Famous quotes by Karl Popper:

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

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

"Philosophers should consider the fact that the greatest happiness principle can easily be made an excuse for a benevolent dictatorship. We should replace it by a more modest and more realistic principle / the principle that the fight against avoidable misery should be a recognized aim of public policy, while the increase of happiness should be left, in the main, to private initiative."

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

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

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

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

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

"We all remember how many religious wars were fought for a religion of love and gentleness; how many bodies were burned alive with the genuinely kind intention of saving souls from the eternal fire of hell"

"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."

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

"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."