Paul Kurtz Quotes

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.

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.

No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions.

Doubt is one of the names of intelligence.

The average man can't prove most of the things that he chooses to speak of, and still won't research and find out the root of the truth that you seek of

At the very smallest wheel of our reasoning it is possible for a handful of questions to break the bank of our answers.

The surest way to lose truth is to pretend that one already wholly possesses it.

It is by doubting that we come to investigate, and by investigating that we recognize the truth.

The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.

I love to doubt as well as know.

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.

It is important that students bring a certain …, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.

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

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.

Seek the company of those who are looking for the truth, but run from those who have found it.

In philosophy you're never 100% sure. You're always undermining what you think you know. That's always been my philosophy and my intellectual ethos.

The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident.

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

It is wiser to find out than to suppose.

My skepticism is strong, but my curiosity is stronger.

I think you need to have a healthy sense of doubt because I think doubt leads to inquiry.

Faith is the enemy of discovery.

I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew.