George Berkeley Quotes

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

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

By doubting we are led to question, by questioning we arrive at the truth.

If it doesn't make sense, it's usually not true.

I hope you become comfortable with the use of logic without being deceived into concluding that logic will inevitably lead you to the correct conclusion.

Science is the great antidote to the poison of enthusiasm and superstition.

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

The word 'belief' is a difficult thing for me. I don't believe. I must have a reason for a certain hypothesis. Either I know a thing, and then I know it - I don't need to believe it.

Religion deals in certainties and philosophy deals more in un-answered questions.

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

By free-thinking I mean the use of the understanding in endeavoring to find out the meaning of any proposition whatsoever, in considering the nature of the evidence for or against it, and in judging of it according to the seeming force or weakness of the evidence.

Skepticism is the first step towards truth.

The scientist insists on verification; the religious theologian does not; the philosopher sometimes does and sometimes does not

We cannot infer that because sciences of things divine and human are full of controversies and quarrels, therefore their whole subject-matter is uncertain ; for there have been many persons so enamoured of contradiction, as to turn into ridicule geometrical axioms.

Most of the time, when someone tells you something, and it makes sense, it just makes sense. And that's that. But sometimes it really doesn't make sense.

I respect and believe skeptics.

If someone doesn’t value evidence, what evidence are you going to provide that proves they should value evidence. If someone doesn’t value logic, what logical argument would you invoke to prove they should value logic?

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

Why not? Why not?Why not not, then, if the best reasoning you can contrive is why not?

All reasoning ends in an appeal to self-evidence.

Philosophy has to be enquiring; it can take nothing on faith, and its methods are based not on the blind acceptance of authority, but on establishing truths by reason and argument.

But the need for conflict to expose prejudice and unclear reasoning, which is deeply embedded in my philosophy of science, has its origin in these debates.

In science, a healthy skepticism is a professional necessity, whereas in religion, having belief without evidence is regarded as a virtue.

When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths or to reject absurdities and palpable contradictions.

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt.