People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them.
Gordon AllportRead
Given a thimbleful of [dramatic] facts we rush to make generalizations as large as a tub.
Interpretation
We often overreach in our conclusions based on limited evidence.
This quote by Gordon Allport highlights the tendency of individuals to draw sweeping conclusions from a small amount of information or data. It serves as a reminder of the importance of critical thinking and the need to seek broader, more comprehensive evidence before forming generalized beliefs or assertions.
In practice
During a debate on social media, one could cite this quote to argue against hasty conclusions drawn from anecdotal evidence.
People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them.
The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems.
Until the juice ferments a while in the cask, it isn't wine. If you wish your heart to be bright, you must do a little work.
Reason can answer questions, but imagination has to ask them.
Over time, I've paid attention, taken notes and forgotten easily half of everything I've gone through.
The safest way of not being very miserable is not to expect to be very happy.
I like children; I like 'em, and I respect 'em. Pretty much all the honest truth-telling there is in the world is done by them.
You know, when I sit in meetings and things are very tense and people take things extremely seriously and they invest a lot of their ego, I sometimes think to myself, 'Come on, you know, there's life and there's death and there is love.' And all of that ego business is nonsense compared to that.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.