Skeptic Quotes

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

“That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.”
― Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays

“Man is manifestly not the measure of all things. This universe is shot through with mystery. The very fact of its being, and of our own, is a mystery absolute, and the only miracle worthy of the name.”
― Sam Harris, The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

“Religion is like a blind man looking in a black room for a black cat that isn't there, and finding it.”
― Anonymous

“We know enough at this moment to say that the God of Abraham is not only unworthy of the immensity of creation; he is unworthy even of man.”
― Sam Harris

“If we could believe that he [Jesus] really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods, and the charlatanism which his biographers [Gospels] father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations, and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the latter ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind that he was an impostor... We find in the writings of his biographers matter of two distinct descriptions. First, a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications... That sect [Jews] had presented for the object of their worship, a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust... Jesus had to walk on the perilous confines of reason and religion: and a step to right or left might place him within the gripe of the priests of the superstition, a blood thirsty race, as cruel and remorseless as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. They were constantly laying snares, too, to entangle him in the web of the law... That Jesus did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God, physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of men more learned than myself in that lore.

[Letter to William Short, 4 August, 1820]”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“Trustful people are the pure at heart, as they are moved by the zeal of their own trustworthiness.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“Be aware of this truth that the people on this earth could be joyous, if only they would live rationally and if they would contribute mutually to each others' welfare.

This world is not a vale of sorrows if you will recognize discriminatingly what is truly excellent in it; and if you will avail yourself of it for mutual happiness and well-being. Therefore, let us explain as often as possible, and particularly at the departure of life, that we base our faith on firm foundations, on Truth for putting into action our ideas which do not depend on fables and ideas which Science has long ago proven to be false.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

“I am metaphysical being, mystical and emotional, skeptical and cynical, happy and boisterous, loud and bawdy, quiet and melancholy, tender and cruel, full of mirth and despair. Inherent inconsistences mark me as part of nature, which is neither cruel nor fair, or reliable or predictable.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls

“Am I a liar in your eyes?" he asked passionately. "Little skeptic, you shall be convinced. What love have I for Miss Ingram? None: and that you know. What love has she for me? None: as I have taken pains to prove; I caused a rumor to reach her that my fortune was not a third of what was supposed, and after that I presented myself to see the result; it was coldness both from her and her mother. I would not-I could not-marry Miss Ingram. You-you strange-you almost unearthly thing!-I love as my own flesh. You-poor and obscure, and small and plain as you are-I entreat to accept me as a husband.”
― Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre

“Bertrand Russell declared that, in case he met God, he would say to Him, "Sir, you did not give us enough information." I would add to that, "All the same, Sir, I'm not persuaded that we did the best we could with the information we had. Toward the end there, anyway, we had tons of information.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage

“Ah; but my courage fails me, and my heart is sick within me! —Lord, take pity on the Christian who doubts, on the skeptic who would fain believe, on the galley-slave of life who puts to sea alone, in the darkness of night, beneath a firmament illumined no longer by the consoling beacon-fires of the ancient hope.”
― Joris-Karl Huysmans, Against Nature

“It's good to be cynical," he said. "That is, if you know when to stop. Most of the things that we're all taught to respect and reverence- they don't deserve anything but cynicism.”
― Aldous Huxley, After Many a Summer Dies the Swan

“[n regard to Jesus believing himself inspired]
This belief carried no more personal imputation than the belief of Socrates that he was under the care and admonition of a guardian demon. And how many of our wisest men still believe in the reality of these inspirations while perfectly sane on all other subjects (Works, Vol. iv, p. 327).”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Regardless of how you came to doubt, doubt itself is not the problem, but what can be problematic and even tragic is what you do with your doubt.”
― Ben Young, Room for Doubt: How Uncertainty Can Deepen Your Faith

“It is far harder to make a believer into a skeptic than to make a skeptic into a believer.”
― Mike Klepper

“Frankly, the whole concept was a little too New Age—y for me.”
― Kristen Roupenian, You Know You Want This: Cat Person and Other Stories

“He sees the shit that happens around me - or because of me - so now he is only 99.99 percent certain I can't turn him into a frog.”
― Augusten Burroughs, Toil & Trouble

“We’ll actually be staying several nights in Dunadhar Castle but one night, we’re going to be camping out at Loch Ness, just to see if we can catch a glimpse of Nessie.”
“Branching out, huh?” Mikey asked.
“Don’t tell me you’re not a believer, Mikey.”
“In a massive sea dragon?”
Luke sighed.
Everyone's a skeptic.”
― Jacqueline E. Smith, Lost Souls

“Do not worry about the skeptic, trust yourself, you can do great things.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“When it comes to doubt, there is not one size that fits all. Some people struggle with it and some people don’t. Some people scream their way into doubt through pain and suffering, while others seem to drift into doubt. It’s that simple and that complex.”
― Ben Young, Room for Doubt: How Uncertainty Can Deepen Your Faith

“Doubting is not unique to a person or a time period. It is the nature of being a finite human living in a complex world filled with pain and disappointment and questions about existence that will never be answered.”
― Ben Young, Room for Doubt: How Uncertainty Can Deepen Your Faith

“Doubting is biblical, historical, and normal for many Christians who are trying to follow God in their lifetimes. It takes courage to face uncertainty and to live with doubts that may never completely go away.”
― Ben Young, Room for Doubt: How Uncertainty Can Deepen Your Faith

“Skepticism is key to a good ghost story”
― Jeff Provine, Campus Ghosts of Norman, Oklahoma

“Do not worry about the skeptic, trust yourself, you can do great things if you attempt them.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“Don’t believe the skeptics. Rather, be skeptical of their skepticism.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“Skeptics are always marked by their total lack of skepticism towards whatever position they are defending.”
― Steve Madison, Soul Science: Know Your Soul

“Don't worry about the skeptic, trust yourself, you can do great things.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita

“When faced with remarkability, she wasn't sure she trusted it.”
― Tracy Sumner