“To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.”

—  William Kingdon Clifford

The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Duty of Inquiry
Context: To sum up: it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
If a man, holding a belief which he was taught in childhood or persuaded of afterwards, keeps down and pushes away any doubts which arise about it in his mind, purposely avoids the reading of books and the company of men that call into question or discuss it, and regards as impious those questions which cannot easily be asked without disturbing it--the life of that man is one long sin against mankind.

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William Kingdon Clifford 48
English mathematician and philosopher 1845–1879

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