Philip Roth Quotes

As soon as you look at the world through an ideology, you are finished. No reality fits ideology.

Those indoctrinated by leftist thinking become largely incapable of making accurate moral judgments.

The premise of my book is that everyone is a bit ideological to some extent. Everyone comes from a ideological perspective.

Values are faithfully applied to the facts before us, while ideology overrides whatever facts call theory into question.

People do not only live on interests; they also live on beliefs, especially in very ideological areas. Unless you understand the ideological aspect of the region, you cannot understand what is happening.

Ideas control the world.

It amazes me sometimes that even intelligent people will analyze a situation or make a judgement after only recognizing the standard or traditional structure of a piece.

Most men, when they think they are thinking, are merely rearranging their prejudices.

The problem I have with making an intelligent statement is that some people then think it's not an isolated occurrence.

Ideology has very little to do with 'consciousness' - it is profoundly unconscious.

One of the things that really drove me crazy was the way in which college kids, in particular, are educated to think that ideology is dangerous and bad.

What could be more boring than a novel that tells you how to think about everything that happens in it?

I've always been more comfortable sinking while clutching a good theory than swimming with an ugly fact.

What rules the world is ideas.

Political thinking consists in deciding upon the conclusion first and then finding good arguments for it. An open mind is considered irresponsible.

In intelligence you can justify almost anything you want to if you go about it with enough zeal and effort which is what happened.

The longer you hold a belief, the less likely it is to be true.

Avoid false choices driven by ideology.

One of the big differences between liberals and conservatives is that liberals really, really want to believe that people want to listen to facts.

… people reject the validity of a scientific source because its conclusion contradicted their deeply held views.

Men quickly find a theory that adapts itself to their desires.

Facts matter, especially when they conflict with dogma and preconceived notions. Pretending otherwise has consequences.

When you write a book, and you argue a problem is complicated and multidimensional, it's very easy to read a slice of that book and say, 'Well, this is the part that either confirms or really challenges my biases, so that's what I'm going to say the entire book is about.'

What information you see doesn't dictate what you think or believe. I think it's crazy to think that.

That's the way people are in general: they see everything negatively at first and then choose to ask questions.