Oscar Wilde Quotes

Each pursues his own theory, little solicitous to correct or improve it by an attention to what is advanced by his opponents.

There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

I'm an academic. I'm hardwired for a good debate.

That great philosopher anonymous once said, never argue with a fool. People might not know the difference.

Some people would rather stay ignorant and self-satisfied.

Quick condemnation of all that is not ours, of views with which we disagree, of ideas that do not attract us, is the sign of a narrow mind, of an uncultivated intelligence. Bigotry is always ignorant, and the wise boy, who will become the wise man, tries to understand and to see the truth in ideas with which he does not agree.

It is from a weakness and smallness of mind that men are opinionated; and we are very loath to believe what we are not able to comprehend.

Mediocre minds usually dismiss anything which reaches beyond their own understanding.

The more history I learnt, the less interested I got in winning arguments and the more interested in establishing the truth.

The most learned are often the most narrow-minded men.

I love being challenged and defending my positions and, when I'm wrong, learning from the exchange. It makes me smarter and better as a businessperson.

The more you think you know, the more closed-minded you'll be.

Those who lack all idea that it is possible to be wrong can learn nothing except know-how.

Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality.

Limited minds can recognize limitations only in others.

When I was 16 I started keeping a diary in which I recorded my disagreements with the famous philosophers. I didn't insist that they were wrong, that I was right and I had to prevail. I just agreed and disagreed with them. I thought there was a high degree of probability that I was right and some other thinkers were wrong. But I wasn't positive about it.

Thinking in isolation and with pride ends in being an idiot.

A liberally educated person meets new ideas with curiosity and fascination. An illiberally educated person meets new ideas with fear.

How prone we are to come to the consideration of every question with heads and hearts pre-occupied! How prone to shrink from any opinion, however reasonable, if it be opposed to any, however unreasonable, of our own! How disposed are we to judge, in anger, those who call upon us to think, and encourage us to enquire! To question our prejudices seems nothing less than sacrilege; to break the chains of our ignorance, nothing short of impiety!

Plenty of pundits have really high IQs, but they don't have any discipline in how they look at the world, and so it leads to a lot of bullshit, basically.

Am I an intellectual? I don't think so. Less than people sometimes think, I have to say. But more than some others think.

I think you are wrong, Basil, but I won't argue with you. It is only the intellectually lost who ever argue.

The course of every intellectual, if he pursues his journey long and unflinchingly enough, ends in the obvious, from which the non-intellectuals have never stirred.

We must abandon the prevalent belief in the superior wisdom of the ignorant.

Book - Learning : The dunce's derisive term for all knowledge that transcends his own impertinent ignorance.