Jerome New Frank Quotes

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

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

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

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.

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.

It will contribute towards one's object, who wishes to acquire a facility in the gaining of knowledge, to doubt judiciously.

Just in ratio as knowledge increases, faith diminishes.

Belief is not the beginning of knowledge - it is the end.

Learning gives creativity Creativity leads to thinking Thinking provides knowledge Knowledge makes you great.

Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness.

Skepticism rather than credulity is the highest principle that the human intellect can use to ennoble our existence.

I have teken refuge in the doctrine that advises one not to seek tranquility in certainty but in permanently suspended judgement.

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

My religion recognizes no obligation to resolve doubt other than through rational means; and it commands no mere faith in eternal truths

Doubt is often the beginning of wisdom.

The wise skeptic does not teach doubt but how] to look for the permanent in the mutable and fleeting.

It is assumed that the skeptic has no bias; whereas he has a very obvious bias in favour of skepticism.

Thenceforth they thought that, rationally concluded, doubt could become an instrument of knowledge.

The agnostic does not simply say, "l do not know." He goes another step, and he says, with great emphasis, that you do not know. He insists that you are trading on the ignorance of others, and on the fear of others. He is not satisfied with saying that you do not know, -- he demonstrates that you do not know, and he drives you from the field of fact -- he drives you from the realm of reason -- he drives you from the light, into the darkness of conjecture -- into the world of dreams and shadows, and he compels you to say, at last, that your faith has no foundation in fact.

Skepticism is not a position; it's a process.

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

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.

There is no faith, without a critical mind

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

Faith can move mountains; true: mountains of stupidity.