black
grey
blue
red
brown
white

The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.

Karl Popper

It is wrong to think that belief in freedom always leads to victory; we must always be prepared for it to lead to defeat. If we choose freedom, then we must be prepared to perish along with it.
KARL POPPER

Believe Choice Freedom Lost Philosophy Prepare Thinking Victory Wrong
We must regard all laws or theories as hypothetical or conjectural; that is, as guesses.
KARL POPPER

Law Philosophy Theory
I hold that he who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate.
KARL POPPER

Hate Love Myself Philosophy Teaching
The simple truth is that truth is hard to come by, and that once found may easily be lost again.
KARL POPPER

Easy Hard Lost Philosophy Simplicity Truth
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
KARL POPPER

Deep Knowledge Necessary Philosophy
And it implies that if we respect truth, we must search for it by persistently searching for our errors: by indefatigable rational criticism, and self-criticism.
KARL POPPER

Philosophy Respect Search Truth
“It can’t happen here” is always wrong: a dictatorship can happen anywhere.
KARL POPPER

Politics Wrong
The game of science is, in principle, without end.
KARL POPPER

End Game One Liner Principle Science
It is not the consciousness of man that determines his existence – rather, it is his social existence that determines his consciousness.
KARL POPPER

Existence Man Philosophy Spiritual
In so far as a scientific statement speaks about reality, it must be falsifiable: and in so far as it is not falsifiable, it does not speak about reality.
KARL POPPER

Philosophy Reality Science Speak
If you can’t say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.
KARL POPPER

Quiet Science Simplicity Yourself
No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.
KARL POPPER

Argument Man Philosophy Science
We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.
KARL POPPER

Fate Ourselves Philosophy Success
The method of learning by trial and error – of learning from our mistakes – seems to be fundamentally the same whether it is practiced by lower or by higher animals, by chimpanzees, or by men of science.
KARL POPPER

Animal Learning Man Mistakes Ourselves Science
In my view, aiming at simplicity and lucidity is a moral duty of all intellectuals: lack of clarity is a sin, and pretentiousness is a crime.
KARL POPPER

Crime Duty Moral Myself Philosophy Simplicity Sin
Theology, I still think, is due to a lack of faith.
KARL POPPER

Faith One Liner Thinking
The quest for precision is analogous to the quest for certainty, and both should be abandoned.
KARL POPPER

Abandonment Mystery Philosophy
We all have an unscientific weakness for being always in the right, and this weakness seems to be particularly common among professional and amateur politicians.
KARL POPPER

Politics Right Science Weakness
The conspiracy theory of society, comes from abandoning God and then asking: “Who is in his place?”
KARL POPPER

Abandonment God Himself Place Spiritual Theory
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.
KARL POPPER

Deep Destroy Oppression Philosophy Prepare Tolerance
While differing widely in the various little bits we know, in our infinite ignorance we are all equal.
KARL POPPER

Deep Difference Equality Ourselves Philosophy
Theories are nets cast to catch what we call ‘the world’: to rationalize, to explain, and to master it. We endeavor to make the mesh ever finer and finer.
KARL POPPER

Fine Perfection Theory World
History has no meaning.
KARL POPPER

History One Liner
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
KARL POPPER

Knowledge Philosophy True
We can all participate in the heritage of man. We all can help to preserve it. And we can all make our own modest contribution to it.
KARL POPPER

Help Man Nature Ourselves
In philosophy methods are unimportant; any method is legitimate if it leads to results capable of being rationally discussed.
KARL POPPER

Important Philosophy Result
We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure.
KARL POPPER

Freedom Philosophy Reason Security

The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Karl Popper Quotes