Karl Popper

There is no history of mankind, there is only an indefinite number of histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world. But this, I hold, is an offence against every decent conception of mankind. It is hardly better than to treat the history of embezzlement or of robbery or of poisoning as the history of mankind. For the history of power politics is nothing but the history of international crime and mass murder.

We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that only freedom can make security secure.

Piecemeal social engineering resembles physical engineering in regarding the ends as beyond the province of technology.

Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

There is no history of mankind, there are only many histories of all kinds of aspects of human life. And one of these is the history of political power. This is elevated into the history of the world.

Science may be described as the art of systematic over-simplification.

Science must begin with myths, and with the criticism of myths.

Our knowledge can only be finite while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.