Robertson Davies Quotes

When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent.

We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.

This is an awesome time to be a knowledge seeker, no better time, but it's also the best time in history to be a complete idiot.

Against logic there is no armor like ignorance.

Ideas are only lethal if you suppress and don't discuss them. Ignorance is not bliss, it's stupid. Banning books shows you don't trust your kids to think and you don't trust yourself to be able to talk to them.

It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.

Just in general, any government throughout history hasn't really wanted its people to be educated, because then they couldn't control them as easily.

A lot of people in government don't really read books at all.

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open.

At root, evangelical anti-intellectualism is both a scandal and a sin. It is a scandal in the sense of being an offense and a stumbling block that needlessly hinders serious people from considering the Christian faith and coming to Christ. It is a sin because it is a refusal, contrary to Jesus' two great commandments, to love the Lord our God with our minds. Anti-intellectualism is quite simply a sin. Evangelicals must address it as such, beyond all excuses, evasions, or rationalizations of false piety.

A mind that questions everything, unless strong enough to bear the weight of its ignorance, risks questioning itself and being engulfed in doubt.

I wish I were dumber so I could be more certain about my opinions. It looks fun.

The most essential mental quality for a free people, whose liberty is to be progressive, permanent and on a large scale, is much stupidity.

The student now goes to college to proclaim rather than to learn. A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals.

I am passionate about everything in my life--first and foremost, passionate about ideas. And that's a dangerous person to be in this society, not just because I'm a woman, but because it's such a fundamentally anti-intellectual, anti-critical thinking society. --bell hooks

In truth, knowledge is a great and very useful quality; those who despise it give evidence enough of their stupidity. Yet I do not set its value at that extreme measure that some attribute to it.

Most often people seek in life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather than for educating themselves.

Here you discover that so long as books are kept open, then minds can never be closed.

When intelligent people pride themselves on not understanding, it is quite natural they should succeed better than fools.

The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on 'I am not too sure'.

The sooner we can separate salvageable skeptics from self-righteous absolutists, the sooner we can move along.

It's never pleasant to have one's unquestioning beliefs put in their historical context, as I know from experience, I can assure you.

If you want to stay in for the long haul, and lead a life that is free from illusions either propagated by you or embraced by you, then I suggest you learn to recognize and avoid the symptoms of the zealot and the person who knows he is right. For the dissenter, the skeptical mentality is at least as important as any armor of principle.

This is how humans are: We question all our beliefs, except for the ones that we really believe in, and those we never think to question.

I had always been impressed by the fact that there are surprisingly many individuals who never use their minds if they can avoid it, and yet are not stupid, and an equal number who obviously do use their minds but in an amazingly stupid way.