Bryant H. McGill Quotes

But an escape less self-depreciating was taken by Lord Westbury, who, it is said, rebuffed a barrister's reliance upon an earlier opinion of his Lordship: "I can only say that I am amazed that a man of my intelligence should have been guilty of giving such an opinion". If there are other ways of gracefully and good-naturedly surrendering former views to a better considered position, I invoke them all.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

I hate being wrong, but I love it when I'm set straight.

I've never professed to be an intellectual. I don't try to be.

I'll be the first one to admit that if I have conclusions based on faulty premises, then let me know about that, and I'll be the first one to change it.

I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.

No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday.

I wouldn't presume to know something, but I have lots to learn and that's what I attempt to do through my work.

I like to think I know a lot, but I don't. I'm motivated to learn more.

A positive impact stems from our admission that we were wrong or our thinking was wrong. 'I'm wrong' are two little words that can help improve our own positive attitude.

If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

I doubt about myself. I think doubts are good in life. The people who don't have doubts I think only two things-arrogance or not intelligence.

Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know', and thou shalt progress.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.

I have always been a learner because I knew nothing.

Clarity and consistency are not enough: the quest for truth requires humility and effort.

And I like asking questions, to keep learning; people with big egos might not want to look unsure.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

I'm not quite pompous enough to think of myself as an educator or a man capable of definitive refutation of falsehoods.

Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

I claim to be a simple individual liable to err like any other fellow mortal. I own, however, that I have humility enough in me to confess my errors and to retrace my steps.

The learned man knows that he is ignorant.

I don't pretend I know everything.

I don't claim to know everything. I claim to be a seeker of knowledge.