Abraham Lincoln Quotes

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

I try not to be an ideologue about anything. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, and I'm willing to evolve.

I will adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

… there must never be the least hesitation in giving up a position the moment it is shown to be untenable. It is not going too far to say that the greatness of a scientific investigator does not rest on the fact of his having never made a mistake, but rather on his readiness to admit that he has done so, whenever the contrary evidence is cogent enough.

In all of history, we have found just one cure for error—a partial antidote against making and repeating grand, foolish mistakes, a remedy against self-deception. That antidote is criticism.

If any man can convince me and bring home to me that I do not think or act aright, gladly will I change; for I search after truth, by which man never yet was harmed. But he is harmed who abideth on still in his deception and ignorance.

The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.

We have to live today by what truth we can get today and be ready tomorrow to call it falsehood.

He that never changes his opinion never corrects mistakes and will never be wiser on the morrow than he is today.

Good-faith re-examination of a position you've held in the past should be seen as a virtue, not a vice.

I'll be the first one to admit that if I have conclusions based on faulty premises, then let me know about that, and I'll be the first one to change it.

An intelligent person is never afraid or ashamed to find errors in his understanding of things.

We … need education in the obvious – to learn to transcend our own convictions and to leave room for much that we hold dear to be done away with short of revolution by the orderly change of law.

If the facts change, I’ll change my opinion. What do you do, Sir?

I'd ask people to keep in mind the idea that if you really understand something, it's even more important for you to consider the possibility of your wrongness. Even if it takes someone dumber than you to point that out.

Who is going to cast out an error to which he has given birth and replace it with an adopted truth?

If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's own self-deception and ignorance.

Of all the things we are wrong about, error might well top the list ... We are wrong about what it means to be wrong. Far from being a sign of intellectual inferiority, the capacity to err is crucial to human cognition. Far from being a moral flaw, it is inextricable from some of our most humane and honourable qualities: empathy, optimism, imagination, conviction, and courage. And far from being a mark of indifference or intolerance, wrongness is a vital part of how we learn and change. Thanks to error, we can revise our understanding of ourselves and amend our ideas about the world.

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

Indeed the reasoned criticism of a prevailing belief is a service to the proponents of that belief; if they are incapable of defending it, they are well advised to abandon it. This self-questioning and error-correcting aspect of the scientific method is its most striking property.

Persuade me or prove to me that I am mistaken in thought or deed, and I will gladly change - for it is the truth I seek, and the truth never harmed anyone. Harm comes from persisting in error and clinging to ignorance.

In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken..."

If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.

If in the last few years you haven't discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.

Opinions are made to be changed - or how is truth to be got at?