Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel Quotes

The more one-dimensional an explanation of something complex and far reaching, the greater the grounds for skepticism.

The great benefit of philosophy, which is also its great weakness, is that all its steps are taken in the spirit of doubt.

Don't be misled by History, or any other unreliable source.

The academic mind can eat away the very basis of its own assurance ... produce contortions when it tries to bend over backward ... allow itself to be dismayed by the picture it has created of relentless historical process.

I had inherited what my father called the art of the advocate, or the irritating habit of looking for the flaw in any argument.

If it's worth listening to, it's worth questioning until you understand it.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

Skepticism is not a position; it's a process.

A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.

It's always good in science to say "Well how do you know that?" and "Are you really sure?" and "Could there be an exceptional case?"

An educated mind is practiced in the uses of reason, which inevitably leads to a skeptical outlook.

What is desperately needed... is the skepticism and the sense of history that a liberal arts education provides.

Scientific research can reduce superstition by encouraging people to think and view things in terms of cause and effect.

Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those which you criticise.

Cynicism is the other thing that goes with sentimentality.

There is no faith, without a critical mind

To recognize that some of the things our culture believes are not true imposes on us the duty of finding out which are true and which are not.

Some facts in life are immutable. One is, trust no-one who uses the word 'trope'.

A good writer of history is a guy who is suspicious.

Critical thinking is to a liberal education as faith is to religion. ... the converse was true also - faith is to a liberal education as critical thinking is to religion, irrelevant and even damaging.

People confuse the word cynicism with the word skepticism. One is “you’re not gonna pay attention to anything, think everything’s screwed up, nothing’s ever gonna work out right”, that’s cynicism. But skepticism is, “you’re presented with evidence and you do your best to draw conclusions based on that”. So, as the saying goes, Bill Nye, do you believe in ghosts? No. However, I would love to see one. Bring it on. I’m open minded to the idea, but the more I look into it in a skeptical frame of thinking, the less likely it seems.

Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There's no better rule.

As time passed I became an avid reader of popular scientific books, wanting to know as much as I could about the world in which I lived. Gradually I began to see a pattern of nonsense in much scientific writing. Scientific explanations given regarding the origins or functioning of various phenomena simply didn't make sense.

Because I don't believe everything I read.

Any one whose disposition leads him to attach more weight to unexplained difficulties than to the explanation of facts will certainly reject my theory.