John C. Bogle Quotes

Neither with those nor with the others, with all I agree and dissent; in all part of truth and part of error must be seen.

What I really don't like is oversimplification.

Issues are never simple. One thing I'm proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

The fool generalizes the particular; the nerd particularizes the general; ... the wise does neither.

Limitation is a good discipline because it discourages inappropriate generalization, which distracts attention from the profound, particular complexity that characterizes anything at all.

My personal feeling is that people need to be careful not to start over-analyzing and taking things apart and trying to be critical.

I'm glad that we have a history at all and that we can talk about feminist history. But I do think that it doesn't really pay attention to the complexity and the nuance that is feminist thought.

Frankly, I’m suspicious of anyone who has a strong opinion on a complicated issue.

Always seek the general and never quite trust it.

I think the problem with polemics is that it's general and it's lazy. When you say, "This is bad," that's a general thing. We're more interested in asking the question.

People are always trying to draw simplistic dialectics that can capture things.

Some things I think are very conservative, or very liberal. I think when someone falls into one category for everything, I'm very suspicious. It doesn't make sense to me that you'd have the same solution to every issue.

President Bush should learn to focus on the shades of grey

… steer clear of bogus simplicity

I'm sick of having an opinion on everything. Getting older, you learn all sorts of things you're supposed to, but I feel like it's time, when you get older, through experience, to... I started to feel quite... what's the word? ... intimidated by seeing both sides of everything.

Easy answers are never really useful ones, so hopefully we're not trying to peddle easy answers.

Simple black-and-white thinking or action is always going to be problematic.

You have to laugh at things in order to let them be what they truly are. Because nothing is only sad. Nothing is only funny. There's context to all of those things.

Any clear-thinking person should be able to engage in nuanced thinking when it comes to complex political positions.

I'm not ideological. I think sometimes when people are ideological, the world's a lot easier. Because it falls into either right or wrong, or black or white, or whatever. To me, I'm still trying to figure out a lot of things.

Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.

You have to be careful what you think you know.

I think you'll find it's a bit more complicated than that.

I think that life is a paradox and you have to embrace that in your work and your belief systems... You can't be a literalist, and that's the trouble that people always find themselves in. That's why people always hit a wall with any of my stuff, because you can't take it literally.

I do not agree or disagree in everything with either one party or the other. Because all seem to me to have some truth and some error, but everyone recognizes the other's error and nobody discerns his own.