Mao Zedong Quotes

Men will die upon dogma but will not fall victim to a conclusion.

When a man is required to believe certain doctrines, he is not free to think. A creed is to keep the mind from inquiry. Questions lead to doubt, and doubt is the death of faith.

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.

It's not so much religion per se, it's false certainty that worries me, and religion just has more than its fair share of false certainty or dogmatism. I'm really concerned when I see people pretending to know things they clearly cannot know.

It is in the uncomprisingness with which dogma is held and not in the dogma that the danger lies.

No one is more dangerous than someone who thinks he has "The Truth".

Nothing is more dangerous in practice, than an obstinate, unbending adherence to a system.

...when dogma enters the brain, all intellectual activity ceases.

Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.

I would say for the young: Don't be straight jacketed by ideology. Don't be driven by a structure of ideas.

The habit of religion is oppressive, an easy way out of thought.

Nor bigots who but one way see, through blinkers of authority.

Our religious belief usurps the place of our sensations, our imaginations of our judgment. We no longer look to actions, trace their consequences, and then deduce the rule; we first make the rule, and then, right or wrong, force the action to square with it.

Belief is the death of intelligence.

Bolsheviks are sincere. Fascists are sincere. Lunatics are sincere. People who believe the earth is flat are sincere. They can’t all be right. Better make certain that you’ve got something to be sincere about and with.

If you have ideology, you are less tolerant of the variant point of view.

… some parties think that only the rules laid down by their doctrines are the right ones.

Having principles is important, but you don’t want to walk off a cliff with your principles.

I don’t care for ideological people. It’s like those people just want to stop thinking.

The faith that stands on authority is not faith.

When certain people have certain beliefs, they can be unyielding, and that's really what faith is. There's a large place in the world for faith, but when it comes to a scientific, political, and economic issue, dogma is not a very good place to start.

A system of thought that accepts no inconsistencies is a frightful thing.

It's definitely important to have a vision, to have kind of a sense of what might be possible, but not to be dogmatic about your beliefs about the way something has to be done.

People tend not to want to question dogma. But I'm afraid of dogma.

If you attach your mind to any ideology, you're going to be on a road, and that road may or may not lead you in a good direction. But you're gonna stay on that road because you are attached to an ideology. It could be a terrible road, but you stick with it regardless of rational thinking.