If you can’t say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.

Karl Popper

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

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

Fate Ourselves Philosophy Success
The wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.
KARL POPPER

Greatness Home Man Philosophy Soul Spiritual Wisdom World
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
The aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory but progress.
KARL POPPER

Argument Progress Victory Win
We must regard all laws or theories as hypothetical or conjectural; that is, as guesses.
KARL POPPER

Law Philosophy Theory
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
Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.
KARL POPPER

Deep Knowledge Necessary Philosophy
Great men may make great mistakes.
KARL POPPER

Greatness Men Mistake One Liner
“We don’t know anything” and believed that this was the most important philosophical truth.
KARL POPPER

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

Politics Wrong
If our civilization is to survive, we must break with the habit of deference to great men.
KARL POPPER

Break Greatness Men Ourselves Survive
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
Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but hell.
KARL POPPER

Hell Philosophy
It is complete nihilism to propose laying down arms in a world where atom bombs are around. It is very simple: there is no way of achieving peace other than with weapons.
KARL POPPER

Achieve Peace Simplicity Weapon World
Every intellectual has a very special responsibility. He has the privilege and the opportunity of studying.
KARL POPPER

Himself Privilege Responsibility Special Study
Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.
KARL POPPER

Impossible Philosophy Remember Speak Yourself
Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
KARL POPPER

Beginning Science
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
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
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
What we need and what we want is to moralize politics, not to politicize morals.
KARL POPPER

Deep Moral Need Politics
The most we can say of democracy or freedom is that they give our personal abilities a little more influence on our well-being.
KARL POPPER

Ability Democracy Freedom
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
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
No book can ever be finished. While working on it we learn just enough to find it immature the moment we turn away from it
KARL POPPER

Book Deep Learning Moment
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
The future depends on ourselves, and we do not depend on any historical necessity.
KARL POPPER

Future History Necessary Ourselves
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
True ignorance is not the absence of knowledge, but the refusal to acquire it.
KARL POPPER

Knowledge Philosophy True
A theory that explains everything, explains nothing.
KARL POPPER

One Liner Philosophy Theory
The essential feature of dualist-interactionism is that the mind and brain are independent entities and that they interact by quantum physics.
KARL POPPER

Independent Mindset Science
History has no meaning.
KARL POPPER

History One Liner
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

If you can’t say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.

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If you can’t say it simply and clearly, keep quiet, and keep working on it till you can.

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