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.

The conspiracy theory of society... comes from abandoning god and then asking: "Who is in his place"

Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.

A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others - not by simply taking over another's opinions, but by gladly allowing others to criticize his ideas and by gladly criticizing the ideas of others

You cannot have a rational discussion with a man who prefers shooting you to being convinced by you.

[To] interpret Parmenides as a Kant before Kant ... this is exactly what we must do.

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