Keith Ellison Quotes

The great men of a nation reach out to all mankind. They are unifying, not divisive; internationally conciliating and still great nationally.

I don't mind anybody coming after me as long as they're coming with facts.

I try to take interest in whatever comes my way. Another aspect of this is [that] if at the beginning it seems like something I don't want to do, I ask myself why I don't want to do this and why I feel this way. It's perhaps rooted in the fact that I'm trying to avoid something.

I always want to try and see what the appeal is in anything. It's the healthiest and most honest approach.

Too often critics seem more intent on seeking new ways to alter Congress than to truly learn how it functions. They might well profit from the advice of Thomas Huxley, who said a century ago: Sit down before facts as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notionor you shall learn nothing.

With nonfiction, I go in trying to be really honest about what my preconceptions are.

We have got to extend the hand of friendship, we have got to take the peacelines down brick by brick

I always felt that a scientist owes the world only one thing, and that is the truth as he sees it. If the truth contradicts deeply held beliefs, that is too bad. Tact and diplomacy are fine in international relations, in politics, perhaps even in business; in science only one thing matters, and that is the facts.

A fair-minded person tries to see both sides of an argument.

You just want to try a bunch of stuff, because you don't know what's going to be great.

We'll continue to speak out in a respectful way; never challenging somebody's love for America when you criticize their strategies or their point of view.

A wise man does not try to hurry history. Many wars have been avoided by patience, and many have been precipitated by reckless haste.

When we try to avoid one fault, we are led to the opposite, unless we be very careful.

I'm going to keep speaking out about what Donald Trump says, because I'm getting messages from leaders around the world who are just bewildered. They want to know what's going on.

Everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory---let the theory go.

Everybody wants to disown neocon strategy, including the neocons, because that strategy never worked. Still, it was, in point of fact, a strategy. Nobody else has one.

It is discouraging to try to penetrate a mind like yours. You ought to get it out and dance on it. That would take some of the rigidity out of it.

Careful. We don't want to learn from this.

Sit down before facts as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion — or you shall learn nothing.

[N]o scientist likes to be criticized. ... But you don't reply to critics: "Wait a minute, wait a minute; this is a really good idea. I'm very fond of it. It's done you no harm. Please don't attack it." That's not the way it goes. The hard but just rule is that if the ideas don't work, you must throw them away. Don't waste any neurons on what doesn't work. Devote those neurons to new ideas that better explain the data. Valid criticism is doing you a favor.

You want people to feel like they belong to something. And not be elitist. You don't want us to be elitist.

We have to be a little cautious about not trying to kill a gnat with an atom bomb. The performances are so utterly absurd regarding the "post-truth" moment that the proper response might best be ridicule.

I'm not extremely political. I think everything should be layed out and you can make your own conclusions. As soon as I feel I'm being taught something or preached something, I just glaze over it and I don't want to hear it.

Try it. You don't have to do it ever again if you don't want to. But try it once. Try everything once.

I want to be the peace president.