Robert G. Ingersoll Quotes

I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.

I think it's very important to keep in the back of your mind: 'What if I'm wrong?'

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.

No one is infallible, and no one can claim a monopoly on truth or virtue. It would be contradictory for skepticism to seek to translate itself into a new faith.

I have learned to be less confident in the conclusions of human reason, and give more credit to the honesty of contrary opinions.

Start out understanding religion by saying everything is possibly wrong... As soon as you do that, you start sliding down an edge which is hard to recover from.

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

The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.

Belief is tricky because left to its own devices, it can court a kind of surety, an unquestioning allegiance that fears doubt and destroys difference.

People ask me a question, I'll give them my opinion. I never claimed to have all the answers.

I'm very careful not to have ideas, because they're inaccurate.

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

Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.

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.

I don't necessarily agree with everything I say.

Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it.

Conventional dogmas, even if endowed with the authority of an Aristotle - ancient or modern - must be tested vigorously. If they are found wanting, we need not bother with them. But if they are found to be substantially correct, we may not overlook them.

I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.

What is important is that one utilizes one's intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one's convictions. One should always leave room for doubt.

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.

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

Doubt is not below knowledge, but above it.

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.

Yet you must not cling to the words of the old sages either; they, too, may not be right. Even if you believe them, you should be alert so that, in the event that something superior comes along, you may follow that.

Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality.