an implausibility or a logical problem I may at first find difficult to identify and articulate. It is interesting to me to work through questions that arise in this way.

If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.

The first lesson about trusting your senses is: don't. Just because you believe something to be true, just because you know it's true, that doesn't mean it is true.

He that believes all misseth; he that believes nothing, hits not.

The few have said, Think! The many have said, Believe! The first doubt was the womb and cradle of progress, and from the first doubt, man has continued to advance.

If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity.

I hate doubt, yet I am certain that doubt is the only way to approach anything worth believing in.

You never question the truth of something until you have to explain it to a skeptic.