For me I think the history of the World that is arrived to this point where I can speak and it can be watched by people in all kinds of ways and all kinds of devices and it can stay for eternity resting on servers who knows where the whole things, it all comes from inquiry, it all comes from open inquiry, and the word really is “empiricism” which is a strange word, but what it means is testing things. You don’t take anything on trust. You test it out. If a book says: “You shall have no foreskin,” or “You must not eat shellfish,” you can choose to say: “This is the Word of the Divine Being,” if you like. It doesn’t really get you very much forward, but it can connect you to the history and your people. I’m not here to disrespect that. […] But for the rest, I need to know why is that, why somebody’s telling me what is the case. I need to question it and to test it. Authority comes from the validity of information, being repeatable, being open, being free, and not coming with a threat, and not being just told: “This is the case, and you must believe it or you die.

—Stephen Fry - What I wish I’d known when I was 18 [16:59 ->18:36] (via scipsy)