Karl Popper Quotes

I try not to be overly analytical.

Allowances can always be made for your friends to disagree with you. Disagreement, vehement disagreement, is healthy. Debate is impossible without it. Evil does not question itself, only hope questions itself. Even the incorruptible are corruptible if they cannot accept the possibility of being mistaken. Infallibility is a sin in any man. All laws can be broken and are. Often. Like when a bumblebee flies or an ancient regime is toppled.

You know what 'DOUBT' stands for? It stands for 'Debate On Understanding Bewildersome Thoughts.'

That's healthy and good for us that there are people who are prepared to question what we are doing.

I like disagreement because it forces both sides to question their own opinions and why they feel that way.

I'm not much of an analyzer or a psychologist.

I believe in criticism.

I've always felt some kind of connection to people who are kind of over-smart. People who over-think things to the point of some sort of paralysis, and I think that certainly can be me on any given day.

The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory, but progress.

One must dig deeply into opposing points of view in order to know whether your own position remains defensible. Iron sharpens iron.

We need an opposition to remind us if we are making mistakes. When you are not opposed you think everything you do is right.

I love being challenged and defending my positions and, when I'm wrong, learning from the exchange. It makes me smarter and better as a businessperson.

I find that quite enjoyable, trying to see the downsides of someone.

We should not seek to tune out the realists' whines or taunts, as they may provide good instruction.

If you agree with everything I have said, then I have failed.

If you can get really good at destroying your own wrong ideas, that is a great gift.

Even criticism is more interesting when the writer's authority does not only come through this omniscient narrator, but through questions, ambivalence, vulnerability. A mind questioning and on the move, not just settling down and declaring - that's one of the most interesting possibilities.

It's important to have people who will question you occasionally.

When I get serious criticism - if I get serious criticism - it's about how I'm thinking and engaging in a topic. I can't think of an example of someone saying, 'You're too nice.'

We cannot be so scared that our ideas or opinions will not survive being tested. If you are afraid of being wrong, then you might not have a good argument.

Always be willing to look at both sides of the argument. Understanding the other side is the best way to strengthen your own.

Question everything. Your love, your religion, your passion. If you don't have questions, you'll never find answers.

I hate taxing my mind with analysis. I'm not a good analyst. I cannot talk about acting. I hate talking about it. I hate talking about analyzing.

If you haven't doubted, you probably haven't thought very hard about what you believe.

Sherlock Holmes observed that once you have eliminated the impossible then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the answer. I, however, do not like to eliminate the impossible.