Thomas Carlyle Quotes

Skepticism, is that anything more than we used to mean when we said, Well, what have we here?

Scepticism is a barren coast, without a harbor or lighthouse.

This notion [skepticism] is more clearly understood by asking "What do I know?"

Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.

My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not about God alone, but agnosticism about everything.

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

Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

That's something I learned as a philosophy major: The philosophy ethos is, always question, never rest.

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.

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.

Skepticism is provisional, even if it lasts a lifetime.

To a certain extent all philosophers have been involved in a systematic questioning that undermines confidence and certainty. Philosophy as a whole unleashed skeptical forces which, outside of the tightly controlled environment of a rigorous philosophical debate, led a lot of people to throw their hands up in despair and think 'what's the point?'. A lot of the public perception of philosophy is that it leaves you with no answers, and more confused than you were at the beginning.

I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything...

I deny nothing, but doubt everything.

Intellectualism, though by no means confined to doubters, is often the sole piety of the skeptic.

The whole is a riddle, an enigma, an inexplicable mystery. Doubt, uncertainty, suspence of judgment appear the only result of ourmost accurate scrutiny, concerning this subject. But such is the frailty of human reason, and such the irresistible contagion of opinion, that even this deliberate doubt could scarcely be upheld; did we not enlarge our view, and opposing one species of superstition to another, set them a quarrelling; while we ourselves, during their fury and contention, happily make our escape into the calm, though obscure, regions of philosophy.

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

Skepticism may undermine beliefs, but never belief.

In my life, the only certainty is to be uncertain. I'm an unbeliever who believes in skepticism. I'm only sure about being unsure.

Skepticism . . . is not intellectual only it is moral also, a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul.

To philosophize is to doubt.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything. The novelist teaches the reader to comprehend the world as a question. There is wisdom and tolerance in that attitude. In a world built on sacrosanct certainties the novel is dead.

The path to holiness lies through questioning everything.

Because ethics is fundamentally about questioning the ends, the goals and aims of our actions, we must come back to the rules and ask why. So we must return to the philosophy of law, the raison d'etre and the point of what we're asked to do. It's not easy, it's very demanding and it needs intellectual courage.

But what if our intelligence is wrong?