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The open society is one in which men have learned to be to some extent critical of taboos, and to base decisions on the authority of their own intelligence.

— Karl Popper The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)

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Intelligence

More quotes by Karl Popper

There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.

The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)

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

The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945)

Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification — the art of discerning what we may with advantage omit.

The Open Universe : An Argument for Indeterminism (1992)

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

Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (1963)

All things living are in search of a better world.

In Search of a Better World (1984)

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Each of these private teachers who work for pay ... inculcates nothing else than these opinions of the multitude which they opine when they are assembled and calls this knowledge wisdom.

Socrates

Most intellectual people do not believe in God, but they fear him just the same.

Wilhelm Reich Philosophy : An Introduction to the Art of Wondering (2005)

Innocence in genius, and candor in power, are both noble qualities.

Anne Louise Germaine de Staël De l’Allemagne [Germany (1813)

Like every 'intellectual', a philosophy teacher is a petty bourgeois. When he opens his mouth, it is petty-bourgeois ideology that speaks: its resources and ruses are infinite.

Louis Althusser Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays (1968)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Karl Popper (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.