Skepticism is slow suicide
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A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic.
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The poison of skepticism becomes, like alcoholism, tuberculosis, and some other diseases, much more virulent in a hitherto virgin soil.
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Common-sense is part of the home-made ideology of those who have been deprived of fundamental learning, of those who have been kept ignorant. This ideology is compounded from different sources: items that have survived from religion, items of empirical knowledge, items of protective skepticism, items culled for comfort from the superficial learning that is supplied. But the point is that common-sense can never teach itself, can never advance beyond its own limits, for as soon as the lack of fundamental learning has been made good, all items become questionable and the whole function of common-sense is destroyed. Common-sense can only exist as a category insofar as it can be distinguished from the spirit of inquiry, from philosophy.
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All in all, I am not surprised that the people who want to unravel the social contract start with young adults. Those who are urged to feel afraid, very afraid, have both the greatest sense of independence and the most finely honed skepticism about government.
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On the road from the City of Skepticism, I had to pass through the Valley of Ambiguity. (Powers of Mind, 1975)
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Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
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There is a kind of courtesy in skepticism. It would be an offense against polite conventions to press our doubts too far.
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Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally; as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public.
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Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.
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What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is therefore the first step toward truth.
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When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others. It is much more nearly certain that we are assembled here tonight than it is that this or that political party is in the right. Certainly there are degrees of certainty, and one should be very careful to emphasize that fact, because otherwise one is landed in an utter skepticism, and complete skepticism would, of course, be totally barren and completely useless.
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Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.
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Some natural skepticism as to the purity of all human motives came and sat upon my chest...
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In the end we shall have had enough of cynicism and skepticism and humbug and we shall want to live more musically
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Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the first comer: there is nobility in preserving it coolly and proudly through long youth, until at last, in the ripeness of instinct and discretion, it can be safely exchanged for fidelity and happiness.
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Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.
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Skepticism has never founded empires, established principals, or changed the world's heart. The great doers in history have always been people of faith.
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It is the tension between creativity and skepticism that has produced the stunning and unexpected findings of science.
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Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality. It is the words that speak boldly of your intentions. And the actions which speak louder than the words. It is making the time when there is none. Coming through time after time after time, year after year after year. Commitment is the stuff character is made of; the power to change the face of things. It is the daily triumph of integrity over skepticism.
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Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.
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The goal of every culture is to decay through over-civilization; the factors of decadence, -- luxury, skepticism, weariness and superstition, -- are constant. The civilization of one epoch becomes the manure of the next.
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We could hardly believe that after so many ordeals, after all the trials of modern skepticism, there was still so much left in our souls to destroy.
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Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from birth what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government to do good.
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Skepticism, is that anything more than we used to mean when we said, Well, what have we here?
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Skepticism is provisional, even if it lasts a lifetime.
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What is desperately needed ... is the skepticism and the sense of history that a liberal arts education provides.
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It is one thing to live, another to philosophize. When therefore the question is about the conduct of our lives, and the performance of our du...
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Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.
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Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.
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