Jean-Luc Godard Quotes

The problem I have with making an intelligent statement is that some people then think it's not an isolated occurrence.

For the things of this world cannot be made known without a knowledge of mathematics.

Monsters exist, but they are too few in numbers to be truly dangerous. More dangerous are…the functionaries ready to believe and act without asking questions.

The three filters [against folly] operate through these particular questions: Literacy: What are the words? Numeracy: What are the numbers? Ecolacy: And then what?

If two things don't fit, but you believe both of them, thinking that somewhere, hidden, there must be a third thing that connects them, that's credulity.

It has been said that metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct.

Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe on instinct.

The important thing to remember about mathematics is not to be frightened

If faith is what you have to go on, if faith is the link between your beliefs and the world at large, your beliefs are very likely to be wrong. Beliefs can be right or wrong. If you believe you can fly, that belief is only true if indeed you can fly. Somebody who thinks he can fly, and is wrong about it, will eventually discover there's a problem with his view of the world.

Instinct' usually just means our conditioning to believe this or believe that, without thinking to investigate.

If you believe certain words, you believe their hidden arguments. When you believe something is right or wrong, true or false, you believe the assumptions in the words which express the arguments. Such assumptions are often full of holes, but remain most precious to the convinced.

In mathematics we do not appeal to authority, but rather you are responsible for what you believe.

A 'why' is a dangerous thing... It challenges old, comfortable ways, forces people to think about that they do instead of just mindlessly doing it. (Haplo) ... I think the danger is not so much in asking the 'why' as in believing you have come up with the only answer. (Alfred)

It is remarkable how long men will believe in the bottomlessness of a pond without taking the trouble to sound it.

This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.

Some years ago I was struck by the large number of falsehoods that I had accepted as true in my childhood, and by the highly doubtful nature of the whole edifice that I had subsequently based on them. I realized that it was necessary, once in the course of my life, to demolish everything completely and start again right from the foundations if I wanted to establish anything at all in the sciences that was stable and likely to last.

Believing in everything looks a lot like believing in nothing.

It is a mistake to look to the Bible to close a discussion; the Bible seeks to open one.

I believe that one of the most damning things about our culture is the adage to never talk religion and politics. Because we don't model this discourse at the dinner table and at Thanksgiving, we don't know how to do it well and we're not teaching our children about the world and about how to discuss it.

A story begins with this nebulous feeling that’s hard to get a hold of and you’re testing your feelings and assumptions, testing what you believe. They end up turning into keepsakes and mementos –like amber in which a memory gets trapped.

How gullible are you? Is your gullibility located in some "gullibility center" in your brain? Could a neurosurgeon reach in and perform some delicate operation to lower your gullibility, otherwise leaving you alone? If you believe this, you are pretty gullible, and should perhaps consider such an operation.

Kerry asks Americans to look at the evidence. Bush asks people to believe.

Always read with a pen in your hands, not beside you on the table, but actually in your hand, ready, armed ... Put a question mark by everything you find suspect. Underline anything you really appreciate. Feel free to write 'splendid,' but also, 'I don't believe a word of it.' And even 'bullshit.'

If they told us what to believe, and we didn't come to it on our own, is it still true?

There are good reasons why everybody should heed politicians' advise not to believe the media. One of the best is that the media report what politicians say.