Benjamin Spock Quotes

Don't be afraid to trust your own common sense.

Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense.

Everyone who means well gives advice based on his or her perception. I have realized that while it's important to hear the suggestions, one should only listen to oneself.

If you're just a follower, you never know why you are doing something. Then you can't know if something is good or not. How would you know that what you thought is right, if you didn't think it?

Never take advice, including this.

Always listen to yourself... It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.

Rely upon your own judgment; be true to your own conscience; follow the light that is within you; all outward lights are so many will-o'-the-wisps. There will be those who tell you that you are foolish; that your judgment is faulty; that your conscience is all awry, and that the light within you is darkness; but heed them not. If what they say is true, the sooner you, as a searcher of wisdom, find it out the better, and you can only make that discovery by bringing your powers to the test. Therefore, pursue your course bravely.

Obey your head. Obey your heart. Obey your gut. In fact, obey everything except commands.

Never accept an expert's opinion if it violates your own because the experts can change their minds.

Independent thinking is not encouraged in a professional Army. It is a form of mutiny. Obedience is the supreme virtue.

Place nothing above the verdict of your own mind.

Self-esteem is reliance on one's power to think... The man of authentic self-confidence is the man who relies on the judgment of his own mind.

All my life Ive known better than to depend on the experts. How could I have been so stupid, to let them go ahead?

Go with your gut instincts even if it is contrarian to what the "experts" suggest.

People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.

Every fool believes what his teachers tell him, and calls his credulity science or morality as confidently as his father called it divine revelation.

You believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself.

Because other people are fools, must you be so too?

Don't indulge your theories, think of your children and listen to the experts.

Don't follow leaders.

It's naive and even irresponsible for a grownup today to get her or his information about foreign policy and war and peace exclusively from the administration in power. It's essential to have other sources of information, to check those against one's own common sense, and to form your own judgment as to whether we ought to go to or persist in war.

But I don't think people take bad advice. They've got intuition too, you know. In fact I'd be surprised if they take any advice at all.

I also believe that everyone needs to think independently and make their own decisions on what makes the most sense.

No one who accepts the sovereignty of truth can be a foot soldier in a party or movement. He will always find himself out of step.

You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasion.