Quotessence
Home / Authors / Karl Popper
Karl Popper

Karl Popper Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllScienceTheoryIfsMayMenKnowsShouldIdeasWorldHumansCriticismThinkingKnowledgePlatoWayCertainCriticalFactsKindStatements

Famous Karl Popper Quotes

“Appealing to his [Einstein's] way of expressing himself in theological terms, I said: If God had wanted to put everything into the universe from the beginning, He would have created a universe without change, without organisms and evolution, and without man and man's experience of change. But he seems to have thought that a live universe with events unexpected even by Himself would be more interesting than a dead one.”

IfsMenWaySaidSeemsWould BeWantedUniverseTermInterestingEventsEvolutionUnexpectedOrganismsTheological
Book:Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography
Create image

“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

“Aestheticism and radicalism must lead us to jettison reason, and to replace it by a desperate hope for political miracles. This irrational attitude which springs from intoxication with dreams of a beautiful world is what I call Romanticism. It may seek its heavenly city in the past or in the future; it may preach 'back to nature' or 'forward to a world of love and beauty'; but its appeal is always to our emotions rather than to reason. Even with the best intentions of making heaven on earth it only succeeds in making it a hell - that hell which man alone prepares for his fellow-men.”

MenWorldMayReasonDreamEarthPastBeautifulPoliticalHeavenEmotionCitiesAttitudeHellSucceedSpringMiracleFellowsIntentionAppealsDesperateHeavenlyIrrationalFellow ManRomanticismIntoxicationHeaven On EarthRadicalismBeautiful WorldBest Intentions
Book:The Open Society and Its Enemies
Create image

“For myself, I am interested in science and in philosophy only because I want to learn something about the riddle of the world in which we live, and the riddle of man's knowledge of that world. And I believe that only a revival of interest in these riddles can save the sciences and philosophy from an obscurantist faith in the expert's special skill and in his personal knowledge and authority.”

MenWorldWantBelievePhilosophyI BelieveInterestSpecialSkillsAuthorityExpertsRevivalRiddleScience And PhilosophyPersonal Knowledge
Book:The Logic of Scientific Discovery
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

“A rationalist, as I use the word, is a man who attempts to reach decisions by argument and perhaps, in certain cases, by compromise, rather than by violence. He is a man who would rather be unsuccessful in convincing another man by argument than successful in crushing him by force, by intimidation and threats, or even by persuasive propaganda.”

MenUseCertainForceDecisionCasesSuccessfulViolenceArgumentThreatCompromisePropagandaCrushConvincingAnother ManIntimidationUnsuccessfulPersuasive
Book:Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge
Create image

“Science is not a system of certain, or -established, statements; nor is it a system which steadily advances towards a state of finality... And our guesses are guided by the unscientific, the metaphysical (though biologically explicable) faith in laws, in regularities which we can uncover-discover. Like Bacon, we might describe our own contemporary science-'the method of reasoning which men now ordinarily apply to nature'-as consisting of 'anticipations, rash and premature' and as 'prejudices'.”

MenStatesMightLawScienceCertainNatureAccountsPrejudiceMethodStatementsContemporaryReasoningBiologyAnticipationMetaphysicalIn-lawsPrematureRegularityFinality
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“Understanding a theory has, indeed, much in common with understanding a human personality. We may know or understand a man's system of dispositions pretty well; that is to say, we may be able to predict how he would act in a number of different situations. But since there are infinitely many possible situations, of infinite variety, a full understanding of a man's dispositions does not seem to be possible.”

KnowsMenHumansWellsMayDoeDifferentSeemsAbleScienceUnderstandingCommonNumbersSituationTheoryPersonalityInfiniteVarietyDispositionHuman Personality
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“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.”

MenShouldTryingPhilosophyOpportunitySpeakCan DoSinResultsResponsibilityStudyWorstSpecialReturnIntellectualFellowsPrivilegeProphetImpressWorst ThingsFellow ManCardinalsPuzzling
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“The Conspiracy Theory of Society... [is] a typical result of the secularization of a religious superstition. The belief in the Homeric gods whose conspiracies explain the history of the Trojan War is gone. The gods are abandoned. But their place is filled by powerful men or groups - sinister pressure groups whose wickedness is responsible for all the evils we suffer from - such as the Learned Elders of Zion, or the monopolists, or the capitalists, or the imperialists.”

MenWarSufferingEvilBeliefReligiousResultsPowerfulGoneGroupsTheoryPressureResponsibleFilledLibertarianAbandonedConspiracyCapitalistSuperstitionsTypicalWickednessEldersSinisterConspiracy TheoryPowerful ManZionTrojansTrojan WarPressure Groups
Author:Karl Popper
Create image

“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.”

MenWorldHelpingDreamBeautifulSufferingGenerationsClaimsFellowsSakeYour DreamsFellow ManFuture GenerationHere And NowLureBeautiful World
Book:Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge
Create image

“Why do I think that we, the intellectuals, are able to help? Simply because we, the intellectuals, have done the most terrible harm for thousands of years. Mass murder in the name of an idea, a doctrine, a theory, a religion - that is all "our" doing, "our" invention: the invention of the intellectuals. If only we would stop setting man against man - often with the best intentions - much would be gained. Nobody can say that it is impossible for us to stop doing this.”

IfsThinkingMenYearsIdeasDoneHelpingWould BeAbleReligionNamesImpossibleTheoryTerribleMassMurderIntentionHarmInventionSettingDoctrineSettingsBest Intentions
Book:In Search of a Better World: Lectures and Essays from Thirty Years
Create image