It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

I think people should be allowed to do anything they want. We haven’t tried that for a while. Maybe this time it’ll work.

I feel like the way I was raised was to be able to see through all the titles in this world – from religion to race.

No one but a fool is always right.

If everything isn’t black and white, I say, ‚Why the hell not?‘

A lot of times, I run a thought experiment: ‚If I were not at Facebook, what would I be doing to make the world more open?‘

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.

I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Patriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.

Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.

In true dialogue, both sides are willing to change.

But your questions, which are unanswerable without exception, all spring from the same erroneous thinking.

All formal dogmatic religions are fallacious and must never be accepted by self-respecting persons as final.

We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

I love trying new things.

Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

Science is properly more scrupulous than dogma. Dogma gives a charter to mistake, but the very breath of science is a contest with mistake, and must keep the conscience alive.

I never go into a situation with any type of expectations.

Modern cynics and skeptics… see no harm in paying those to whom they entrust the minds of their children a smaller wage than is paid to those to whom they entrust the care of their plumbing.

It is never too late to give up our prejudices.

I always entertain the notion that I’m wrong, or that I’ll have to revise my opinion. Most of the time that feels good; sometimes it really hurts and is embarrassing.

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

If you are giving a graduate course you don’t try to impress the students with oratory, you try to challenge them, get them to question you.

I don’t see myself in terms of artifice. I see myself as a real person who chooses to live my life in an open way – artistically.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.

People look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he’s ever read, and another person will say it’s absolutely idiotic. I mean, there’s no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.

I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn’t learn something from him.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

I’m a very strong believer in listening and learning from others.

There’s an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us.

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.

He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.

People are usually more convinced by reasons they discovered themselves than by those found by others.

To hold an idea and convince ourselves we arrived at it rationally, we go in search of evidence to support our view.

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.

To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.

Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

Too much of what is called ‚education‘ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.

Employers and business leaders need people who can think for themselves – who can take initiative and be the solution to problems.

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.

Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances.

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.

The notion that before you even set out to go to Thailand, you say, ‚I’m not interested,‘ or you’re unwilling to try things that people take so personally and are so proud of and so generous with, I don’t understand that, and I think it’s rude. You’re at Grandma’s house, you eat what Grandma serves you.