Don't you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don't you believe in telepathy? in ancient astronauts? in the Bermuda triangle? in life after death?No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out "Don't you believe in anything?"Yes", I said. "I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.
evidence faith skepticism ufo
Download Image Share on X Share on Facebook

About This Quote

About Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a 20th-century American writer and biochemist. Isaac Asimov was an American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University. During his lifetime, Asimov was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers, along with Robert A. Read more on Wikipedia →

Themes

  • Faith — Reflections on belief, spirituality, and trust in the unseen

More quotes by Isaac Asimov

“The troubles of modern life come from being divorced from nature.”
— Isaac Asimov
nature simple-living transcendentalism

“The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.”
— Isaac Asimov
life science wisdom

“Life is pleasant. Death is peaceful. It's the transition that's troublesome.”
— Isaac Asimov
comment death death-and-dying funny

“I am afraid a monster is grown that will devour all of us. Yet we must fight him.”
— Isaac Asimov
despair fear hopeless hopelessness

“The first step in making rabbit stew is catching the rabbit.”
— Isaac Asimov
life

“Agitation from the other side of the desk.Nonow you must take this phlegmatically. You had hoped you would qualify. You had feared you would not. Actually, both hope and fear are weaknesses. You kn...”
— Isaac Asimov
fear hope
View all quotes by Isaac Asimov →

Related Quotes

“What baseball managers did do, on occasion, beginning in the early 1980s, was hire some guy who knew how to switch on the computer. But they did this less with honest curiosity than in the spirit o...”
— Michael Lewis
evidence motivation objectivity

“I've poured my heart out on this page. Now burn it and destroy the evidence that anyone ever cared this much for you.”
— Kate McGahan
evidence heart love martyr

“I couldn't care less about evidence and proof and assurances. I just want God. I want God inside me. I want God to play in my bloodstream the way sunlight amuses itself on water.”
— Elizabeth Gilbert
evidence faith god

“Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them," I said."Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway.”
— John Green
faith faithfulness love promises

“I think if I've learned anything about friendship, it's to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don't walk away, don't be distracted, don't be too busy or tired, don...”
— Jon Katz
faith friends friendship love

“And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
— Anonymous
faith god hope love

“The truth may be puzzling. It may take some work to grapple with. It may be counterintuitive. It may contradict deeply held prejudices. It may not be consonant with what we desperately want to be t...”
— Carl Sagan
skepticism truth

“One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.”
— William Osler
skepticism truth

“Trust is tough. Once trust has been broken by multiple people on multiple occasions, believing in anyone or anything becomes increasingly difficult. Much of the skepticism of our world can be trace...”
— Dillon Burroughs
skepticism trust