William Strunk Jr. Quotes

He that is always right is usually wrong.

And the only people I fear are those who never have doubts... Save us all from arrogant men, and all the causes they're for.

From a worldly point of view, there is no mistake so great as that of being always right.

I am very cautious of people who are absolutely right, especially when they are vehemently so.

No one is so wrong as the man who knows all the answers.

I don't always know what I'm talking about, but I know I'm right.

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that are not so

You know, being confident isn't the same as being right.

The more sure you are, the more wrong you can be.

The truth posed a great dilemma for a man who always had to be right, and yet, for all his grandeur, was often wrong.

Infallibility and invincible ignorance are the same thing.

When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man.

To feel absolutely right is the beginning of the end.

If there is one class of person I have never quite trusted, it is a man who knows no doubt.

We think we know what we are doing. We have always thought so.

The kind of man who always thinks that he is right, that his opinions, his pronouncements, are the final word, when once exposed shows nothing there. But a wise man has much to learn without a loss of dignity.

When people are least sure, they are often most dogmatic.

The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.

It is not bigotry to be certain we are right; but it is bigotry to be unable to imagine how we might possibly have gone wrong.

I wish I was as cocksure of anything as Tom Macaulay is of everything.

The persecuting spirit has its origin... in the assumption that one's own opinions are infallibly correct.

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts.

The less one knows, the more he thinks he knows, and the more willing he is to employ any and all measures to enforce his views upon others.

When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.