Thomas Steinbeck Quotes

Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it.

The will to be stupid is a very powerful force, but there are always alternatives.

In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.

How can people be so stupid? I marvel at that. See, I think you have to work as being ignorant - and if you're gonna work at being ignorant, why not work at being informed?

The University conceives of itself as dedicated to the power of the intellect. Its commitment is to the way of reason.

I think there is only one quality worse than hardness of heart and that is softness of head.

I respect faith, but doubt is what gives you an education.

That which the Fascists hate above all else, is intelligence.

Let us tenderly and kindly cherish, therefore, the means of knowledge. Let us dare to read, think, speak, and write.

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.

The first complete sentence out of my mouth was probably that line about consistency being the hobgoblin of small minds.

Philosophers are adults who persist in asking childish questions.

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people's values.

We all agree that pessimism is a mark of superior intellect.

Nine-tenths of the existing books are nonsense and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.

There have to be people who are vocal about the advancement of knowledge over faith.

Philosophy is for the few.

Men need knowledge in order to overpower their passions and master their prejudices.

The stupidity of people comes from having an answer for everything. The wisdom of the novel comes from having a question for everything.

Before anything else, we need a new age of Enlightenment. Our present political systems must relinquish their claims on truth, justice and freedom and have to replace them with the search for truth, justice, freedom and reason.

Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought.

A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.

Whoever does not love knowledge, then there is no good in him.

Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has the right to be wrong in his facts.