“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.”
“William James used to preach the "will-to-believe." For my part, I should wish to preach the "will-to-doubt." None of our beliefs are quite true; all at least have a penumbra of vagueness and error. What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the will to find out, which is the exact opposite.”
Source: 1920s, Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda
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Bertrand Russell 562
logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and politi… 1872–1970Related quotes
“What we need is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.”
This was not Wordsworth's viewpoint at all. The words are in fact those of Bertrand Russell in his Sceptical Essays (1928), p. 157.
Misattributed
“Western Civ,” p. 22.
Giants and Dwarfs (1990)
1850s, Two Discourses at Friday Communion (August 1851)
Source: What's the Worst That Could Happen?: A Rational Response to the Climate Change Debate (2009), Chapter 1 "The Decision Grid" (p. 19)
Source: The Writing of Thomas Paine
Source: "The Pillars of Unbelief," National Catholic Register Jan-Feb 1988