Skeptic Sayings and Quotes

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

People are not stupid. They believe things for reasons. The last way for skeptics to get the attention of bright, curious, intelligent people is to belittle or condescend or to show arrogance toward their beliefs. Carl Sagan
Skepticism has never founded empires, established principals, or changed the world's heart. The great doers in history have always been people of faith. Edwin Hubbel Chapin
Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism. David Suzuki
Skepticism is the highest duty and blind faith the one unpardonable sin. Thomas Henry Huxley
The fact that a believer is happier than a sceptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality. George Bernard Shaw
Men are never convinced of your reasons, of your sincerity, of the seriousness of your sufferings, except by your death. So long as you are alive, your case is doubtful; you have a right only to their skepticism. Albert Camus
Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosphy. Napoleon Bonaparte
Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls. Emil Cioran
Skeptics are generally ready to believe anything, provided is it only sufficiently improbable; it is at matters of fact that such people stumble. John Dewey
Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history. Samuel E. Morison
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities. Voltaire
Skepticism, the mark and even the pose of the educated mind. John Dewey
It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better. Ambrose Bierce
What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite. Bertrand Russell
Skepticism is not a position; skepticism is an approach to claims, in the same way that science is not a subject but a method. Michael Shermer