John Dewey Quotes

Oxford also taught me something else - it taught me scepticism.

I love to doubt as well as know.

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…

Growing up in the place I did I never was aware of any other option but to question everything.

I've always been really curious about things and slightly confused by the world, and I think someone who feels that way is in a good position to be the one asking questions.

The job is to ask questions-it always was-and to ask them as inexorably as I can. And to face the absence of precise answers with a certain humility.

The first step towards philosophy is incredulity.

Question everything!

I think anybody who's curious about anything, including their own mind, is inherently a skeptic.

Skeptical doesn't have to necessarily be a negative thing. I think if you allow yourself to second guess things and look at things from a distance you don't immediately run into things blindfolded, so that's a positive.

I see myself as an avatar of curiosity and doubt.

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.

My skepticism is strong, but my curiosity is stronger.

An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind. It is not satisfied with explanation, with conclusions. Nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion.

We must strive for literacy and education that teach us to never quit questioning and probing at the assumptions of the day.

Skepticism may undermine beliefs, but never belief.

if you don't have doubts you're either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.

Beginning to think is beginning to be undermined.

The thing is, not to stop questioning.

Read – and be curious. And if somebody says to you: 'Things are this way. You can't change it' - don't believe a word.

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

Be Skeptical, but learn to listen.

It's the job of intellectuals and writers to cast doubt on perfection.

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.