Carlos Ruiz Zafon Quotes

I don't think you should limit what you read.

People don't always realize that my parents shared a sense of intellectual curiosity and a love of reading and of history.

A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them.

There are fashions in reading, even in thinking. You don't have to follow them unless you want to. On the other hand, watch out. Don't stick too closely to your favorite subject. That would keep you from adventuring into other fields. It's silly to build a wall around your interests.

Explore, and explore. Be neither chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. Neither dogmatize or accept another's dogmatism.

Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.

I am too much of a sceptic to deny the possibility of anything...

My skepticism is strong, but my curiosity is stronger.

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

The mind will ever be unstable that has only prejudices to rest on.

I want to inspire people to really open up their minds and not be one-sided or biased or hypocritical.

As it is, lovers of inquiry must follow their beloved wherever it may lead.

Who knows if Shakespeare might not have thought less if he had read more?

An intelligent mind is an inquiring mind. It is not satisfied with explanation, with conclusions. Nor is it a mind that believes, because belief is again another form of conclusion.

Liberal learning is both a safeguard against false ideas of freedom and a source of true ones.

Setting skepticism aside, even briefly, can make for very interesting explorations. It is not necessary that we change any of our beliefs. It is necessary that we examine them.

He that cometh to seek after knowledge, with a mind to scorn, shall be sure to find matter for his humour, but no matter for his instruction.

Education ought to foster the wish for truth, not the conviction that some particular creed is the truth.

One must be truthful and honest in his approach; a constant independent inquiry and not blindly following a certain blue print laid down by others

The most damaging prejudice consists of banning any kind of investigation of nature.

Don't hold strong opinions about things you don't truly understand.

Human beings never think for themselves. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told - and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.

Travellers with closed minds can tell us little except about themselves

Certainty is a closing of the mind. To create something new you must have doubt.

Assume nothing, question everything.