Maxine Hong Kingston Quotes

My books have contradictions all the time - and people are fine with that.

I had a quick grasp of the secret to sanity, it had become the ability to hold the maximum of impossible combinations in one's mind.

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

I think the open mind is the one that's reachable.

My mind is always free. My mind is flexible.

So curiosity, I think, is a really important aspect of staying young or youthful.

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.

We call a child's mind 'small' simply by habit; perhaps it is larger than ours is, for it can take in almost anything without effort.

The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts.

I think if someone is writing continuously for 10 years and has not changed their mind about something - there's something wrong with them. They're not really thinking.

The human mind will not be confined to any limits.

It is as deadly for a mind to have a system as to have none. Therefore it will have to decide to combine both.

As children know, there's lots of fun in nonsense. We never stop benefiting from staying flexible, open and responsive, even in the midst of confusion.

You know, different people are going to react different ways. And I don't think we should be intolerable because people do things a little differently.

I am a person always with an open mind.

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions but to live with them and rise above them.

Give your approval to all you cannot understand.

Intelligence is in constant process of forming, and its retention requires constant alertness in observing consequences, an open-minded will to learn, and courage in readjustment.

We must learn to live with contradictions, because they lead to deeper and more effective understanding.

When you tolerate intolerance, you're not really being a liberal.

The last refuge of intolerance is in not tolerating the intolerant.

I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.

My 'Idea of India' calls not just for tolerance, but a celebration of all points of view. Where the sensibilities of every individual are respected

We do not compromise our own faith by admitting the honesty of another's doubt.

There are still places in America that we need to nurture, to allow them to understand that there are other ways of living, and it's not wrong, just because it's not your way of living.