Balanced Judgment Quotes

All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. It is only in those who have built up a rich world of memories and habits of thought that extreme opinions affront the sense of probability. Propositions, for instance, which set all the truth upon one side can only enter rich minds to dislocate and strain, if they can enter at all, and sooner or later the mind expels them by instinct.

If one knows only what one is told, one does not know enough to be able to arrive at a well-balanced decision.

Common sense is not a simple thing. Instead, it is an immense society of hard-earned practical ideas - of multitudes of life-learned rules and exceptions, dispositions and tendencies, balances and checks.

He hears but half who hears one party only.

No idea is so outlandish that it should not be considered with a searching but at the same time a steady eye.

The advice of friends must be received with a judicious reserve; we must not give ourselves up to it and follow it blindly, whether right or wrong.

Incredulity is not wisdom, but the worst kind of folly. It is folly, because it causes ignorance and mistake, with all the consequents of these; and it is very bad, as being accompanied with disingenuity, obstinacy, rudeness, uncharitableness, and the like bad dispositions; from which credulity itself, the other extreme sort of folly, is exempt.

A healthy skepticism, regularly exercised…

I praise loudly; I blame softly.

In Quebec, people are moved too often by passion and too little by intelligence.

I learned to have the patience to listen when people put forward their views, even if I think those views are wrong. You can't reach a just decision in a dispute unless you listen to both sides.

I'm pretty good at thinking about everything - all of my consequences - before I make a decision, and I think about everything that's going to happen because of that decision. I'm a Libra, and I'm very strategic.

As a general rule, if you want to get at the truth - hear both sides and believe neither.

It is unwise to feel too much if we think too little.

Strength and wisdom are not opposing values.

All I am saying is that if you want to answer a question, then we need to examine and weigh up the evidence. To me, that's not dogmatic that's just... what else would you do?

Don't underestimate your opponent, but don't overestimate them, either.

My view is that you cannot close your mind and say I don't want to listen to this or that. Because if you can't appreciate the bad for being bad, you can't appreciate the good. If you turn a deaf ear to everything but one style, pretty soon it's not going to work out.

Suspect too much sweet talk but never close your mind.

In order to judge properly, one must get away somewhat from what one is judging, after having loved it. This is true of countries, of persons, and of oneself.

I have tried to be impartial, though I know that a man's past always colors his views, and that nothing else is so irritating as impartiality.

One cool judgment is worth a thousand hasty counsels. The thing to do is to supply light and not heat.