William Kingdon Clifford

William Kingdon Clifford (May 4, 1845 – March 3, 1879) was an English mathematician and philosopher.

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  • In like manner, if I let myself believe anything on insufficient evidence, there may be no great harm done by the mere belief; it may be true after all, or I may never have occasion to exhibit it in outward acts. But I cannot help doing this great wrong towards Man, that I make myself credulous. The danger to society is not merely that it should believe wrong things, though that is great enough; but that it should become credulous, and lose the habit of testing things and inquiring into them; for then it must sink back into savagery.
    • The Ethics of Belief (1877), Chapter I, "The Duty of Inquiry"
 
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