Prejudice and self-sufficiency naturally proceed from inexperience of the world, and ignorance of mankind.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances.
—Wayne Dyer (1940–2015) American Self-Help Author
Prejudices are the reason of fools.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
When we believe ourselves in possession of the only truth, we are likely to be indifferent to common everyday truths.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
O Lord, help me not to despise or oppose what I do not understand.
—William Penn (1644–1718) American Entrepreneur, Philosopher, Political Leader
I am an invisible man. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids—and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.
—Ralph Ellison (1914–1994) American Novelist
Because a total eclipse of the sun is above my own head, I will not therefore insist that there must be an eclipse in America also; and because snowflakes fall before my own nose, I need not believe that the Gold Coast is also snowed up.
—Jean Paul (1763–1825) German Novelist, Philosopher
Dogs bark at a person whom they do not know.
—Heraclitus (535BCE–475BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together.
—Richard Nixon (1913–94) American Head of State, Lawyer
The only justification for repressive institutions is material and cultural deficit. But such institutions, at certain stages of history, perpetuate and produce such a deficit, and even threaten human survival.
—Noam Chomsky (b.1928) American Linguist, Social Critic
We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and even if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
The one and only formative power given to man Is thought. By his thinking he not only makes character, but body and affairs, for “as he thinketh within himself, so is he.” Prejudice is a mist, which in our journey through the world often dims the brightest and obscures the best of all the good and glorious objects that meet us on our way.
—Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury (1621–83) English Statesman
Prejudice renders a man’s virtue his habit, and not a series of unconnected acts. Through just prejudice, his duty becomes a part of his nature.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Prejudice assumes the garb of reason, but the cheat is too thin.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
Life without prejudice, were it ever to be tried, would soon reveal itself to be a life without principle.
—Richard M. Weaver (1910–63) American Rhetorician
The bird that would soar above the plain of tradition and prejudice must have strong wings.
—Kate Chopin (1850–1904) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer
Ignorance is stubborn and prejudice is hard.
—Adlai Stevenson (1900–65) American Diplomat, Politician, Orator
You are all fundamentalists with a top dressing of science. That is why you are the stupidest of conservatives and reactionists in politics and the most bigoted of obstructionists in science itself. When it comes to getting a move on you are all of the same opinion: stop it, flog it, hang it, dynamite it, stamp it out.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
Prejudice, like the spider, makes everywhere its home. It has neither taste nor choice of place, and all that it requires is room. If the one prepares her food by poisoning it to her palate and her use, the other does the same. Prejudice may be denominated the spider of the mind.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Inventor
Education is a method whereby one acquires a higher grade of prejudices.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-Born American Author
It is never too late to give up our prejudices. No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof. What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle fertilizing rain on their fields.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Inequality is as dear to the American heart as liberty itself.
—William Dean Howells (1837–1920) American Novelist, Critic
What is tolerance?—it is the consequence of humanity. We are all formed of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other’s folly—that is the first law of nature.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
I think there’s just one kind of folks. Folks.
—Harper Lee (1926–2016) American Novelist
We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies.
—James Fenimore Cooper (1789–1851) American Novelist
He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that.
—John Stuart Mill (1806–73) English Philosopher, Economist
Much of our ignorance is of ourselves. Our eyes are full of dust. Prejudice blinds us.
—Abraham Cowley (1618–67) English Poet, Essayist
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