Randall Jarrell Quotes

Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route.

To doubt everything or to believe everything are two equally convenient solutions; both dispense with the necessity of reflection.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted... but to weigh and consider.

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

One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.

Men become civilized, not in proportion to their willingness to believe, but in proportion to their readiness to doubt.

I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them.

Try to keep your mind open to possibilities and your mouth closed on matters that you don't know about. Limit your 'always' and your 'nevers.'

If something is wrong, it'll prove to be wrong in the wash, and if it's right, you don't want to not expose yourself to it - so I read everything, no matter how horrible it gets. You listen and take it in and if it doesn't sway you, you'll know you considered it.

The scientist is not a person who gives the right answers, he is one who asks the right questions.

Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.

I believe in an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out.

It's very difficult to decide. And I'm very open to proposals.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

I don't pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

Large skepticism leads to large understanding. Small skepticism leads to small understanding. No skepticism leads to no understanding.

To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person's intellect. It becomes your default position.

The true worth of an experimenter consists in his pursuing not only what he seeks in his experiment, but also what he did not seek.

I love to doubt as well as know.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

One unerring mark of the love of truth is not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance than the proofs it is built upon will warrant.

Research has been called good business, a necessity, a gamble, a game. It is none of these - it's a state of mind.

What is important is that one utilizes one's intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one's convictions. One should always leave room for doubt.

I want to find someone on the earth so intelligent that he welcomes opinions which he condemns.

Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.