Alice Thomas Ellis Quotes

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

One of the difficulties of politics is that politicians are shocked by those who are really prepared to let their thinking reach any conclusion. Political thinking consists in deciding upon the conclusion first and then finding good arguments for it. An open mind is considered irresponsible- and perhaps it really is.

I've learned to keep my mind open to ideas from any source.

You know, interesting minds usually do hold more than one idea at a time.

A liberal mind is a mind that is able to imagine itself believing anything.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

I really am opinionated, but not for long. I have found myself coming off of what I think of something because the guy I'm talking to makes better sense than I am. I have so many points of view, I can't keep track of 'em, because I talk to too many people... I'm not so opinionated that I won't budge.

I can easily hold two opposing beliefs at the same time without any problem, which I find - well, mind-expanding, really.

I like to think that I have no single view nor any single situation that I think things arrive from. I try to give examples of what I think are interesting questions for me.

The basic fault lines today are not between people with different beliefs but between people who hold these beliefs with an element of uncertainty and people who hold these beliefs with a pretense of certitude.

I think intelligence basically can be in a way defined by the possibility of having two opposite ideas living together and at the same time functioning. That's why I think a smart script has two things living in the same place, and they're absolutely contradictory.

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

My problem is not that I see all 17 sides of any issue, but I'm equally passionate about all 17 sides simultaneously.

Part of the scientific temperament is this tolerance for holding multiple hypotheses in mind at the same time.

If you have Darwin, Christ and Nietzsche, they're all going to talk at once. You need somebody who listens.

The liberally educated person is one who is able to resist the easy and preferred answers, not because he is obstinate but because he knows others worthy of consideration.

As for my own views, they've of course evolved over the years. This conception of 'renouncing beliefs' is very odd, as if we're in some kind of religious cult. I 'renounce beliefs' practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

I find the world just too complex to embrace a single ideological point of view.

The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you'll be.

The intellectual ... may live for ideas, as I have said, but something must prevent him from living for one idea, from becoming obsessive or grotesque. Although there have been zealots whom we may still regard as intellectuals, zealotry is a defect of the breed and not of the essence.

I'm not asking you to agree with me, but at least open your mind.

If you're always in the company of people who agree with you, you're going to think of people who don't agree with you as venal or stupid. I constantly tell my students that if they're in the company of people who always say "amen" to what you say, find other company. And that is the source of illiberalism, when you are unable to listen to someone who thinks differently. That's when democracies are in trouble.

It's not because my mind is made up that I don't want you to confuse me with any more facts. It's because my mind isn't made up. I already have more facts than I can cope with.

One of the hardest tasks as a human being is knowing when to keep an open mind, and when not to.

Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.