“And here, according to Trout, was the reason human beings could not reject ideas because they were bad: ‘Ideas on Earth were badges of friendship or enmity. Their content did not matter. Friends agreed with friends, in order to express friendliness. Enemies disagreed with enemies, in order to express enmity.”

“The skepticism that I advocate amounts only to this:(1) that when the experts are agreed, the opposite opinion cannot be held to be certain;(2) that when they are not agreed, no opinion can be regarded as certain by a non-expert; and(3) that when they all hold that no sufficient grounds for a positive opinion exist, the ordinary man would do well to suspend his judgment.”