Thought must never submit, neither to a dogma, nor to a party, nor to a passion, nor to an interest, nor to a preconceived idea, nor to whatever it may be, save to the facts themselves, because, for thought, submission would mean ceasing to be.
I care not for party. I stand here without party …. Englishmen, rid yourself of all that political jargon and factious slang of Whig and Tory
1st Earl of Beaconsfield
It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.
See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.
What I want people to consider is that no matter what it is we want to believe, and no matter what story it is we want to jam the world into, the truth is the truth.
I don't feel like I'm a writer who works under any influence.
I propose to beg no question to shrink from no conclusion, but to follow truth wherever it may lead.
The more opinions you have, the less you see.
If you say, 'I don't care if Muhammad Ali was a Muslim or not; he was just great,' what you're really saying is, 'I don't care about Muhammad Ali.' Same with Prince being black.
Ignorance is less remote from the truth than prejudice.
The best philosophers were not academics, but had another job, so their philosophy was not corrupted by careerism.
I don't think in a male or female way. I don't differentiate between male and female. I never have. I'm not considered a feminist.
In Japan we have the phrase, "Shoshin," which means "beginner's mind." Our "original mind" includes everything within itself. It is always rich and sufficient within itself. This does not mean a closed mind, but actually an empty mind and a ready mind. If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything. It is open to everything. In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities; in the expert's mind there are few.
Once people start to realise that colour is just that, it's just a colour, then things got a bit smoother.
He who sees only what is before his eyes sees the worst part of every view.
I was raised by a family that there was no, 'You're a girl so you have a limited number of options.' In my community, that was never anything that happened.
I don't want to be influenced by outside opinion.
I don't read reviews, good or bad, just for my own sanity.
I make it my rule, to lay hold of light and embrace it, wherever I see it, though held forth by a child or an enemy.
What makes a free thinker is not his beliefs, but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought, he finds a balance in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.
Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can.
No one can be a great thinker who does not recognize that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead.
But the reason I call myself by my childhood name is to remind myself that a scientist must also be absolutely like a child. If he sees a thing, he must say that he sees it, whether it was what he thought he was going to see or not. See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise you will only see what you were expecting.
Nothing ought to be said or done which could create the impression that unbiased reconsideration of the most elementary premises of philosophy is a merely academic or historical affair.
A mind devoid of prepossessions is likely to be devoid of all mental furniture. And the historian who thinks that he can clean his mind as he would a slate with a wet sponge, is ignorant of the simplest facts of mental life.
