Objectivity Quotes

• Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Beautiful, Hate, Cancer

  Martin Luther King Jr. (1963). “Strength to Love”

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• There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.

  Christiane Amanpour

  Mean, Giving, Hearing

  "Television; Five Years Later, The Gulf War Story Is Still Being Told". Article by Eric Schmitt, www.nytimes.com. May 12, 1996.

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  The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

  Gore Vidal

  Country, Media, United States

  Gore Vidal (1992). “The Decline and Fall of the American Empire”

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• "Is," "is," "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment.

  Robert Anton Wilson

  Might, Subjectivity, Moments

  "Fictional character: Sigismundo Celine". The Historical Illuminatus book series, 1982-1991.

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• Objectivity is the delusion that observations could be made without an observer.

  Heinz von Foerster

  Made, Observation, Delusion

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• A straight path never leads anywhere except to the objective.

  Andre Gide

  Inspiration, Goal, Path

  "The Journals of André Gide: 1914-1927". 1951.

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• Objectivity cannot be equated with mental blankness; rather, objectivity resides in recognizing your preferences and then subjecting them to especially harsh scrutiny - and also in a willingness to revise or abandon your theories when the tests fail (as they usually do).

  Stephen Jay Gould

  Tests, Failing, Harsh

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• The very concept of objective truth is fading out of the world. Lies will pass into history.

  George Orwell

  Lying, Deceit, Fading

  George Orwell, Keith Gessen (2009). “All Art Is Propaganda: Critical Essays”, p.26, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Objective is the wrong word. Rather, it's fairness. Objectivity is a false God. Instead we should strive for fairness and transparency.

  Ken Auletta

  Fairness, Strive, Should

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• Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing.

  Christiane Amanpour

  Mean, Giving, Hearing

  "TELEVISION;Five Years Later, The Gulf War Story Is Still Being Told" by Eric Schmitt, www.nytimes.com. May 12, 1996.

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• You’ve never reacted to someone else. You project meaning onto nothing. And you react to the meaning you’ve projected

  Byron Katie

  Projects

  Twitter post from Aug 14, 2013

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• Objectivity does not exist - it cannot exist!.. The word is a hypocrisy which is sustained by the lie that the truth stays in the middle. No, sir: Sometimes truth stays on one side only.

  Oriana Fallaci

  Lying, Hypocrisy, Doe

  "The Rage of Oriana Fallaci". Interview with George Gurley, observer.com. January 27, 2003.

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• Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.

  Abraham Maslow

  Truth, Real, Passion

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• One of the reasons people hate politics is that truth is rarely a politician's objective. Election and power are.

  Cal Thomas

  Hate, People, Politics

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• A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and in all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity.

  Eleanor Roosevelt

  Life, Motivational, Humility

  Eleanor Roosevelt (1960). “You Learn by Living”, p.63, Westminster John Knox Press

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• I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not

  Michael Pollan

  Thinking, Perfect, Goal

  "Food Chains, Dead Zones, and Licensed Journalism". Interview with Russell Schoch, www.motherjones.com. February 4, 2005.

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• Your life must focus on the maximization of objectivity.

  Charlie Munger

  Focus, Insightful, Investing

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• Show me a man who claims he is objective and I'll show you a man with illusions.

  Henry R. Luce

  Men, Illusion, Claims

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• Objectivity consists in understanding that the only one who never makes a mistake is the one who never does anything.

  Vladimir Kramnik

  Mistake, Understanding, Doe

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• There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.

  Karl Popper

  Men, Society, Opinion

  "The Importance of Critical Discussion". "On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict" by Robert Basil, 1989.

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• Distance not only gives nostalgia, but perspective, and maybe objectivity.

  Robert Morgan

  Distance, Giving, Perspective

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• The loss of objectivity in moral thought does not lead to liberation. It leads to oppression. Secular ideologies preach liberty, but they practice tyranny.

  Nancy Pearcey

  Loss, Practice, Liberty

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• After all, the ultimate goal of all research is not objectivity, but truth.

  Helene Deutsch

  Goal, Research, Ultimate

  Helene Deutsch (1954). “The Psychology of Women: Girlhood”

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• When the waters of a lake are absolutely still, the lake reflects the trees, the sky, and everything around it perfectly. At the slightest breeze, with the smallest ripple in the waters, the lake reflects nothing but itself. To see another with clarity and objectivity, one first must master stillness. The slightest breeze of judgment or interpretation from the rational mind will create a ripple that shatters Awareness and returns us to ordinary perception.

  Alberto Villoldo

  Lakes, Sky, Water

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• Though infested with many bewildering anomalies, photographs are considered our best arbiters between our visual perceptions and the memory of them. It is not only their apparent 'objectivity' that grants photographs their high status in this regard, but our belief that in them, fugitive sensation has been laid to rest.

  Max Kozloff

  Memories, Perception, Anomalies

  Max Kozloff (1979). “Photography & Fascination: Essays”

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