Jon Lovett Quotes

A university is supposed to show you ideas that offend you and make you feel uncomfortable,

I've always shied away from conventional wisdom, though I know the power of it.

It's really important, whether you're a conservative or a liberal, to always challenge the conventional wisdom, which is what I've tried to do in all my work.

Anyone who has begun to think, places some portion of the world in jeopardy.

We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of 'crackpot' than the stigma of conformity.

Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it. It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.

I wasn't overwhelmed by dogma, and that sort of freed me up to look at things differently.

I have a suspicion of lockstep and everyone looking in the same direction: that's a key character trait in me.

Honestly, I feel you are poisoned if you read too much of the scientific literature because it makes you start thinking like other people. You're better off having a vague sense of what's going on and making your own way.

The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

… the third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority, the second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority, and the first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.

No president is well-served by groupthink or by everybody singing from the same sheet of music they think he's on.

This country is about, in my judgment, aggressive, open debate. There is an old saying: When everyone is thinking the same thing, no one is thinking very much.

In America, educators punish those who actually think for themselves. There is only acceptance for popular opinion.

A heretic is a man who sees with his own eyes.

I am something of a contrarian, I suppose. I feel less comfortable when everybody agrees with me. I say, 'I better reexamine my position!' I probably believe that the worst opinions in my court have been unanimous. Because there's nobody on the other side pointing out all the flaws.

A Western upbringing tends to stress questioning authority, which is always asking why, why, why.

Be not astonished at new ideas; for it is well known to you that a thing does not therefore cease to be true because it is not accepted by many.

Don't listen to the prevailing majority points of view. If you have new ideas, push them.

When a man fails to see the truth of certain generally accepted views, there is no law compelling him to provoke animosity by announcing his dissent.

Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Nobody's going to tell me how to be different, so stop asking me. Stop asking me what two-plus-two is. Everybody knows two-plus-two is five.

Everything popular is wrong.