Sam Harris Quotes

One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.

Within the confines of the lecture hall, no other virtue exists but plain intellectual integrity.

To avoid being drawn into error, keep a firm grip on the truth.

Reason is non-negotiable. Try to argue against it, or to exclude it from some realm of knowledge, and you've already lost the argument, because you're using reason to make your case. ... We don't "believe" in reason.

All I would ask you to be thinking of is the truth and not Socrates.

Forbear to spew out reason from your mind, but rather ponder everything with keen judgment; and if it seems true, own yourself vanquished, but, if it is false, gird up your loins to fight.

Unscientific man is beset by a deplorable desire to have been right. The scientist is distinguished by a desire to be right.

I have one request: may I never use my reason against truth.

A life of total dedication to the truth also means a life of willingness to be personally challenged.

I mean by intellectual integrity the habit of deciding vexed questions in accordance with the evidence, or of leaving them undecided where the evidence is inconclusive. This virtue, though it is underestimated by almost all adherents of any system of dogma, is to my mind of the very greatest social importance and far more likely to benefit the world than Christianity or any other system of organized beliefs.

Faith never requires us to crucify our minds or deny our senses.

It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true.

My work is to be honest. My work is to try to think clearly, then have the courage to make sure that what I say is the truth.

The best defence against bullshit is vigilance. So if you smell something, say something.

It is for this reason that rationality is of supreme importance to the well-being of the human species...even more, in those less fortunate times in which it is despised and rejected as the vain dream of men who lack the virility to kill where they cannot agree.

Man's passion for truth is such that he will welcome the bitterest of all postulates so long as it strikes him as true.

Many people have the reasoning facility, but no one uses it in religious matters.

A rational man never distorts or corrupts his own standards and judgment in order to appeal to the irrationality, stupidity, or dishonesty of others.

You have to be intellectually honest with yourself and others. In my judgment, all great investors are seekers of truth.

A man ceases to be an honest doubter the moment he refuses one way of getting at the truth because he does not like that way.

Every politician, every member of the clerical profession, ought to incur the reasonable suspicion of being an interested supporter of false doctrines, who becomes angry at opposition, and endeavors to cast an odium on free inquiry. Fraud and falsehood only dread examination. Truth invites it.

A truly open mind means forcing our imaginations to conform to the evidence of reality, and not vice versa.

He in whom the love of truth predominates . . . submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion; but he is a candidate for truth . . . and respects the highest law of his being.

A touchstone to determine the actual worth of an "intellectual" - find out how he feels about astrology.

We should not be ashamed of not having answers to all questions yet... I'm perfectly happy staring somebody in the face saying, 'I don't know yet, and we've got top people working on it.' The moment you feel compelled to provide an answer, then you're doing the same thing that the religious community does: providing answers to every possible question.