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.
Bertrand Russell in Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic? (1947)
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Related quotes
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.
quote by Bertrand Russell
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Its attitude, which it has preached and practiced, is skepticism. Now, it finds, the public is applying that skepticism to the press.
quote by Thomas Griffith
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Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.
quote by Louis Pasteur
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We wish to find the truth, no matter where it lies. But to find the truth we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact.
quote by Carl Sagan
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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.
quote by Bertrand Russell
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Investors should start with a view of skepticism. They should become intellectual investors rather than emotional investors. They should be careful, and they should be skeptical.
quote by Arthur Levitt
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Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.
Nothing Is Going To Change
Apparently we are going to have an election soon,
Maybe or maybe not, later this year during a full moon,
Without set-date elections we really don’t know or have a clue,
We have to wait for an obscure political-party move.
Where binding referendums are completely banned and forbidden,
And the idea of propositions, completely overridden,
Where equalization is not allowed in first-past-the-post,
Where party politicians are busy and completely engrossed.
They are strictly forbidden to have an independent thought,
No matter how many US universities they taught,
They have to stay restricted within their own party agenda,
And keep pumping out and repeating the most stupid propaganda.
Jan 15th,2011
poem by James Bredin
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Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.
quote by Napoleon Bonaparte
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Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.
quote by Denis Diderot
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Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.
quote by George Santayana
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She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.
quote by Jean-Paul Sartre
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Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.
quote by Emile M. Cioran
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It's essential not to have an ideology, not to be a member of a political party. While the writer can have certain political views, he has to be careful not to have his hands tied.
quote by Manuel Puig
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The natural cause of the human mind is certainly from credulity to skepticism.
quote by Thomas Jefferson
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Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.
quote by John Dewey
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We all approached doing a sequel with great trepidation and skepticism.
quote by Jason Biggs
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The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.
quote by Walter Gilbert
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The logic of validation allows us to move between the two limits of dogmatism and skepticism.
quote by Paul Ricoeur
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Some natural skepticism as to the purity of all human motives came and sat upon my chest...
quote by Roger Zelazny
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