Charles Caleb Colton Quotes

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!

Don't hold strong opinions about things you don't truly understand.

Condemnation without investigation is the height of ignorance

The surest way to lose truth is to pretend that one already wholly possesses it.

Beware of the person of one book.

Doubt grows with knowledge.

The habit of an opinion often leads to the complete conviction of its truth, it hides the weaker parts of it, and makes us incapable of accepting the proofs against it.

Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.

Doubt is the origin of wisdom.

Some people have facts; these can be proven. Some people have theories; these can be disproven. But people with opinions are mindless and have their minds made up about it.

I think disparaging something you don't understand, while a very normal thing - I expect more from serious people.

Opinion is the death of knowledge.

No one is more dangerous than someone who thinks he has "The Truth". To be an atheist is almost as arrogant as to be a fundamentalist. But then again, I can get pretty arrogant.

An unquestioned mind is the world of suffering.

No man who worships education has got the best out of education... Without a gentle contempt for education no man's education is complete.

To know yet to think that one does not know is best; Not to know yet to think that one knows will lead to difficulty.

Clarity and consistency are not enough: the quest for truth requires humility and effort.

The greatest and noblest pleasure which we have in this world is to discover new truths, and the next is to shake off old prejudices.

Everyone is a reactionary about subjects he understands.

When blithe to argument I come, Though armed with facts, and merry, May Providence protect me from The fool as adversary, Whose mind to him a kingdom is Where reason lacks dominion, Who calls conviction prejudice And prejudice opinion.

I'm not quite pompous enough to think of myself as an educator or a man capable of definitive refutation of falsehoods.

Prejudices are what fools use for reason.

The learned man knows that he is ignorant.

You know, people aren't always the most open-minded.

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.