"No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude."
―Karl Popper
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"In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable; and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality."
―Karl Popper |
"If we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them."
―Karl Popper |
"The difference between the amoeba and Einstein is that, although both make use of the method of trial and error elimination, the amoeba dislikes erring while Einstein is intrigued by it."
―Karl Popper |
"While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal."
―Karl Popper
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"There is no pure, disinterested, theory free observation."
―Karl Popper
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"Evolution is not a fact. Evolution doesn't even qualify as a theory or as a hypothesis. It is a metaphysical research program, and it is not really testable science."
―Karl Popper
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"All things living are in search of a better world"
―Karl Popper
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"It is wrong and dangerous to extol freedom by telling people that they will certainly be all right once they are free. The most we can say of democracy or freedom is that they give our personal abilities a little more influence on our well-being."
―Karl Popper
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"Contrary to the outstanding work of art, outstanding theory is susceptible to improvements."
―Karl Popper
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"I see now more clearly than ever before that even our greatest troubles spring from something that is [as] admirable and sound as it is dangerous – from our impatience to better the lot of our fellows."
―Karl Popper
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"All we can do is search for the falsity content in our best theory."
―Karl Popper
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"The conspiracy theory of society comes from abandoning god and then asking: "Who is in his place"
―Karl Popper
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"Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification."
―Karl Popper
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"Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology."
―Karl Popper
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"All life is problem solving."
―Karl Popper |
"Every intellectual has a very special responsibility. He has the privilege and the opportunity of studying. In return, he owes it to his fellow men (or 'to society') to represent the results of his study as simply, clearly and modestly as he can."
―Karl Popper |
"It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it."
―Karl Popper
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"No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct."
―Karl Popper |
"It is complete nihilism to propose laying down arms in a world where atom bombs are around. It is very simple: there is no way of achieving peace other than with weapons."
―Karl Popper
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"I remained a socialist for several years, even after my rejection of Marxism; and if there could be such a thing as socialism combined with individual liberty, I would be a socialist still. For nothing could be better than living a modest, simple, and free life in an egalitarian society."
―Karl Popper |
"Bold ideas, unjustified anticipations, and speculative thought, are our only means for interpreting nature: our only organon, our only instrument, for grasping her. And we must hazard them to win our prize. Those among us who are unwilling to expose their ideas to the hazard of refutation do not take part in the scientific game."
―Karl Popper
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"There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions."
―Karl Popper
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"The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence."
―Karl Popper
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"A theory is just a mathematical model to describe the observations."
―Karl Popper
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"Great scientists are men of bold ideas, but highly critical of their own ideas: they try to find whether their ideas are right by trying first to find whether they are not perhaps wrong. They work with bold conjectures and severe attempts at refuting their own conjectures."
―Karl Popper
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"The history of science, like the history of all human ideas, is a history of irresponsible dreams, of obstinacy, and of error."
―Karl Popper
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"The only way to test a hypothesis is to look for all the information that disagrees with it."
―Karl Popper |
"If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can."
―Karl Popper |
"We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong."
―Karl Popper |
"It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy."
―Karl Popper
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"We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves."
―Karl Popper |
"We do not know. We can only guess."
―Karl Popper
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"A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice."
―Karl Popper
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"What really makes science grow is new ideas, including false ideas."
―Karl Popper
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"The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game."
―Karl Popper
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"Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or to refute it."
―Karl Popper
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"No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from it"
―Karl Popper
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"It is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth."
―Karl Popper
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"Plato felt that a complete reconstruction of society's political program was needed."
―Karl Popper
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"Every discovery contains an irrational element or a creative intuition."
―Karl Popper
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"It is the rule which says that the other rules of scientific procedure must be designed in such a way that they do not protect any statement in science against falsification."
―Karl Popper
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