Michael Shermer Quotes

In my opinion, it helps enormously to know why something is true, rather than being told it is true, for why should you believe me? Never believe anything on the authority of a single person but seek confirmation — and reason is the best confirmation

I ask you to believe nothing that you cannot verify for yourself.

'UFO's' attitude toward the subject is very similar to mine. It's not an advocacy; its philosophy is more 'I want to believe this, but I want it proved.'

We must never assume that which is incapable of proof.

Proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

True science teaches, above all, to doubt

Doubt, indulged and cherished, is in danger of becoming denial; but if honest, and bent on thorough investigation, it may soon lead to full establishment of the truth.

I’m a skeptic not because I do not want to believe, but because I want to know. How can we tell the difference between what we would like to be true and what is actually true? The answer is science.

We need discernment in what we see and what we hear and what we believe.

We need proof in our society.

Doubt the conventional wisdom unless you can verify it with reason and experiment.

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment... not authority.

Search for the truth. I tell you things and I always ask you to verify what I say. I told you yesterday that there was an attack and a retreat at Saddam's airport.

A proof tells us where to concentrate our doubts.

Science is basically an inoculation against charlatans.

Someone once told me to believe 5 percent of what everybody tells you.

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…

I have learned that it is just as well to avoid even the appearance of something which you prefer not to have published as a fact! So many things are published as facts in any case which have no foundation in them whatsoever, that I don't suppose it really matters! For fair minded people usually wait until they verify a statement before they believe it, and those who believe it without verification are the ones who want to believe it!

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Do not believe just because you want to believe.

If something comes on the radio or in print, I don't think there are any facts to it at all until someone shows some proof.

We need to take a step back and realize that not everything we encounter is true. You don't want to be gullibly accepting everything as true, but you don't want to be cynically rejecting everything as false. You want to take your time to evaluate the information.

You've accepted a lot of things without evidence. Find out what the evidence is for that. Find out what the evidence is for everything that you accept.

[One's] inability to invalidate your hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true.

Let us hear the suspicions. I will look after the proofs.