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If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to d...more

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What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.

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When two men of science disagree, they do not invoke the secular arm; they wait for further evidence to decide the issue, because, as men of science, ...more

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One should respect public opinion in so far as it is necessary to avoid starvation and to keep out of prison but anything that goes beyond this is vo...more

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One of the symptoms of an approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one's work is terribly important.

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Against my will, in the course of my travels, the belief that everything worth knowing was known at Cambridge gradually wore off. In this respect my t...more

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Every man wherever he goes is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions which move with him like flies on a summer day.

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One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary ...more

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It is not what the man of science believes that distinguishes him, but how and why he believes it. His beliefs are tentative, not dogmatic; they are b...more

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When you come to look into this argument from design, it is a most astonishing thing that people can believe that this world, with all the things that...more

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William James used to preach the 'will to believe.' For my part, I should wish to preach the 'will to doubt' ... what is wanted is not the will to bel...more

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Intellectually, what is stimulating to a young man is a problem of obvious practical importance. A young man learning economics, for example, ought to...more

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I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and subversive. The doctrine in qu...more

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My desire and wish is that the things I start with should be so obvious that you wonder why I spend my time stating them. This is what I aim at becaus...more

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I do not pretend to be able to prove that there is no God. I equally cannot prove that Satan is a fiction. The Christian god may exist; so may the god...more