Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think. And there is no freedom of thought without doubt.
Bergen EvansRead
The civilized man has a moral obligation to be skeptical. . . . Any man who for one moment abandons or suspends the questioning spirit has for that moment betrayed humanity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Skepticism is crucial for progress and moral responsibility.
This quote emphasizes the importance of skepticism as a fundamental aspect of civilized society. Bergen Evans argues that to suspend one's questioning nature, even momentarily, is to undermine moral obligations and betray the collective pursuit of truth and humanity's advancement.
Themes
SkepticismMoralityHumanityQuestioningCivilization
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophy discussion on moral obligations.
More from Bergen Evans
All quotes →Similar quotes
I've been practising Buddhism for forty years, and that's what has led me to this path of discovering my own humanity and recognizing the humanity in others.
Herbie HancockRead
Who really can face the future? All you can do is project from the past, even when the past shows that such projections are often wrong. And who really can forget the past? What else is there to know?
Robert M. PirsigRead
I think that we have created a new kind of person in a way. We have created a child who will be so exposed to the media that he will be lost to his parents by the time he is 12.
David BowieRead
Obscenity only comes in when the mind despises and fears the body, and the body hates and resists the mind.
D. H. LawrenceRead
Darkness coiled between what he wanted them to believe and the self he despised. It only made him more alone. How could you save someone when he didn't let you kno him? What a waste. The beauty he murdered in this place. He could never see what he had, only what he failed to achieve.
Janet FitchRead
If life's journey be endless where is its goal? The answer is, it is everywhere. We are in a palace which has no end, but which we have reached. By exploring it and extending our relationship with it we are ever making it more and more our own.
Rabindranath TagoreRead