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 POPPERIn 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 POPPERScience is most significant as one of the greatest spiritual adventures that man has yet known.
KARL POPPERNo 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 POPPEREvery intellectual has a very special responsibility. He has the privilege and the opportunity of studying.
KARL POPPERScience must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.
KARL POPPERAnd 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 POPPERWe 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 POPPERThe aim of argument, or of discussion, should not be victory but progress.
KARL POPPERThe 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 POPPERInstead of the greatest happiness for the greatest number, one should demand, more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all.
KARL POPPERIt 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 POPPERThe way of science is paved with discarded theories that were once declared self-evident.
KARL POPPERIt is not the consciousness of man that determines his existence – rather, it is his social existence that determines his consciousness.
KARL POPPERWe must regard all laws or theories as hypothetical or conjectural; that is, as guesses.
KARL POPPERThe game of science is, in principle, without end.
KARL POPPERThe wise man belongs to all countries, for the home of a great soul is the whole world.
KARL POPPER