Quotations: Ideology, rigidity, narrow thinking


My Son, these maxims make a rule
An lump them ay thegither:
The Rigid Righteous is a fool,
The Rigid Wise anither.
Robert Burns, Scottish poet (1759-1796)

Ideology is just an escape from thought.
John Kenneth Galbraith, North American economist, diplomat, author (b. 1908)

The proper man understands equity, the small man profits.
Confucius (K'ung Fu-tzu), Chinese sage (551-479 B.C.)

A weak mind is like a microscope, which magnifies trifling things but cannot receive great ones.
G.K. Chesterton, English essayist and poet (1874-1936)

Those who give too much attention to trifling things become generally incapable of great ones.
François duc de la Rochefoucauld, French epigrammatist (1613-1680)

Our firmest convictions are apt to be the most suspect, they mark our limitations and our bounds. Life is a petty thing unless it is moved by the indomitable urge to extend its boundaries.
Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spanish philosopher, statesman and writer (1883-1955)

The death of dogma is the birth of reality.
Immanuel Kant, Prussian philosopher and geographer (1724-1804)

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils.
Francis Bacon, English statesman, philosopher of science and author (1561-1626)

When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic.
John Kenneth Galbraith, North American economist, author and diplomat (b. 1908)

A fanatic is someone who cant change his mind and wont change the subject.
Winston Churchill, British prime minister and war leader, Nobel Prize-winning author (1874-1965)

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common.
John Locke, English empiricist philosopher (1632-1704)

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