Narrow Mindedness Quotes

• I learned that very often the most intolerant and narrow-minded people are the ones who congratulate themselves on their tolerance and open-mindedness.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Hypocrite, People, Tolerance

  "Christopher Hitchens: 'You have to choose your future regrets'". Interview with Andrew Anthony, www.theguardian.com. November 13, 2010.

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• There are two things which cannot be attacked in front: ignorance and narrow-mindedness. They can only be shaken by the simple development of the contrary qualities. They will not bear discussion.

  Lord Acton

  Ignorance, Simple, Two

  "Lord Acton and his Circle". Book by Abbot Francis Aidan Gasquet, 1906.

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• Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.

  Mark Twain

  Travel, Fun, Adventure

  Mark Twain (2008). “The Innocents Abroad”, p.650, Velvet Element Books

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• Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Life, Travel

  Mark Twain, Caroline Thomas Harnsberger (2009). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.479, Courier Corporation

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• The narrow-minded who undertake any work will never be satisfied. They cannot understand the actions of those who are large hearted and broad-minded.

  Sathya Sai Baba

  Tolerance, Action, Open Minded

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• We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls.

  Anais Nin

  Inspirational, Funny, Travel

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• One thing must be avoided at all costs: narrow-mindedness, pedantry, dull pettiness.

  Bruno Schulz

  Cost, Dull, Avoided

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• It was during those long and lonely years that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed. A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.

  Nelson Mandela

  Lonely, Taken, Men

  "Long Walk to Freedom". Book by Nelson Mandela, 1995.

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• We can't encourage narrow mindedness, for no nation can be great whose people are narrow in thought.

  Jawaharlal Nehru

  People, Nations

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• A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow mindedness.

  Nelson Mandela

  Men, Hatred, Prejudice

  Nelson Mandela (2012). “Notes to the Future: Words of Wisdom”, p.44, Simon and Schuster

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• Liberals and conservatives disagree over what are the most important sins. For conservatives, the sins that matter are personal irresponsibility, the flight from family life, sexual permissiveness, the failure of individuals to work hard. For liberals, the gravest sins are intolerance, a lack of generosity toward the needy, narrow-mindedness toward social and racial minorities.

  E. J. Dionne

  Hard Work, Generosity, Important

  E.J. Dionne (2013). “Why Americans Hate Politics”, p.554, Simon and Schuster

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• Faith was intended precisely for the simple, but the quest for certainty and simplicity becomes dangerous when it leads to fanaticism and narrow-mindedness. When reason as such becomes suspect, then faith itself becomes falsified.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Simple, Simplicity, Quests

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• We have no right to dictate, through irresponsible action or narrow-mindedness, the future of our children, and our children's children. There has been enough destruction, enough death, enough waste.

  Abdallah II

  Children, Waste, Action

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• People should decide on the books' meanings for themselves. They'll find a story that attacks such things as cruelty, oppression, intolerance, unkindness, narrow-mindedness, and celebrates love, kindness, open-mindedness, tolerance, curiosity, human intelligence.

  Philip Pullman

  Kindness, Book, People

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• To start blindly with a statement is a sign of arrogance and narrow-mindedness, and will lead to conflict. To start blindly with a question is a sign of uncertainty and honesty, and will lead to wisdom.

  Scott Watson

  Honesty, Arrogance, Conflict

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• The obsession with moderation is the spirit of castrated narrow-mindedness.

  Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

  Excess, Spirit, Obsession

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• Is it not arrogance or narrow-mindedness to claim that there is only one way of salvation or that the way we follow is the right way? I think not. After all, do we fault a pilot for being narrow-minded when he follows the instrument panel while landing in a rainstorm? No, we want him to remain narrowly focused!

  Billy Graham

  Thinking, Arrogance, Want

  Franklin Graham, Billy Graham (2011). “Billy Graham in Quotes”, p.304, Thomas Nelson Inc

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• Strive, while improving your one talent, to enrich your whole capital as a man. It is in this way that you escape from the wretched narrow-mindedness which is the characteristic of every one who cultivates his specialty alone.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Men, Way, Study

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• But, if the knowledge of the occult powers of nature opens the spiritual sight of man, enlarges his intellectual faculties, and leads him unerringly to a profounder veneration for the Creator, on the other hand ignorance, dogmatic narrow-mindedness, and a childish fear of looking to the bottom of things, invariably leads to fetish-worship and superstition.

  H. P. Blavatsky

  Spiritual, Ignorance, Men

  H. P. Blavatsky (2012). “Isis Unveiled: A Master-Key to the Mysteries of Ancient and Modern Science and Theology”, p.41, Cambridge University Press

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• Americans shocked me by their behavior and their narrow-mindedness.

  Mick Jagger

  Behavior, Shocked

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• Here I am, back in Mecca. I am still traveling, trying to broaden my mind, for I've seen too much of the damage narrow-mindedness can make of things, and when I return home to America, I will devote what energies I have to repairing the damage.

  Malcolm X

  Home, Here I Am, America

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• A great deal of what passes by the name of patriotism in these days consists of the merest bigotry and narrow-mindedness; exhibiting itself in national prejudice, national conceit, and national hatred. It does not show itself in deeds, but in boastings--in howlings, gesticulations, and shrieking helplessly for help--in flying flags and singing songs--and in perpetual grinding at the hurdy-gurdy of long-dead grievances and long-remedied wrongs. To be infested by such a patriotism as this is perhaps among the greatest curses that can befall any country.

  Samuel Smiles

  Country, Song, Names

  Samuel Smiles (1872). “Character”, p.27

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• When I awaken in the morning, I am thankful for a new day. I am thankful for everything that I have materially. I am thankful for everything I have spiritually. I thank God for allowing me to experience these things, even the experiences that may not seem so positive, such as developing an illness. I may not understand why I have the illness, but I sense that it is there for a purpose, and so I thank God for it. I ask Him to allow me to expand beyond my narrow-mindedness and self-centeredness so that I can see the good that comes from everything.

  Betty Eadie

  Morning, Self, New Day

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