Charles R. Swindoll Quotes

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

You can use all the quantitative data you can get, but you still have to distrust it and use your own intelligence and judgment.

A smart man only believes half of what he hears, a wise man knows which half.

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 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!

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

I don't believe everything I read.

A man's most valuable trait is a judicious sense of what not to believe.

Seeing is not believing - it is only seeing.

Reason alone cannot give you a whole steak, but it sure helps with identifying bologna.

If you tell me that the sky is red, I will look up.

The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism.

Skeptics question the validity of a particular claim by calling for evidence to prove or disprove it.

Your perceptions are often far more accurate than you are willing to believe.

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

I want America to know that you can't believe everything you hear, and nowadays, you can't believe everything you see.

Once we thought, journalists and readers alike, that if we put together enough 'facts' and gave them a fast stir, we would come up with something that, at least by the standards of short-order cooks, could be called the truth.

We’ve learned our lesson. We are not going to take any more intelligence at face value.

One of the first things we should teach every student is not to believe everything they read and hear.

It is necessary to judge accurately the things that rest on opinion

If you believe everything you read, better not read.

People still believe what they read is necessarily the truth.

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.

We have to challenge lies. We have to challenge falsehoods and conspiracy theories. If you don't, they fester - unchecked and unchallenged.

We must all learn how to separate reality from fantasy.