Katha Pollitt Quotes

People who love literature have at least part of their minds immune from indoctrination. If you read, you can learn to think for yourself.

Let must or if be damned with whomever's afraid down with ought with because with every brain which thinks it thinks, nor dares to feel.

You shouldn't be looking for the secret to making people follow fads, you should be looking for the secret to making them think for themselves. Because that's what science is all about.

One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself.

It is always the task of the intellectual to "think otherwise." This is not just a perverse idiosyncrasy. It is an absolutely essential feature of a society.

I hate to tell people what they should think 'cause I really have an aversion when people tell me what to think.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

There can be no living culture in the world if you cannot criticize its foundations –- the religion. We lack the courage to ask any question about any religious issue. For example, as a Muslim, I cannot say a single word about the Prophet Moses. The Prophet Moses did not say anything to me as a Muslim, whereas the Israeli Jew can criticize Moses and all the prophets in the Torah, and he can even question the divinity of the Torah. We, in Arab society, do not understand the meaning of freedom. We say that freedom means writing an article. Freedom is much deeper than that.

Take the risk of thinking for yourself

No one tells me what to think. I think for me.

Wise man was he who counselled that speculation should have free course, and look fearlessly towards all the thirty-two points of the compass, whithersoever and howsoever it listed.

No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.

There was a good moment in Islam when people were actually challenging authority at every level. Very different from the world we live in.

Nobody has the right to shield any idea as so sacred it can’t be challenged. ... Almost all human progress is driven by people who stood up and said ‘I disagree’ with this idea that society at the time considered to be the most precious.’

The free intellect is the chief engine of human progress.

...I'm no longer prepared to accept what people say and what's written in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to find my own answer.

Ignorance is servitude, because as a man thinks, so he is; a man who does not think for himself and allows himself to be guided by the thought of another is like the beast led by a halter.

One can often hear from the young people:" I do not want to live according to others' mind. I can think of it myself. " Why should one think of something, when it is already thought about. Take it and go farther, this is the strength of the mankind.

You don't have to think exactly like me. When people go, "I don't agree with everything you say," you know what, if you agree with everything anyone says, you're an idiot.

Let us dare to read, think, speak and write.

Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.

People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.

When you place a high value on truth, you have to think for yourself.

Learn to do your own thinking - don’t let other people do it for you!

Think for yourself. Know what you're doing. Question authority.