Quotes, quotations and sayings on open-mindedness

Those who will not apply new
remedies must expect new evils.

Francis Bacon

Never stop learning and adapting. The world will always be changing. If you limit yourself to what you knew and what you were comfortable with earlier in your life, you will grow increasingly frustrated with your surroundings as you age. David Niven

Minds are like parachutes. They only function when they are open. James Dewar Only an open mind still has room for new knowledge. What is outgrown and used up must be discarded to make room for what is yet to be learned. And much of the best thinking is done alone--in deserts, on beaches, in bed, behind closed doors. It is why we say we need to get away--to escape from clutter and busyness--to hear ourselves think. Robert Fulghum

Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert can pass through them. Close them, and all you can feel is a bit of grit. Taisen Deshimaru

An open mind is all very well in its way, but it ought not to be so open that there is no keeping anything in or out of it. It should be capable of shutting its doors sometimes, or it may be found a little draughty. Samuel Butler

If people could regard the events of their own lives with more
open minds, they would frequently discover that they did not
really desire the things they failed to obtain.

Andre Maurois

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Merely having an open mind is nothing; the object of opening the
mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

Gilbert K. Chesterton

Life has no other discipline to impose, if we would but realize it,
than to accept life unquestioningly. Everything we shut our eyes
to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate,
or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty,
painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength,
if faced with an open mind. Every moment is a golden one for
those who have the vision to recognize it as such.

Henry Miller

Dogmatism breeds intolerance. Like ideology, dogmatism puts blinders on what its adherents can see, disables their questioning faculties, and breeds fervor and fanaticism. . . . Having an open mind does not mean that one never comes to any convictions in life. It is perfectly possible to have an open mind and live a very principled life, without holding one's beliefs dogmatically. Having an open mind means being prepared to question even your most central beliefs if there is occasion to do so. It means being open, when the time comes, to having your mind changed by an argument better than one's own. It means being able to think both sides of an issue, both the side you think is true and the side you think is false. It also means being able to suspend your beliefs, to play devil's advocate, and to detach yourself somewhat from your own beliefs, actions and feelings. Only living with an open mind gives us a chance to grow and change, for change is inevitable, while growth, unfortunately, is not.

Jeff Mason

Many a person thinks he or she has an open mind, when it is merely vacant.

unattributed

Tolerance is understanding. It is open to new light.
Those who are tolerant are always eager to explore
viewpoints other than their own.

Wilferd A. Peterson

Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.
Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.

Henry Ford

A closed mind is a dying mind.

Edna Ferber

The open mind never acts: when we have done our utmost to arrive
at a reasonable conclusion, we still--must close our minds for
the moment with a snap, and act dogmatically on our conclusions.

George Bernard Shaw

Above all, remember that the most important thing you can take
anywhere is not a Gucci bag or French-cut jeans; it's an open mind.

Gail Rubin Bereny

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that
people will insist on coming along and trying to put things into it.

Terry Pratchett

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An open mind, like an open window, should be screened to keep the bugs out.

Virginia Hutchison

It's okay to disagree with the thoughts or opinions expressed by other
people. That doesn't give you the right to deny any sense they might
make. Nor does it give you a right to accuse someone of poorly
expressing their beliefs just because you don't like what they are saying.
Learn to recognize good writing when you read it, even if it means
overcoming your pride and opening your mind beyond what is comfortable.

Ashly Lorenzana

I'd always thought of myself as an open-minded person. I had no patience
with anyone who put down other kids because of their race, religion, or
sexuality. But that's just one kind of open-mindedness. There's another kind,
too, the kind that's willing to see people for who they really are and admit
when you were wrong about them. That's the part I still need to work on.

Kelley Armstrong
The Calling

Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries
to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and
new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which
is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand
with every form of intelligent search for truth.

Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X

You can have such an open mind that it is too porous to hold a conviction.

George W. Crane

If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will
happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly
harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception
and ignorance who is harmed.

Marcus Aurelius
Meditations

Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming
an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.

Jodi Picoult
My Sister's Keeper

Open your mind to the world and the many different ways that can
be found in it, before making hasty judgments of others. After all,
the very same thing that you judge from where you are— may very
well be something totally different in meaning on the other side of
the world. The problem with making hasty judgments is that it
will emphasize your ignorance at the end of the day.

C. JoyBell C.

It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for
is merely the hypothesis we favor, necessarily imperfect, probably transitory,
which only very limited minds can declare to be a certainty or a truth.

Milan Kundera
Encounter