al-basri

the seeker of truth is not the one who studies the writings of the ancients and, and following his disposition, puts his trusts in them, but rather suspects his faith in them and questions what he gathers from them, the one who submits to argument and demonstration and not the sayings of human beings whose nature is fraught with all kinds of imperfection and deficiency. thus the duty of man who investigates the writings of scientists, if learning the truth is his goal, is to make himself an enemy of all he reads, and, applying his mind to the core and margins of its content, attack it from every side. he should also suspect himself as he performs his critical examination of it, so that he may avoid falling into either prejudice or leniency.