Albert Schweitzer Quotes

Belief in truth begins with doubting all that has hitherto been believed to be true.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

But is all this true?" said Brutha. Didactylos shrugged. "Could be. Could be. We are here and it is now. The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork." "You mean you don't KNOW it's true?" said Brutha. "I THINK it might be," said Didactylos. "I could be wrong. Not being certain is what being a philosopher is all about.

He who replies to words of doubt doth put the light of knowledge out.

Truth is something that we can attempt to doubt, and then perhaps, after much exertion, discover that part of the doubt is not justified.

You must learn all things, both the unshaken heart of persuasive truth, and the opinions of mortals in which there is no true warranty.

Doubt . . . impels a search for the truth. It opens the door to knowledge. Faith puts a lock on the door. Indeed, . . . faith anesthetizes the desire to seek knowledge and truth.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.

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.

Socrates was executed … not for his megalomania or grandiose propositions or certitudes, but for stubbornly doubting the absolute truths of others.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

Believe those who seek the truth; doubt those who find it.

Doubt is not an agreeable condition, but certainty is an absurd one.

Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

We'd all like to be certain of what we know, but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?

By doubting we come to questioning, and by questioning we perceive the truth.

What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step towards truth.

I would proclaim that the vast majority of what [say, Scientific American] is true-yet my ability to defend such a claim is weaker than I would like. And most likely the readers, authors, and editors of that magazine would be equally hard pressed to come up with cogent, non-technical arguments convincing a skeptic of this point, especially if pitted against a clever lawyer arguing the contrary. How come Truth is such a slippery beast?

I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly.

I did not imitate the skeptics who doubt only for doubting's sake, and pretend to be always undecided; on the contrary, my whole intention was to arrive at a certainty, and to dig away the drift and the sand until I reached the rock or the clay beneath.

On the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. Reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable.