Take no miracles on trust: always look for causes.
Leonardo da Vinci

Minds, like parachutes, only function when they are open.

The conservative has but little to fear from the man whose reason 
is the servant of his passions, but let him beware of him in whom 
reason has become the greatest and most terrible of the passions.
J.B.S. Haldane

"I wish to propose for the reader's favourable consideration a
doctrine which may, I fear, appear wildly paradoxical and
subversive. The doctrine in question is this: that it is undesirable
to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatever for
supposing it true."  Bertrand Russell

To those who seek truth -- faith is a sin and skepticism a tool. 
Exile

one has to maintain a certain minimum standard of
mental hygene in order to get through your average day.
Perry E. Metzger

If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities.
Voltaire

"The Truth is Out There," but so is a lot of fecal material.
sean@lucifer.com

      " The more slavishly and dogmatically a person falls for a ready-made
ideological system or world-view, the more certainly he will bury all chances
of thinking, of freedom, of being clear about what he knows; the more
certainly he will deaden the adventure of the mind; and the more certainly -
in practice - he will begin to serve the "order of death."
 
       In any case, the moment when any system of thought culminates and
declares itself complete, when it is brought to perfection and universality,
has more than once been described as that deceptive moment when the system
ceases to live, collapses in upon itself (like the material collapse of a
white dwarf star) and reality eludes its grasp once and for all." 
       - Vaclav Havel, "Letters to Olga."

Ann Druyan, Cal Sagan's widow, when asked to comment about Sagan's
lack of religion:  "Carl did not want to believe.  He wanted to know."

"What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out,
which is the exact  opposite."
       -- Bertrand Russell, _Sceptical_Essays_, 1928 ---

Sir Humphrey Appleby on nuclear deterrence ---
       "Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do." 

That theory is worthless.  It isn't even wrong!  
        ---Wolfgang Pauli [quoted by Marvin Minsky]

"There is joy in rationality, happiness in clarity of
mind. Freethought is thrilling and fulfilling--absolutely essential to
mental health and happiness."  Dan Barker, "Losing Faith in Faith".

"In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a
really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they actually
change their minds and you never hear that old view from them
again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should,
because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it
happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that
happened in politics or religion." [Carl Sagan, 1987 CSICOP keynote
       address]