Skeptical Quotes
We are each entitled to our own opinion, but no one is entitled to his own facts.
The more we know of the fixed laws of nature the more incredible do miracles become.
Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.
The stronger your beliefs are, the less open you are to growth and wisdom, because "strength of belief" is only the intensity with which you resist questioning yourself.
Not knowing the answer to a question is not a valid excuse for making up a fairytale to explain it.
Instinct and intuition play an important part in human understanding and experience... but they should never be treated as the final word on a subject.
The fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown.
A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.
Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? There isn't a religion on the planet that doesn't long for a comparable ability - precise, and repeatedly demonstrated before committed skeptics - to foretell future events. No other human institution comes close.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.