The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not … - Karl Popper

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Horace appears in good humor while he censures, and therefore his censure has the more weight, as supposed to proceed from judgment and not from passion.

Karl Popper

The true Enlightenment thinker, the true rationalist, never wants to talk anyone into anything. No, he does not even want to convince; all the time he is aware that he may be wrong. Above all, he values the intellectual independence of others too highly to want to convince them in important matters. He would much rather invite contradiction, preferably in the form of rational and disciplined criticism. He seeks not to convince but to arouse - to challenge others to form free opinions.

Arouse, Challenges, Free Opinion, Intellectual, Rationalist, Talk

Same Author Quotes

Appealing to his [Einstein's] way of expressing himself in theological terms, I said: If God had wanted to put everything into the universe from the beginning, He would have created a universe without change, without organisms and evolution, and without man and man's experience of change. But he seems to have thought that a live universe with events unexpected even by Himself would be more interesting than a dead one.

Beginning, Events, Interesting, Men, Terms, Way

There is no history, only histories.

Histories, History

We have become makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.

Become, Fate, Makers, Prophet

Simple statements are to be prized more highly than less simple ones because they tell us more; because their empirical content is greater; and because they are better testable.

Empirical, Greater, Highly, Ones, Simple, Statements

Science is perhaps the only human activity in which errors are systematically criticized and, in time, corrected.

Corrected, Criticized, Errors, Humans, Science