Top 173 Quotes & Sayings by Karl Popper
Explore popular quotes and sayings by an Austrian philosopher Karl Popper.
Last updated on December 23, 2024.
Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.
Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.
It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology.
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.
We have become makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.
Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
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.
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. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.
It is wrong to ask who will rule. The ability to vote a bad government out of office is enough. That is democracy.
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. The worst thing that intellectuals can do - the cardinal sin - is to try to set themselves up as great prophets vis-à-vis their fellow men and to impress them with puzzling philosophies. Anyone who cannot speak simply and clearly should say nothing and continue to work until he can do so.
When we enter a new situation in life and are confronted by a new person, we bring with us the prejudices of the past and our previous experiences of people. These prejudices we project upon the new person. Indeed, getting to know a person is largely a matter of withdrawing projections; of dispelling the smoke screen of what we imagine he is like and replacing it with the reality of what he is actually like.
The war of ideas is a Greek invention. It is one of the most important inventions ever made. Indeed, the possibility of fighting with with words and ideas instead of fighting with swords is the very basis of our civilization, and especially of all its legal and parliamentary institutions.
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
Our aim as scientists is objective truth; more truth, more interesting truth, more intelligible truth. We cannot reasonably aim at certainty. Once we realize that human knowledge is fallible, we realize also that we can never be completely certain that we have not made a mistake.
We do not know. We can only guess.
It can't happen here is always wrong: a dictatorship can happen anywhere.
Do not allow your dreams of a beautiful world to lure you away from the claims of men who suffer here and now. Our fellow men have a claim to our help; no generation must be sacrificed for the sake of future generations.
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.
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.
Whenever we propose a solution to a problem, we ought to try as hard as we can to overthrow our solution, rather than defend it.
Every solution of a problem raises new unsolved problems.
A theory that explains everything, explains nothing
No particular theory may ever be regarded as absolutely certain.... No scientific theory is sacrosanct.
Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle - the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative.
The best thing that can happen to a human being us to find a problem, to fall in love with that problem, and to live trying to solve that problem, unless another problem even more lovable appears.
There is no pure, disinterested, theory-free observation.
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.
The question is not how to get good people to rule; THE QUESTION IS: HOW TO STOP THE POWERFUL from doing as much damage as they can to us.
If you can't say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
The growth of knowledge depends entirely upon disagreement.
no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.
I may be wrong and you may be right, and by an effort, we may get nearer to the truth
You cannot have a rational discussion with a man who prefers shooting you to being convinced by you.
While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.
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.
There is no history, only histories.
We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell.
We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.
We have the right not to tolerate the intolerant. We should tolerate even them whenever we can do so without running a great risk; but the risk may become so great that we cannot allow ourselves the luxury.
The survival value of intelligence is that it allows us to extinct a bad idea, before the idea extincts us.
The only way to test a hypothesis is to look for all the information that disagrees with it.
Ignorance is not a simple lack of knowledge but an active aversion to knowledge, the refusal to know, issuing from cowardice, pride, or laziness of mind.
The defence of democracy must consist in making anti-democratic experiences too costly for those who try them; much more costly than a democratic compromise
The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not even want to convince; all the time he is aware that he may be wrong. Above all, he values the intellectual independence of others too highly to want to convince them in important matters. He would much rather invite contradiction, preferably in the form of rational and disciplined criticism. He seeks not to convince but to arouse - to challenge others to form free opinions.
We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.
Optimism is a duty. The future is open. It is not predetermined. No one can predict it, except by chance. We all contribute to determining it by what we do. We are all equally responsible for its success.
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.
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.
I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence 'democracy,' and the other, 'tyranny.'.
Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance. If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant, if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them. We should therefore claim, in the name of tolerance, the right not to tolerate the intolerant.
All life is problem solving
We do not know anything - this is the first. Therefore, we should be very modest - this is the second. Not to claim that we do know when we do not - this is the third. That's the kind of attitude I'd like to popularize. There is little hope for success.
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.
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