# Karl Popper's most famous quotes

From the white swans and the paradox of tolerance to 'the attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell': Karl Popper's best-known lines, from The Logic of Scientific Discovery, The Open Society and Its Enemies and Conjectures and Refutations.

- 44 votes · 12 items
- Aug 16, 2023 · C. Anderson
- https://even.best/en/l/4704/karl-popper-s-most-famous-quotes

## Top 12

1. **If we extend unlimited tolerance even to those who are intolerant… the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), vol. 1, notes to ch. 7: the paradox of tolerance.
2. **There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945).
3. **The attempt to make heaven on earth invariably produces hell.** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945).
4. **He who teaches that not reason but love should rule opens up the way for those who rule by hate.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945).
5. **More people are killed out of righteous stupidity than out of wickedness.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Conjectures and Refutations (1963).
6. **No matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — The Logic of Scientific Discovery.
7. **We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945).
8. **No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945).
9. **Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — The Open Universe (1982).
10. **There is an almost universal tendency to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — 'The Importance of Critical Discussion' (1989).
11. **We may become the makers of our fate when we have ceased to pose as its prophets.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945).
12. **Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.** (-1 · ▲0 ▼1) — Conjectures and Refutations (1963).

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