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
—Karl Popper
Topics: Religion
There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.
—Karl Popper
Topics: History
Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.
—Karl Popper
Topics: Assumptions, Theory
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.
—Karl Popper
Topics: Philosophers, Philosophy
The best thing that can happen to a human being is 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.
—Karl Popper
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 against the onslaught of the intolerant, 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.
—Karl Popper
Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.
—Karl Popper
Topics: Promises, Hell
Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.
—Karl Popper
Topics: Scientists, Science
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
—Karl Popper
Topics: Knowledge
It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.
—Karl Popper
Topics: Speech
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Zeno of Citium Greek Philosopher
- Jeremy Bentham British Philosopher, Economist
- Jacques Derrida French Philosopher, Literary Theorist
- Emanuel Swedenborg Swedish Mystic, Theologian, Scientist
- Ludwig Wittgenstein Austrian-born British Philosopher
- Robert Anton Wilson American Polymath
- Charles Sanders Peirce American Philosopher
- John Rawls American Philosopher
- Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach German Philosopher
- Jose Ortega y. Gasset Spanish Philosopher
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