Pierre Bayle Quotes

Professional philosophers are usually only apologists: that is, they are absorbed in defending some vested illusion or some eloquent idea. Like lawyers or detectives, they study the case for which they are retained.

Finding bad reasons for what one believes for other bad reasons - that's philosophy.

Like all religions, Reason presents itself as the solution to the problems it has created

"You cannot believe what you are saying." "Well, no. Hardly ever. But the philosopher is like the poet. The latter composes ideal letters for an ideal nymph, only to plumb with his words the depths of passion. The philosopher tests the coldness of his gaze, to see how far he can undermine the fortress of bigotry."

The spirit of philosophy is one of free inquiry. It suspects all authority. Its function is to trace the uncritical assumptions of human thought to their hiding places, and in this pursuit it may finally end in denial or a frank admission of the incapacity of pure reason to reach the ultimate reality.

Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.

The specious figments of genius, and the erratic flights of philosophy, may excite our wonder, but they cannot stand the ordeal of scrutiny, or the Lydian touch of experiment.

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

To a philosopher no circumstance, however trifling, is too minute.

The agnostic, the skeptic, is neurotic, but this does not imply a false philosophy; it implies the discovery of facts to which he does not know how to adapt himself. The intellectual who tries to escape from neurosis by escaping from the facts is merely acting on the principle that “where ignorance is bliss, ‘tis folly to be wise.

A good philosopher is one who does not take ideas seriously.

I could be wrong. Not being certain is what being a philosopher is all about.

The business of the philosopher is well done if he succeeds in raising genuine doubt.

We thought philosophy ought to be patient and unravel people's mental blocks. Trouble with doing that is, once you've unravelled them, their heads fall off.

Questioning is the piety of thought.

Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the true answer to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which enlarge our thoughts and free them from the tyranny of custom.

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth.

When people begin to philosophize they seem to think it necessary to make themselves artificially stupid.

The genuine rationalist does not think that he or anyone else is in possession of the truth; nor does he think that mere criticism as such helps us achieve new ideas. But he does think that, in the sphere of ideas, only critical discussion can help us sort the wheat from the chaff.

Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all.

At the very moment when someone is beginning to take philosophy seriously, the whole world believes the opposite.

Do not commence your exercises in philosophy in those regions where an error can deliver you over to the executioner.