H. L. Mencken Quotes

In the choice between changing ones mind and proving there's no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.

Only idiots refuse to change their minds.

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one's mind.

There are two kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won't.

Only stupid people don't change their minds.

The man who is too set to change is dead already. The funeral is a mere detail.

Unadaptability is often a virtue.

I think anybody incapable of changing his mind is crazy.

We all have a tendency to think that the world must conform to our prejudices. The opposite view involves some effort of thought, and most people would die sooner than think in fact they do so.

The people who bind themselves to systems are those who are unable to encompass the whole truth and try to catch it by the tail; a system is like the tail of truth, but truth is like a lizard; it leaves its tail in your fingers and runs away knowing full well that it will grow a new one in a twinkling.

I think if you're open-minded, the road will take you where it takes you. If you're closed, you might not get to go where the road is heading.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they cease to be mind.

Being right can stop all the momentum of a very interesting idea.

Don't get so stuck in your ways that you can't change.

As the facts change, change your thesis. Don't be a stubborn mule, or you'll get killed.

I'm definitely open to change, but at the same time I am quite stubborn.

Our opinions become fixed at the point where we stop thinking.

Being stubborn can be a good thing. Being stubborn can be a bad thing. It just depends on how you use it.

A wise man changes his mind, a fool never does.

I will not change. Because if you are successful and you change, you are an idiot.

There is no man so blind as one who has made up his mind.

Narrow minds think nothing right that is above their own capacity.

I'm not really opposed to people changing their minds. I'm much more concerned with people who never change their minds no matter what new information is available.

It is only the very wisest and the very stupidest who never change.

How prone we are to come to the consideration of every question with heads and hearts pre-occupied! How prone to shrink from any opinion, however reasonable, if it be opposed to any, however unreasonable, of our own! How disposed are we to judge, in anger, those who call upon us to think, and encourage us to enquire! To question our prejudices seems nothing less than sacrilege; to break the chains of our ignorance, nothing short of impiety!