Bill Keller Quotes

I am very cautious of people who are absolutely right, especially when they are vehemently so.

I say on the air all time, "if you take what I say as gospel, you're an idiot."

There is so much in this world to be skeptical about if you want to be a skeptical a**hole. I'm kind of a skeptical a**hole. But not about vaccines, that's just not one of them.

The characteristic of the present age is craving credulity.

I don't want you to trust me, I want you to question everything I say.

Do not allow yourselves to be deceived: Great Minds are Skeptical.

Inquiry is human; blind obedience brutal. Truth never loses by the one but often suffers by the other.

Distrust that man who tells you to distrust. He takes the measure of his own small soul, and thinks the world no larger.

You must never believe all these things which the scientists say because they always want more than they can get-they are never satisfied.

Believe those who seek the truth, doubt those who find it; doubt all, but do not doubt yourself.

No matter how deeply you distrust the government's judgment, you are too trusting.

Digressions, objections, delight in mockery, carefree mistrust are signs of health.

You shouldn't believe everything you hear you're young, not stupid.

That day, I began to be incredulous. Or, rather, I regretted having been credulous. I regretted having allowed myself to be borne away by a passion of the mind. Such is credulity.

It is well not to lend too easy an ear to accusations.

If you're going to be a man that reads the papers and takes everything as gospel truth, that's a sign of who you are, that isn't a sign of the reality.

Not that the incredulous person doesn't believe in anything. It's just that he doesn't believe in everything.

If I were to give one piece of advice, I would say to never accept anything that you hear or see at face value. As a general rule of thumb, then the more you question, the better.

The sooner we can separate salvageable skeptics from self-righteous absolutists, the sooner we can move along.

I've been labelled many times - a criminal, an anarchist, a rebel, sometimes human garbage, but never a philosopher, which is a pity because that's what I am. I chose a life apart from the common flow, not only because the common flow makes me sick but because I question the logic of the flow, and not only that - I don't know if the flow exists! Why should I chain myself to the wheel when the wheel itself might be a construct, an invention, a common dream to enslave us?

Be as decent as you can. Don't believe without evidence. Treat things divine with marked respect — don't have anything to do with them. Do not trust humanity without collateral security; it will play you some scurvy trick. Remember that it hurts no one to be treated as an enemy entitled to respect until he shall prove himself a friend worthy of affection. Cultivate a taste for distasteful truths. And, finally, most important of all, endeavor to see things as they are, not as they ought to be.

One of the chief obstacles to intelligence is credulity, and credulity could be enormously diminished by instructions as to the prevalent forms of mendacity.

Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men for surrendering our 'godly gift' of reason when we cross their mental thresholds?

If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.

Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry.