Skepticism Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old skepticism quotes, skepticism sayings, and skepticism proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

Profound skepticism is favorable to conventions, because it doubts that the criticism of conventions is any truer than they are. George Santayana
Skepticism can keep us from blessing, can keep us trapped in two minds. John Ortberg
Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history. Samuel E. Morison
Skepticism is always a wise default position to start one's inquiry, but if no knowledge is being acquired, skepticism quickly morphs into stubborn ignorance. Charles Hugh Smith
Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation. Arthur Conan Doyle
Skepticism must go hand in hand with rationality. When theories are shown to be false, the correct thing to do is to move on. Brian Cox
Skepticism precludes one from believing many things, but not from loving many things. Marty Rubin
Skepticism literally means a thoughtful inquiry, the looking at a problem in a disinterested spirit, the surveying of a question from many sides. In this sense it is the very essence of philosophy and science. Joseph Alexander Leighton
Skepticism enables us to distinguish fancy from fact, to test our speculations. Carl Sagan
Skepticism is in fact the wholly self-abrogating contradiction. Michael N. Forster
Skepticism about the potential to achieve the kinds of breakthroughs we need has been a self-fulfilling prophecy. Ted Nordhaus
In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life to doubt, as far as possible, of all things. Rene Descartes
Skepticism is the elegance of anxiety. Emile M. Cioran
Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect. George Santayana
A universal skepticism is limited by its own criteria. If we assume it to be true, then it is false. Paul Kurtz
It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better. Ambrose Bierce
The key to wisdom is this constant and frequent questioning for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth. Peter Abelard
Skepticism is a way of freeing the dogmatic mind, and that's where its value lies. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Scepticism does not abolish the world, it turns it into questions. Milan Kundera
Skepticism means, not intellectual doubt alone, but moral doubt. Thomas Carlyle
Always doubtful is the one who always looks for certainty. Raheel Farooq
Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy. Denis Diderot
Skepticism is like a microscope whose magnification is constantly increased: the sharp image that one begins with finally dissolves, because it is not possible to see ultimate things: their existence is only to be inferred. Stanislaw Lem
Scepticism is an ability, or mental attitude, which opposes appearances to judgments in any way whatsoever, with the result that,owing to the equipollence of the objects and reasons thus opposed we are brought firstly to a state of mental suspense and next to a state of unperturbedness or quietude. Sextus Empiricus
Skepticism is a discipline fit to purify the mind of prejudice and render it all the more apt, when the time comes, to believe and to act wisely. George Santayana
Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind. John Dewey
Scepticism is the first step towards truth. Denis Diderot
There is no harm in doubt and skepticism, for it is through these that new discoveries are made. Richard Feynman
A wise skepticism is the first attribute of a good critic. James Russell Lowell
Skepticism is a useful tool of the inquisitive mind, but it is scarcely a method of investigation. James Thurber