Agnosticism Quotes
More Agnosticism Quotes
I do not consider it an insult but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are surethat is all that agnosticism means.
— 1925 Speech in defence of John T Scopes,15 Jul.
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
clarence darrow— Scopes Trial, Dayton, Tennessee (13 July 1925)
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure that is all that agnosticism means.
— Clarence Darrow, Speech in Dayton, Tennessee (13 July 1925), defending John T. Scopes, on trial for teaching Darwinian concepts of Evolution.
agnosticism is not properly described as a "negative" creed, nor indeed as a creed of any kind, except in so far as it expresses absolute faith in the validity of a principle which is as much ethical as intellectual. This principle may be stated in various ways, but they all amount to this: that it is wrong for a man to say that he is certain of the objective truth of any proposition unless he can produce evidence which logically justifies that certainty. This is what agnosticism asserts; and, in my opinion, it is all that is essential to agnosticism.
— Thomas Henry Huxley, in "Agnosticsim" published in The Nineteenth Century (February 1889) ; also in Christianity and Agnosticism (1889)
It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything. If one can only see things according to one's own belief system, one is destined to become virtually deaf, dumb, and blind.
— Robert Anton Wilson, in "Robert Anton Wilson : Searching For Cosmic Intelligence" - interview by Jeffrey Elliot (1980)
FREE THINKERS: all people whose beliefs regarding "spirits" are compatible with modern science. Deism , pan-deism, agnosticism and atheism are compatible; theism is not.
— Charles Brough Destiny and Civilization: The Evolutionary Explanation of Religion and History (2008), p. 295.
Deism and pan-deism, as well as agnosticism and atheism, are all Non-Theisms.
— Charles Brough, The Last Civilization (2010), p. 246:
It's important to remember that Thomas Huxley recognized Socrates as the first agnostic. Socrates very much believed in a God , although his deity was somewhat vague and outside of his people's polytheistic religion. Philosophically Socrates was the very essence of agnosticism .
— James Kirk Wall, in Agnosticism : The Battle Against Shameless Ignorance (2011), p. 10
agnosticism simply means that a man shall not say he knows or believes that for which he has no grounds for professing to believe.
— Thomas Henry Huxley, quoted in The Great Quotations? (1960) by George Seldes, p. 345
