Karl Popper Quotes
Karl Popper was a 20th-century Austrian-British philosopher of science, social philosopher, and one of the most influential thinkers of the analytic tradition. The Logic of Scientific Discovery, originally published in German in 1934, argued that scientific theories cannot be verified but can be falsified, and that falsifiability is the criterion that distinguishes empirical science from non-science. The quotes below are attributed to Karl Popper, organized by topic.
Browse Karl Popper by topic
Karl Popper on Death
-
“Scientists try to eliminate their false theories, they try to let them die in their stead. The believer—whether animal or man—perishes with his false beliefs.”
Epistemology Without A Knowing Subject (1967)
Karl Popper on Freedom
-
“You can choose whatever name you like for the two types of government . I personally call the type of government which can be removed without violence " democracy ", and the other " tyranny ".”
As quoted in Freedom: A New Analysis (1954) by Maurice William Cranston, p. 112
Karl Popper on Knowledge
-
“Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.”
Variant translation: The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, clear, and well-defined will be our knowledge of what we do not know , our knowledge of our ignorance. The main source of our ignorance lies in the fact that our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. -
“We do not know: we can only guess.”
Ch. 10 "Corroboration, or How a Theory Stands up to Tests", section 85: The Path of Science, p. 278. -
“If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations.”
The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method -
“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.”
Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972) -
“Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.”
As quoted in My Universe : A Transcendent Reality (2011) by Alex Vary, Part II -
“Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.”
Ch. 1 "Science : Conjectures and Refutations", Section VII -
“The Problem of Induction" (1953, 1974)”
The answer to this problem is: as implied by Hume, we certainly are not justified in reasoning from an instance to the truth of the corresponding law. But to this negative result a second result, equally negative, may be added: we are justified in reasoning from a counterinstance to the falsity of the corresponding universal law (that is, of any law of which it is a counterinstance). Or in other w -
“The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 22 The Unholy Alliance with Utopianism”
Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology . (All that technology may say about ends is whether they are compatible with each other or realizable.) -
“The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method”
If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories. In this way it is only too easy to obtain what appears to be overwhelming evidence in favor of a theory which, if approached critically, would have been refuted. -
“Epistemology Without A Knowing Subject (1967)”
Scientists try to eliminate their false theories, they try to let them die in their stead. The believer—whether animal or man—perishes with his false beliefs. -
“Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972)”
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. -
“For it was my master who taught me not only how very little I knew but also that any wisdom to which I might ever aspire could consist only in realizing more fully the infinity of my ignorance.”
Wikiquote
Karl Popper on Life
-
“All life is problem solving.”
When I speak of reason or rationalism , all I mean is the conviction that we can learn through criticism of our mistakes and errors, especially through criticism by others, and eventually also through self-criticism. A rationalist is simply someone for whom it is more important to learn than to be proved right; someone who is willing to learn from others — not by simply taking over another's opini
Karl Popper on Nature
-
“Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology . (All that technology may say about ends is whether they are compatible with each other or realizable.)”
The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 22 The Unholy Alliance with Utopianism
Karl Popper on Politics
-
Attributed to Karl Popper:
“Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.”
Karl Popper on Time
-
Attributed to Karl Popper:
“There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.”
Karl Popper on Truth
-
Attributed to Karl Popper:
“It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.”
Things actually not said by Karl Popper
A number of widely-shared lines are circulated as Karl Popper but are in fact from someone else. Did Karl Popper say these? No. Each entry below pairs the line with the person who actually wrote it.
-
Did Karl Popper say this? No.
“Ignorance is not a simple lack of knowledge but an active aversion to knowledge, the refusal to know, issuing from cowardice, pride or laziness of mind.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Principle attributed to Popper by Ryszard Kapiscinski in New York Times obituary, 1995. [ 1 ]
-
Did Karl Popper say this? No.
“The deepest, the only theme of human history, compared to which all others are of subordinate importance, is the conflict of skepticism with faith.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in "Israel in the Desert" (1819)
-
Did Karl Popper say this? No.
“Leadership is solving problems. The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help or concluded you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but the actual source is Colin Powell. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: Colin Powell in My American Journey (1995)
-
Did Karl Popper say this? No.
“A theory that explains everything, explains nothing.”
This quote is commonly attributed to philosophers but its actual source is uncertain or unverified in the standard reference works. Wikiquote's note on this attribution: In an address of 13 October 1896, published in Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological Society , Volumes 8-9 (1900), p. 28 Thomas Mellard Reade attributed this statement to John Playfair , citing it to his Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802); it has not yet been located in the