John Stuart Mill Quotes

I'm a huge believer in learning anything from multiple points of view.

You have to listen to the people who have a negative opinion as well as those who have positive opinion. Just to make sure that you are blending all these opinions in your mind before a decision is made.

The learned and the studious of thought have no monopoly of wisdom. Their violence of direction in some degree disqualifies them to think truly.

Wise men don't need concrete answers. By definition, they need wisdom." ~ Geraki

We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.

Confidence comes from seeing so many sides, angles, views, and tangents. Because when you do select an approach or direction, you are doing so with better/ more complete information.

I think there's always merit in getting out of our ideological silos and being exposed to points of view with which we don't always agree.

I invite a variety people on my show with wide-ranging opinions - sometimes even my jaw hits the floor, too - but I let them speak. Whether it's left, right, or center, I want to expose my viewers to other perspectives. Agree with them or not, the nation needs to listen.

If I'm going to talk about something, I need to be educated about it, and I need to have seen all the perspectives.

If you're going to have an exchange of ideas, the only thing you can do is to meet people face-to-face in front of a crowd who may think differently than you do. I mean, that's what democracy is about, isn't it?

University students should rightly be exposed to a plurality of viewpoints as part of their intellectual growth, rather attending the 'flock of sheep association of like-minded individuals.'

If we took information only from sources with which we agreed on all issues, we would be left with merely quoting ourselves, and we would miss a great deal of truth.

The intellectual ... may live for ideas, as I have said, but something must prevent him from living for one idea, from becoming obsessive or grotesque. Although there have been zealots whom we may still regard as intellectuals, zealotry is a defect of the breed and not of the essence.

The purpose of a good education is to show you that there are three sides to a two-sided story.

Small thoughts fit easily into a closed mind, but big thoughts require an open one.

A great many people do not have the right to their own opinion because they don't know what they are talking about.

One of the hardest tasks as a human being is knowing when to keep an open mind, and when not to.

Good scholars struggle to understand the world in an integral way (pedants bite off tiny bits and worry them to death). These visions of reality [...] demand our respect, for they are an intellectual's only birthright. They are often entirely wrong and always flawed in serious ways, but they must be understood honorably and not subjected to mayhem by the excision of patches.

Stupid people surround themselves with smart people. Smart people surround themselves with smart people who disagree with them.

What hermeneutics teaches is that progress comes from being exposed to different points of views because there's no point of view that is right for all situations and all times. And even if it's superior to the others, you can enrich it by drawing on others or thinking: "Why is that wrong and how do I improve my approach? How do I come up with a better approach?" So that's essential for innovation just like it is in technology.

The ignorant are to be found as much among the educated as among the uneducated.

Unanimity of opinion may be fitting for a church, for the frightened or greedy victims of some (ancient, or modern) myth, or for the weak and willing followers of some tyrant. Variety of opinion is necessary for objective knowledge. And a method that encourages variety is also the only method that is comparable with a humanitarian outlook.

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.

The hardest part about gaining any new idea is sweeping out the false idea occupying that niche. As long as that niche is occupied, evidence and proof and logical demonstration get nowhere. But once the niche is emptied of the wrong idea that has been filling it:; once you can honestly say, "I don't know", then it becomes possible to get at the truth.

As often as a study is cultivated by narrow minds, they will draw from it narrow conclusions.