James Randi Quotations

I would put my million dollars up as well.

I have been through similar situations where believers will insist on believing despite the evidence no matter how strong that is.

I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities, ... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video.

I was not surprised by the results of the Horizon experiments, but I remain willing to observe and consider any and all other tests that are done under similarly precise conditions.

The only difference is that religion is much better organised and has been around much longer, but it's the same story with different characters and different costumes.

Curley - and others - are going to discover that this old chap has a lot of fight in him, and that I've never yet backed down from a fight.

Far from being a curse, it might be lucky to disturb a pharaoh's tomb. These people beat the life span expectation for those days by about a year.

The second class of people that I examined in those 104 people, were people who still had the diseases of which they said they'd been healed.

Of the hundreds of those we've tested over the past few years probably 85 percent were dowsers,

This costs R275 per person, and besides the nonsense, you get tea, coffee and notes'. You're asked to bring a packed lunch'. Alka-Seltzer apparently not supplied . . .

They wanted it to happen. And in every major challenge that came along, they attended that theater not to see him fail, or even possibly fail.

If Uri Geller bends spoons with divine powers, then he's doing it the hard way.

To recognize that nature has neither a preference for our species nor a bias against it takes only a little courage.

However, I believe that it would be difficult to have legitimate scientists agree to participate.

I can go into a lab and fool the rear ends off any group of scientists.

Science is a search for basic truths about the Universe, a search which develops statements that appear to describe how the Universe works, but which are subject to correction, revision, adjustment, or even outright rejection, upon the presentation of better or conflicting evidence.

Escapology has one thing going for it that probably made Harry Houdini such a superstar in his day and a legend in the present. Everyone wants to escape from something. Taxes, contracts, illness, work, the multitude of burdens that we chafe under are shadows from which we want to escape.

Nostradamus himself confessed that the vague manner in which he wrote his "prophecies" was so that 'they could not possibly be understood until they were interpreted after the event and by it.'

Nature doesn't cheat - people do.

I believe in the basic goodness of my species, because that appears to be a positive tactic and quality that leads to better chances of survival- and in spite of our foolishness, we seem to have survived.

No evidence against a firmly-held belief, no matter how good or abundant it may be, will sway the true believer.

I am in a very peculiar business: I travel all over the world telling people what they should already know.

I want to be cremated, and I want my ashes blown in Uri Geller's eyes.

[Psychics] use exactly the same gimmicks that we magicians do - the same physical methods, the same psychological methods - and they effectively and profoundly deceive millions of people around the earth, to their detriment.

They would have been very let down if they had to leave the theater and he had missed. He would feel badly. Everyone would feel badly. But he never let them down.

I don't expect that the million will ever be won, simply because there is no confirming evidence for any paranormal claims to date.

There's something about the Houdini act that is not always made clear - about the escape act in general.

Feeling better is not actually being better.

gods are children's blankets that get carried over into adulthood.

The problem with experiments has always been that human beings make the decisions on whether or not the animals have benefitted from the treatment.

We have fought long and hard to escape from medieval superstition. I, for one, do not wish to go back.

I do not expect that homeopathy will ever be established as a legitimate form of treatment, but I do expect that it will continue to be popular.

Paranormal phenomena have a habit of going away whenever they are tested under rigorous conditions. This is why the $1,000,000 reward of James Randi, offered to anyone who can demonstrate a paranormal effect under proper scientific controls, is safe.

There exists in society a very special class of persons that I have always referred to as the Believers. These are folks who have chosen to accept a certain religion, philosophy, theory, idea or notion and cling to that belief regardless of any evidence that might, for anyone else, bring it into doubt. They are the ones who encourage and support the fanatics and the frauds of any given age. No amount of evidence, no matter how strong, will bring them any enlightenment. They are the sheep who beg to be fleeced and butchered, and who will battle fiercely to preserve their right to be victimized.

Heroin also makes people feel better, but I wouldn't recommend using heroin.

I questioned her further, and eventually got to talk to her doctor. And her doctor sort of shook his head and he said, I have examined her for throat cancer at least 15 times in the past few years.

Death is the ultimate disappointment

A quick example of that is a woman who said she'd been healed of throat cancer where the faith healer admitted he touched her on the forehead.

The market for nonsense is infinite.

Uri Geller may have psychic powers by means of which he can bend spoons; if so, he appears to be doing it the hard way.

One thing that has made a big comeback just recently is this business of speaking with the dead. To my innocent mind, 'dead' implies incapable of communicating.

The conjuror or con man is a very good provider of information. He supplies lots of data, by inference or direct statement, but it's false data. Scientists aren't used to that scenario. An electron or a galaxy is not capricious, nor deceptive; but a human can be either or both.

The New Age? Its just the old age stuck in a microwave oven for fifteen seconds.

... We in the USA have been depending on prayers, pleading, and self-abasement to a deity to bring us magical advantages, and have been encouraged to attribute our prosperity and general success among nations, to that sort of action. In my opinion, hard work and dedication to logic and reason ought to be recognized as the reasons for our achievements, not appeals to a mythical friend-in-the-sky. We got where we are in spite of, not because of, those incantations.

We owe it to our kids to inform them and train them how to think, not what to think.

No amount of belief makes something a fact.

There was a small boy on crutches. I do not know his name, and I suspect I never will. But I will never forget his face, his smile, his sorrow. He is one of the millions robbed of hope and dignity by charlatans discussed in this book. Wherever and whoever he is, I apologize to him for not having been able to protect him from such an experience. I humbly dedicate this book to him and to the many others who have suffered because the rest of us began caring too late.

To make sure that my blasphemy is thoroughly expressed, I hereby state my opinion that the notion of a god is a basic superstition, that there is no evidence for the existence of any god(s), that devils, demons, angels and saints are myths, that there is no life after death, heaven nor hell, that the Pope is a dangerous, bigoted, medieval dinosaur, and that the Holy Ghost is a comic-book character worthy of laughter and derision.

Everyone who believes in telekinesis, raise my hand.

People who are smart get into Mensa. People who are really smart look around and leave.

Religion is based upon blind faith supported by no evidence. Science is based upon confidence that results from evidence - and that confidence can be modified and/or reversed by further observations and experimentation. Science approaches truth, closer and closer, by hard dedicated work. Religion already has it all decided, and it's in the book. It's dogma, unchangeable, and unaffected by reality and whatever facts we come upon in the real world.

Blind belief can be comforting, but it can easily cripple reason and productivity, and stop intellectual progress.

There is a distinct difference between having an open mind and having a hole in your head from which your brain leaks out.

Magicians are the most honest people in the world; they tell you they're gonna fool you, and then they do it.

Science is best defined as a careful, disciplined, logical search for knowledge about any and all aspects of the universe, obtained by examination of the best available evidence and always subject to correction and improvement upon discovery of better evidence. What's left is magic. And it doesn't work.

A lot of people hate my skepticism, and I think I understand why. The psychics offer wonders and endless possibilities in a world that often seems difficult and mundane. They promise health, wealth, wisdom, eternal life. But if you examine the record, it's not the psychics but the hard-nosed scientists who have actually delivered the things that improve human life. And, to me, science describes a world far more interesting than any psychic fantasy. It's a good world -- not perfect -- but it's ours. So we'd better learn to live with it, the way it is.

No matter how smart or well-educated you are, you can be deceived.

The only difference is that religion is much better organized and has been around much longer, but it's the same story with different characters and different costumes.

Those who believe without reason cannot be convinced by reason.

Expose every belief to the light of reason, discourse, facts, scientific observations; question everything, be sceptical because this is the only chance at life you will ever get.