Niels Bohr Quotes

Belief is not the beginning of knowledge - it is the end.

God forbid that Truth should be confined to Mathematical Demonstration!

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.

We'd all like to be certain of what we know, but I think the most important question is to ask yourself do you really know what you know?

But is all this true?" said Brutha. Didactylos shrugged. "Could be. Could be. We are here and it is now. The way I see it is, after that, everything tends towards guesswork." "You mean you don't KNOW it's true?" said Brutha. "I THINK it might be," said Didactylos. "I could be wrong. Not being certain is what being a philosopher is all about.

I would proclaim that the vast majority of what [say, Scientific American] is true-yet my ability to defend such a claim is weaker than I would like. And most likely the readers, authors, and editors of that magazine would be equally hard pressed to come up with cogent, non-technical arguments convincing a skeptic of this point, especially if pitted against a clever lawyer arguing the contrary. How come Truth is such a slippery beast?

Except in pure mathematics, nothing is known for certain (although much is certainly false).

The typical person has no trouble believing without knowing. What people need to realize is simply that you do not need to believe to know.

All that belongs to human understanding, in this deep ignorance and obscurity, is to be sceptical, or at least cautious, and not to admit of any hypothesis whatever, much less of any which is supported by no appearance of probability.

We cannot begin with complete doubt.

Belief in truth begins with doubting all that has hitherto been believed to be true.

Is there any knowledge in the world which is so certain that no reasonable man could doubt it?

Il n'est pas certain que tout soit incertain. (Translation: It is not certain that everything is uncertain.)

The beliefs which we have most warrant for, have no safeguard to rest on, but a standing invitation to the whole world to prove them unfounded.

Faith does not offer a strong link between our beliefs and actual states of the world.

I don't want to believe. I want to know.

If you tried to doubt everything you would not get as far as doubting anything. The game of doubting itself presupposes certainty.

We must not let go manifest truths because we cannot answer all questions about them.

Inquiry is fatal to certainty.

Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.

I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief.

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

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

There is only one thing about which I am certain, and that is that there is very little about which one can be certain.

To believe with certainty, we must begin with doubting.