E. F. Schumacher Quotes

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.

Doubting charms me not less than knowledge.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt and to be ignorant.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

The main battle is to make people realise that doubt is important. Doubt is good. The 'don't know' answer sometimes is the box you should tick, and it's about not being scared about that fact. Even the greatest minds don't know everything.

Better to trust the man who is frequently in error than the one who is never in doubt.

I love to doubt as well as know.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

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.

Progress is born of doubt and inquiry. The Church never doubts, never inquires. To doubt is heresy, to inquire is to admit that you do not know—the Church does neither.

The greater the knowledge, the greater the doubt.

We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt.

The great enemy of knowledge is not error, but inertness. All that we want is discussion; and then we are sure to do well, no matter what our blunders may be. One error conflicts with another, each destroys its opponent, and truth is evolved.

Another error is an impatience of doubt and haste to assertion without due and mature suspension of judgment. For the two ways of contemplation are not unlike the two ways of action commonly spoken of by the ancients; the one plain and smooth in the beginning, and in the end impassable; the other rough and troublesome in the entrance, but after a while fair and even. So it is in contemplation; if a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Unless you have the courage to doubt you will never come to know the truth.

A scientist is never certain. ... We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and there is no learning.

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.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

The minute we begin to think we have all the answers, we forget the questions.

Doubt is the first step towards knowledge, not faith.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

With science and reason throughout history, what people believed turned out to be false. So I like to keep an open mind to all perspectives and learn and become more fully realised as a person. I just feel we're never going to know what the full picture is.

Uncertainty is a very good thing: it's the beginning of an investigation, and the investigation should never end.