Ann Druyan Quotes

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine.

I was always one of those guys who was a seeker after truth. I want to know what's going on.

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

Liberalism is an attitude rather than a set of dogmas - an attitude that insists upon questioning all plausible and self-evident propositions, seeking not to reject them but to find out what evidence there is to support them rather than their possible alternatives.

The great benefit of philosophy, which is also its great weakness, is that all its steps are taken in the spirit of doubt.

Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.

An open mind is not an end in itself but a means to the end of finding truth.

I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom; I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients.

The scientist is a lover of truth for the very love of truth itself, wherever it may lead.

I know too much to be a sceptic and too little to be a dogmatist.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

Disinterested intellectual curiosity is the life blood of real civilization.

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

Very few beings really seek knowledge in this world. Mortal or immortal, few really ASK. On the contrary, they try to wring from the unknown the answers they have already shaped in their own minds.

Only science and the spirit of seeking truth from facts can save China. I firmly believe in this.

One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.

An intelligent person is never afraid or ashamed to find errors in his understanding of things.

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

The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it.

If we bring not the good courage of minds covetous of truth, and truth only, prepared to hear all things, and decide upon all things, according to evidence, we should do more wisely to sit down contented in ignorance, than to bestir ourselves only to reap disappointment.

A philosopher goes where the truth leads and has no patience with mere emotion.

"Relevance" may not be best.... Impetuous action, conscious oversimplification, refusal to doubt, and the rejection of reason are enemies of the university.