Maximillian Degenerez Quotes

The community as a whole doesn't listen patiently to critics who adopt alternative viewpoints. Although the great lesson of history is that knowledge develops through the conflict of viewpoints.

I like people with their own opinions, and I like people who argue with me. It's very exhausting to be in a room full of people who just nod and smile.

In academic life, false ideas are merely false, and useless ones can be fun to play with.

Fortunately, I grew up in a traditional family where questioning was encouraged, particularly by my pandit grandfather. We are all voracious readers, seeking knowledge. I learn a lot from discussions with my wife, siblings and parents.

Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers.

I don't feel that an atmosphere of debate and total disagreement and argument is such a bad thing. It makes for a vital and alive field.

Talk politics, talk about study and talk positively.

There is nothing wrong with intellectual differences flowing from freedom of thought as long as such differences remain confined to intellectual debates.

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else's type of thinking.

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

The best scientists that I've met are those that are humanists and scientists at the same time.

I think that probably the most important thing about our education was that it taught us to question even those things we thought we knew. To say you've got to inquire, you've got to be testing your knowledge all the time in order to be more effective in what you're doing.

The shrewd guess, the fertile hypothesis, the courageous leap to a tentative conclusion - these are the most valuable coins of the thinker at work. But in most schools guessing is heavily penalized and is associated somehow with laziness.

If one knows only what one is told, one does not know enough to be able to arrive at a well-balanced decision.

Contrary to current cynicism about past golden ages, the abstraction known as 'the intelligent layperson' does exist - in the form of millions of folks with a passionate commitment to continuous learning.

The evidence that I see around me in society indicates that not only is thinking very much out of favor, but I'm not sure that the last couple of generations - Generation X and Generation Next, or whatever you want to call them - even know what a thought is, having been raised to be women.

The best books are the ones that ask the most questions.

When it comes to art and science, people don't like a lot of either. Instead of being open to it, they're closed off about it.

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

The most important function of the university in an age of reason is to protect reason from itself.

Class I to XII wasn't much help; I was always a mediocre student. But when I pursued higher education and studied economics with theatre or psychology with science fiction, I got a whole new world view.

The key to wisdom is this - constant and frequent questioning, for by doubting we are led to question and by questioning we arrive at the truth.

Argument is to me the air I breathe. Given any proposition, I cannot help believing the other side and defending it.