“Intelligence is an interesting word. It is also something which, in my opinion, is misunderstood by many people. There are those who believe that we go to school to become intelligent. Or, the more experience a person has on a particular job, the more intelligent they become. This notion is not so. All knowledge is one hundred percent evenly present in all places, at all times. Aware is what you and I want to become. The more aware we become of this truth about intelligence, the better off we will be.” PeopleWantBelievePersonsSchoolJobsInterestingOpinionParticularPercentHundredIntelligentNotionAll TimeBetter OffMisunderstood Author:Bob Proctor
“Any opinion writer worth his salt would have rejected the quaint notion that certain eternally aggrieved identity groups have exclusive linguistic rights to words in the English language.” CertainLanguageOpinionRightsGroupsIdentityNotionSaltRejectedExclusiveEnglish LanguageQuaint Author:Ilana Mercer
“Somewhere we taught ourselves that our opinions are more significant than the facts. And somehow we get our egos and our opinions and Truth all mixed up in a single package, so that when something does challenge one of the notions to which we subscribe, we react as if it challenges us.” IfsDoeFactsChallengesOpinionTaughtEgoNotionSignificantPackages Author:Jack McDevitt
“I myself am not comfortable with the notion of secularists congregating in groups, except perhaps for defensive purposes: the last thing a secularist should wish to do is to act like a religion, with its rigid hierarchies, its suppression of divergent opinion, and, above all, its ruthless attempts (now mercifully inhibited by laws) to outlaw "heresy" by brute force. Opinions must be changed, one at a time if necessary, but if there are those who wish to persist in religious belief, they should certainly be allowed to do so.” IfsShouldLastsLawPurposeBeliefForceWishReligiousOpinionGroupsAtheismChangedComfortableNotionPositive AtheismPersistHierarchyRuthlessBrutesHeresyReligious BeliefDivergentSuppressionOutlawBrute Force Author:S. T. Joshi
“Philosophers have very justly remarked that the only solid instruction is that which the pupil brings from his own depths; that the true instruction is not that which transmits notions wholly formed, but that which renders him capable of forming for himself good opinions. That which they have said in regard to the intellectual faculties applies equally to the moral faculties. There is for the soul a spontaneous culture, on which depends all the real progress in perfection.” SaidRealSoulCultureMoralOpinionProgressDependsCapableIntellectualPerfectionRegardDepthNotionPhilosopherFacultyInstructionSpontaneousPupilsTransmit Author:Joseph Marie, baron de Gerando
“Majorities can be wrong, majorities can overrule rights of minorities. If majorities ruled, we could still have slavery. 80% of the population once enslaved 20% of the population. While run by majority rule that is ok. That is very flawed notion of what democracy is. Democracy has to take into account several things - proportionate requirements of people, not just needs of the majority, but also needs of the minority. Majority, especially in societies where the media manipulates public opinion, can be totally wrong and evil. People have to act according to conscience and not by majority vote.” PeopleIfsNeedsStillsRunningEvilOpinionDemocracyRightsMediaConscienceVoteAccountsSlaveryMajorityNotionPopulationMinoritiesRequirementsPublic OpinionManipulateFlawedDemocracies HaveEvil PeopleMajority RuleMajority Vote Author:Howard Zinn
“My patriotism is of the kind which is outraged by the notion that the United States never was a great nation until in a petty three months' campaign it knocked to pieces a poor, decrepit, bankrupt old state like Spain. To hold such an opinion as that is to abandon all American standards, to put shame and scorn on all that our ancestors tried to build up here, and to go over to the standards of which Spain is a representative.” KindStatesThreeNationsPoorUnitedOpinionUnited StatesPiecesMonthsStandardsShameNotionCampaignsAbandonAncestorRepresentativesSpainPettyScornThree MonthsGreat NationsOutragedDecrepit Book:War and Other Essays Source: War and Other Essays