Miguel de Unamuno Quotes

True science teaches, above all, to doubt

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.

Doubt is the incentive to truth and inquiry leads the way.

In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious.

If you would be a real seeker after truth, you must at least once in your life doubt, as far as possible, all things.

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

Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method.

Basically, the Buddhist attitude is that you should not accept certain things through sheer faith. And for that you need a skeptical attitude. Buddha himself made this clear to his followers. He said you should not accept those things I taught out of respect for me, but rather through investigation by yourself.

Follow the evidence wherever it leads, and question everything.

Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system.

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

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

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

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.

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

What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

In scientific subjects, the natural remedy for dogmatism has been found in research.

Science is the refusal to believe on the basis of hope.

Scientists are always skeptics.

The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.

All that I say is, examine, inquire. Look into the nature of things. Search out the grounds of your opinions, the for and against. Know why you believe, understand what you believe, and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

Liberalism is an attitude rather than a set of dogmas - an attitude that insists upon questioning all plausible and self-evident propositions, seeking not to reject them but to find out what evidence there is to support them rather than their possible alternatives.

Skepticism is the first step towards truth.

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