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Sections (Content) :
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It is therefore dangerous to suppose that what seems familiar to us is and must be true of all the universe in all its aspects. Thus, it is only "common sense" to suppose that the earth is flat and motionless and this argument was strenuously used to oppose the notion that the earth was spherical and in motion.
• 2
He that questioneth much, shall learn much, and content much...
• 3
Honest skepticism is the beginning of wisdom.
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...partisanship of whatever camp is not an objective judge.
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If there is anyone here I've failed to insult, I apologize.
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Who so itcheth to Philosophy must set to work by putting all things to the doubt.
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He who desires to philosophize must first of all doubt all things.
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There is no theory in these matters which will permanently hold water. (For every theory has to be got at through methods of generalization .... by which concrete particulars are abstracted into large but unmeaning concepts – and therefore condemns itself to leakage beforehand...)
• 9
"What you say is terrible!"
"No -- it's only new to you. New truths have to be faced. One's ideas adjusted. But sometimes -- it makes life difficult."
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...I always find it prudent to suspect everybody just a little.
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He who aims to be a man of complete virtue in his food does not seek to gratify his appetite...
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The Master said, "I have talked with Hui, my disciple, for a whole day, and he has not made any objection to anything I said;-- as if he were stupid."
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...shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it; -- this is knowledge.
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It is all over! I have not yet seen one who could perceive his faults, and inwardly accuse himself.
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There were four things from which the Master was entirely free. He had no foregone conclusions, no arbitrary predeterminations, no obstinacy, and no egoism.
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...try to preserve my receptivity towards all new ideas, my tolerance towards all manifestations of social activity.
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A strange lot this, to be dropped down in a world of barbarians -- Men who see clearly enough the barbarity of all ages except their own!
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It was passion and prejudice and the refusal of each side to consider the claims of the other that made the bloody sacrifice necessary.
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Understanding and analysis are greatly helped by experience, which of course is a function of time, provided that the time is spent with an open mind, as the principles of scientific method properly understood demand, rather than in a state of wedlock with some approach that screens out inconvenient facts, or probabilities, in order to leave the preexisting "model" unimpaired.
• 20
Alas, my Caelia, can I resolve this question? Do I know how long my life shall yet endure? But does this also disturb your tender breast? And is the image of our frail mortality for ever present with you, to throw a damp on your gayest hours, and poison even those joys which love inspires? Consider rather, that if life be frail, if youth be transitory, we should well employ the present moment, and lose no part of so perishable an existence. Yet a little moment and these shall be no more. We shall be, as if we had never been. Not a memory of us be left upon earth; and even the fabulous shades below will not afford us a habitation. Our fruitless anxieties, our vain projects, our uncertain speculations shall all be swallowed up and lost. Our present doubts, concerning the original cause of all things, must never, alas! be resolved. This alone we may be certain of, that, if any governing mind preside, he must be pleased to see us fulfill the ends of our being, and enjoy that pleasure, for which alone we were created. Let this reflection give ease to your anxious thoughts; but render not your joys too serious, by dwelling for ever upon it.
• 21
The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellowmen.
• 22
The real searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He may have been a king or serf -- a philosopher or servant, -- but the utterance neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.
• 23
Every child should be taught to doubt, to inquire, to demand reasons. Every soul should defend itself -- should be on its guard against falsehood, deceit, and mistake, and should beware of all kinds of confidence men, including those in the pulpit.
• 24
No one has the good method.... In this world there are no naturally correct ways, and among methods, no solely good techniques.
• 25
It is of the nature of idea to be communicated: written, spoken, done. The idea is like grass. It craves light, likes crowds, thrives on crossbreeding, grows better for being stepped on.
• 26
We who support science, we who live in science, are all the more called upon to abstain from carrying into the heads of men, and most of all into the heads of teachers, that which we only suppose.
• 27
Objection, evasion, joyous distrust, and love of irony are signs of health...
• 28
And supposing that Gods also philosophize, which I am strongly inclined to believe, owing to many reasons—I have no doubt that they also know how to laugh thereby in an superman-like and new fashion—and at the expense of all serious things!
• 29
To endeavor to force conclusions without making the subject clear to the understanding, is most unjustifiable and irrational, and must prove useless or injurious to the mental faculties.
• 30
From criticism no thought is safe, since criticism is thought or the thinking mind itself.
• 31
Criticism is the possessed man's fight against possession as such, against all possession: a fight which is founded in the consciousness that everywhere possession, or, as the critic calls it, a religious and theological attitude, is extant. He knows that people stand in a religious or believing attitude not only toward God, but toward other ideas as well, like right, the state, law; he recognizes possession in all places. So he wants to break up thoughts by thinking...
• 32
...ignorance is the natural state of mind for a research scientist. People who believe they are ignorant of nothing have neither looked for, nor stumbled upon, the boundary between what is known and unknown in the universe.
• 33
Scientists cannot claim to be on the research frontier unless one thing or another baffles them. Bafflement drives discovery.
• 34
...the more profoundly baffled you have been in your life, the more open your mind becomes to new ideas.
• 35
This inexplicable phenomenon is thus explained away -- unless it's something else entirely, which, despite everything that has been sighted, studied, explored and experienced, is still possible!
• 36
...don't discount something with the feeble excuse that you've never heard of it.
• 37
It should be generally understood that our questions are as important as our answers, and that winning an argument is less desirable than learning from it.
Chronology :
April 12, 2020 : Questioning -- Added.
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