Victor Serge Quotes

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

Whoever ventures to attack a system received so generally, and supported by so great a weight of authority, is exposed to various evils. They who have embraced its principles are apt to slight and neglect, or, if that may not he, to conceive it their business to overthrow the heterodox doctrines. What of error they may contain is eagerly seized on, what of truth, is overlooked.

What I want people to consider is that no matter what it is we want to believe, and no matter what story it is we want to jam the world into, the truth is the truth.

The search for truth is a cooperative, unending endeavor. We can, and should, engage in it to the extent we can and encourage others to do so as well, seeking to free ourselves from constraints imposed by coercive institutions, dogma, irrationality, excessive conformity and lack of initiative and imagination, and numerous other obstacles.

The principle itself of dogmatic religion, dogmatic morality, dogmatic philosophy, is what requires to be rooted out; not any particular manifestation of that principle. The very corner-stone of an education intended to form great minds, must be the recognition of the principle, that the object is to call forth the greatest possible quantity of intellectual power, and to inspire the intensest love of truth.

When you place a high value on truth, you have to think for yourself.

Nothing in the world makes people so afraid as the influence of independent-minded people.

Truth for authority, not authority for truth.

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead.

Whoever sets himself to see things as they are will find himself one of a very small circle but it is only by this small circle resolutely doing its own work that adequate ideas will ever get current at all.

All that counts is the truth. Without it you're basically just juggling people's daft ideas.

Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error.

Think for yourself. Know what you're doing. Question authority.

It would much conduce to the public benefit, if, instead of discouraging free-thinking, there was erected in the midst of this free country a dianoetic academy, or seminary for free-thinkers, provided with retired chambers, and galleries, and shady walks and groves, where, after seven years spent in silence and meditation, a man might commence a genuine free-thinker, and from that time forward, have license to think what he pleased, and a badge to distinguish him from counterfeits.

The free exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world.

We have a right to know or may lawfully know any truth. And a right to know any truth whatsoever implies a right to think freely.

Seeker of truth follow no path all paths lead where truth is here.

Now you are beginning to think for yourself instead of letting others think for you. That’s the beginning of wisdom.

I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.

He is an emancipated thinker who is not afraid to write foolish things.

The average man's opinions are much less foolish than they would be if he thought for himself.

The great charm in argument is really finding one's own opinions, not other people's.

When men have appreciated the countless differences which the exercise of that judgment must necessarily produce, when they have estimated the intrinsic fallibility of their reason, and the degree in which it is distorted by the will, when, above all, they have acquired that love of truth which a constant appeal to private judgment at last produces, they will never dream that guilt can be associated with an honest conclusion, or that one class of arguments should be stifled by authority.

Freethought is respectable. Freethought is crucial. Freethought needs to be publicized.

The only truth lies in learning to free ourselves from insane passion for the truth.