A very short reprint

My "essay" appeared in the eSkeptic Newsletter in December 2005 but is no longer available in the archives. [Actually it is.] So I present it here, in the cribbed, cut & pasted "original":

A Very Short Essay On Doubt (composed of very famous quotes)

"I think we ought always to entertain our opinions with some measure of doubt. I shouldn't wish people dogmatically to believe any philosophy, not even mine. " - Russell

"To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man." - Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

"If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. " - Descartes

But,

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. " - Russell

"The best lack all convictions, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity." - Yeats.

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd." - Voltaire

Therefore,

"Doubt 'til thou canst doubt no more...doubt is thought and thought is life. Systems which end doubt are devices for drugging thought. " - Albert Guerard