Quotessence
Home / Authors / Karl Popper
Karl Popper

Karl Popper Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceTheoryIfsMayMenKnowsShouldIdeasWorldHumansCriticismThinkingKnowledgePlatoWayCertainCriticalFactsKindStatements

Famous Karl Popper Quotes

“I do not overlook the fact that there are irrationalists who love mankind, and that not all forms of irrationalism engender criminality. But I hold that he who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate. (Socrates, I believe, saw something of this when he suggested that mistrust or hatred of argument is related to mistrust or hatred of man).”

MenWayShouldBelieveReasonFactsFormHateI BelieveTeachSawsMankindArgumentHatredRelatedMistrustCriminality
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“It is clear that everybody interested in science must be interested in world 3 objects. A physical scientist, to start with, may be interested mainly in world 1 objects--say crystals and X-rays. But very soon he must realize how much depends on our interpretation of the facts, that is, on our theories, and so on world 3 objects. Similarly, a historian of science, or a philosopher interested in science must be largely a student of world 3 objects.”

WorldMayFactsLanguageRealizingClearObjectsStudentsTheoryDependsScientistPhilosopherInterpretationHistorianRaysCrystalsSubjectivity
Book:Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography
Create image

“We should realize that, if [Socrates] demanded that the wisest men should rule, he clearly stressed that he did not mean the learned men; in fact, he was skeptical of all professional learnedness, whether it was that of the philosophers or of the learned men of his own generation, the Sophists. The wisdom he meant was of a different kind. It was simply the realization: how little do I know! Those who did not know this, he taught, knew nothing at all. This is the true scientific spirit.”

IfsKnowsMenShouldKindMeanLittlesDifferentFactsSpiritRealizingGenerationsTaughtPhilosopherRealizationDifferent KindsSkepticalStressedWisestWisest Man
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“Nature consists of facts and of regularities, and is in itself neither moral nor immoral. It is we who impose our standards upon nature, and who in this way introduce morals into the natural world, in spite the fact that we are part of this world. We are products of nature, but nature has made us together with our power of altering the world, of foreseeing and of planning for the future, and of making far-reaching decisions for which we are morally responsible. Yet, responsibility, decisions, enter the world of nature only with us”

WorldWayMadeFactsTogetherNaturalDecisionResponsibilityMoralThis WorldProductsStandardsResponsiblePlanningSpiteReachingIntroducingImmoralNatural WorldFuture PlansRegularityForeseeing
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“In point of fact, no conclusive disproof of a theory can ever be produced; for it is always possible to say that the experimental results are not reliable or that the discrepancies which are asserted to exist between the experimental results and the theory are only apparent and that they will disappear with the advance of our understanding. If you insist on strict proof (or strict disproof) in the empirical sciences, you will never benefit from experience, and never learn from it how wrong you are.”

IfsFactsScienceUnderstandingResultsTheoryBenefitsDisappearProofExperimentsStrictDiscrepancies
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“The belief in a political Utopia is especially dangerous. This is possibly connected with the fact that the search for a better world, like the investigation of our environment, is (if I am correct) one of the oldest and most important of all the instincts.”

IfsWorldImportantFactsPoliticalBeliefEnvironmentDangerousDangerInstinctConnectedInvestigationOur EnvironmentUtopia
Book:In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years
Create image

“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.”

ShouldMadeFactsHappinessFightingLeftPrinciplesPolicyIncreaseAimMiseryPhilosopherExcuseInner PeaceRealisticInitiativeDictatorshipModestBenevolentPublic Policy
Book:Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge
Create image