50 Skepticism Quotes on Healthy Rational Thinking

By Norbert Juma

Master quote curator and editor on a mission to inspire

Published June 28, 2023

These skepticism quotes will remind you that you can’t believe everything you hear.

Scrutinizing a situation or questioning what’s true is a necessary part of life that is to your benefit.

In addition to our quotes section, we have also discussed skepticism and how to introduce healthy skepticism into our lives.

So, without any delay, let’s start!

Some Words about Skepticism

Skepticism is referred to as an intellectual stance, which involves scrutinizing and questioning claims made by others.

A skeptic person needs credible information about a claim or assumption.

In other words, skepticism tends to be an essential aspect of critical thinking.

With skeptical behavior, it is possible to foster an evidence-based approach.

Skeptics try to evaluate the information critically before believing in it.

They usually need logical reasoning and empirical evidence to assess the validity of an assumption or belief.

Applying Skepticism in Our Lives

Below are the ways in which we can apply Skepticism to our lives:

Ask Questions about the Information
Look for Logical Fallacies
Evaluating the Source
Learn Continuously
Try to create a balance between Skepticism and Open-Mindedness

Ask Questions about the Information

When you come across information, make sure to question its authenticity.

This is only possible when you adopt a skeptical mindset.

It would be best to ask critical questions about the information conveyed or claims made.

Look for Logical Fallacies

Don’t forget to look for logical fallacies.

These are the indications which appear as errors in reasoning.

These fallacies can distort arguments or mislead.

Evaluating the Source

Make sure to assess the reliability and credibility of the source.

Whenever you need information, find it through a reputable source.

You can read about a concept backed by scientific consensus to understand a topic.

Learn Continuously

Lifelong learning is the key to introducing skepticism in your life.

You should stay informed about the prevailing circumstance and deal with them critically.

This behavior can help you strengthen your logical reasoning.

Try to create a balance between Skepticism and Open-Mindedness

Excessive skeptical behavior can create problems for you.

Hence, it is essential to create a balance between open-mindedness and skepticism.

For this purpose, you must be receptive and embrace new ideas after scrutiny.

Key Benefits of Skepticism

Listed below are the most prominent benefits of skepticism.

Skepticism can serve as a powerful tool for avoiding misinformation.
It can help promote scientific literacy by questioning and seeking evidence.
With skepticism, it is possible to enhance one’s critical thinking.
It helps to encourage intellectual curiosity
Skepticism proves to be a great way to improve one’s personal growth.

Top 10 Skepticism Quotes

These are top skepticism quotes that will give you an insight into skepticism.

1. “Skepticism is the sadism of embittered souls.” — Emile M. Cioran

2. “Skepticism is unbelief in cause and effect.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. “Do not let yourself be tainted with a barren skepticism.” — Louis Pasteur

4. “Skepticism: the mark and even the pose of the educated mind.” — John Dewey

5. “Healthy skepticism is the basis of all accurate observation.” — Arthur Conan Doyle

6. “Skepticism means not intellectual doubt alone, but moral doubt.” — Thomas Carlyle

7. “Skepticism, like chastity, should not be relinquished too readily.” — George Santayana

8. “The path of sound credence is through the thick forest of skepticism.” — George Jean Nathan

9. “Skepticism, riddling the faith of yesterday, prepared the way for the faith of tomorrow.” — Romain Rolland

10. “The capacity to combine commitment with skepticism is essential to democracy.” — Mary Catherine Bateson

Skepticism Quotes About Its Importance

Skepticism is essential in learning and questioning, as these quotes will show.

11. “There is no better soporific and sedative than skepticism.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

12. “She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist.” — Jean-Paul Sartre

13. “It is evident that skepticism, while it makes no actual change in man, always makes him feel better.” — Ambrose Bierce

14. “Skepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon or to the firstcomer.” — George Santayana

15. “Education has failed in a very serious way to convey the most important lesson science can teach: skepticism.” — David Suzuki

16. “Skepticism is an important historical tool. It is the starting point of all revision of hitherto accepted history.” — Samuel Eliot Morison

17. “What has not been examined impartially has not been well examined. Skepticism is, therefore, the first step towards truth.” — Denis Diderot

18. “Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism–and is, therefore, one of the keys to human social and civic decency.” — Stephen Jay Gould

19. “Skepticism, not cleanliness, is next to godliness. Skepticism is the father of freedom. It is like the pry that holds open the door for truth to slip in.” — Gerry Spence

20. “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.” — Carl Sagan

Skepticism Quotes on Belief, Doubt, and Change

These quotes are about belief, doubt, and the power of questioning.

21. “My position now, especially in this town, adds an element of skepticism with people you meet – especially girls.” — Jason Biggs

22. “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

23. “The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.” — Thomas Huxley

24. “I’m the most cynical person, and I know what that sounds like when you say, I don’t drink and drive, and I don’t. But I know people look at that with skepticism, and I understand.” — Tracey Gold

25. “Investors should start with a view of skepticism. They should become intellectual investors rather than emotional investors.” — Arthur Levitt Jr

26. “Where journalists have gotten themselves in trouble over the last few decades is that their skepticism often extends only to American officials, the U.S. military, and Republican politicians.” — Linda Chavez

27. “Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good.” — Daniel Patrick Moynihan

28. “The doctrine of the sacredness of the soul sounds vaguely uplifting but in fact is highly malignant. It discounts life on earth as just a temporary phase that people pass through, indeed, an infinitesimal fraction of their existence…the gradual replacement of lives for souls as the locus of moral value was helped along by the ascendency of skepticism and reason.” — Steven Pinker

Skepticism Quotes About Philosophy

The following quotes show the relationship between skepticism and philosophy.

29. “Skepticism is the first step on the road to philosophy.” — Denis Diderot

30. “Skepticism is a virtue in history as well as in philosophy.” — Napoleon Bonaparte

31. “Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing.” — Bertrand Russell

32. “All the progress we have made in philosophy … is the result of that methodical skepticism which is the element of human freedom.” — Charles Sanders Peirce

33. “As long as we try to project from the relative and conditioned to the absolute and unconditioned, we shall keep the pendulum swinging between dogmatism and skepticism.” — Richard Rorty

34. “Whenever philosophy has taken into its plan religion, it has ended in skepticism; and whenever religion excludes philosophy or the spirit of free inquiry, it leads to willful blindness and superstition.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

35. “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 Quotes About Why It’s Necessary

Here, skepticism is praised as a necessary part of life.

36. “Cautiousness in judgment is nowadays to be recommended to each and every one: if we gained only one incontestable truth every ten years from each of our philosophical writers, the harvest we reaped would be sufficient.” — Georg C. Lichtenberg

37. “For, skepticisms are not gratuitous or lawless but are limitations of the affirmative statement, and the new philosophy must take them in, and make affirmations outside of them, just as much as must include the oldest beliefs.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

38. “The people who are constantly striving to apply skepticism to everything in their lives, the ones who actually care enough about truth and [care to try to] avoid being wrong, and biased, and prejudiced, and clueless; those are the people we need, and need to be.” — Matt Dillahunty

39. “You cannot prove realism to a complete sceptic or idealist, but you can show an honest man that he is not a complete sceptic or idealist, but a realist at heart. So long as he is alive, his sincere philosophy must fulfill the assumptions of his life and not destroy him.” — George Santayana

40. “One of the best things I’ve read about that inexplicably but endlessly fascinating group of people, the so-called Serious Collectors of 78s. Petrusich burrows in their personalities and the hunger that unites and drives their obsessions. She writes elegantly, and makes you think, and most important manages to hang onto her skepticism in the midst of her own collecting quest.” — John Jeremiah Sullivan

Quotes on Using, and Not Using, Skepticism

These skepticism quotes discuss applying skepticism healthily (or not at all).

41. “Skepticism is not an end in itself; it is a tool for the discovery of truths.” — Sydney J. Harris

42. “Most institutions demand unqualified faith, but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.” — Robert K. Merton

43. “By skepticism . . . we arrive first at the suspension of judgment, and second at freedom from disturbance.” — Sextus Empiricus

44. “Skepticism about the potential to achieve the kinds of breakthroughs we need has been a self-fulfilling prophecy.” — Ted Nordhaus

45. “Skepticism rather than credulity is the highest principle that the human intellect can use to ennoble our existence.” — Christopher Hitchens

46. “Skepticism is forever whispering in your ears. You’re very new at this. You may be mistaken. You’ve been wrong before.” — D. J. Grothe

47. “It begins with skepticism. The history of human folly, and our own susceptibility to illusions and fallacies, tell us that men and women are fallible.” — Steven Pinker

48. “Skepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also, chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something, not by debating and arguing about many things.” — Thomas Carlyle

49. “Skepticism has become a virtue. Cynicism and demand for proof have become enlightened thoughts. Is it any wonder that humans now feel more depressed and defeated than they have at any point in human history?” — Dan Brown

50. “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