Karl Popper

Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.

We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.

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

There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.

Every discovery contains an irrational element or a creative intuition.

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.

Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology.

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

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.

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

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

We have become makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.