Open-mindedness Quotes

My upbringing was completely liberal from the start. In fact, I didn't even have a Muslim identity.

The kindest thing a director can do is look with open eyes at everything.

Maybe the biggest thing that I've learned musically is that anything is possible. Things can work when maybe they don't seem like they can.

If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart, and if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.

I am continually fascinated at the difficulty intelligent people have in distinguishing what is controversial from what is merely offensive.

The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm.

To me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can’t give way, is an offer of something not worth having. I want to live my life taking the risk all the time that I don’t know anything like enough yet. That I haven’t understood enough. That I can’t know enough. That I’m always hungrily operating on the margins of a potentially great harvest of future knowledge and wisdom… Those who tell you that you can only live by accepting an absolute authority: don’t think of that as a gift. Think of it as a poison chalice. Push it aside, however tempting it is. Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.

I am grateful for even the sharpest criticism as long as it addresses the point.

We want to have a conversation about what does it mean to be liberal in the 21st century and how do we go about creating that kind of a society.

I'm a big believer in,'If anyone can understand my politics, I've failed.' If you can get a sense of which side of the fence I'm on, then I'm not doing a service. I'm preaching, and that's not my job.

Questioning is the great strength of democracy; the ability to doubt without losing face

When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.

Youth is not a period of time. It is a state of mind, a result of the will, a quality of the imagination, a victory of courage over timidity, and the taste of adventure over the love of comfort. A man doesn't grow old because he's lived a certain number of years, he grows old because he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skins, but deserting his ideals wrinkles his soul. Preoccupation, fears, doubts, and despair are dust before death. You will remain young as long as you are open to what is beautiful, good, great and receptive to the messages of other men and women and nature and of God. If one day you should become bitter, pessimistic, and gnawed by despair, may God have mercy on your old man's soul.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

If the facts change, I’ll change my opinion. What do you do, Sir?

I've never hidden my Christianity in Hollywood, and I've been handled respectfully because I handle the issue and other people respectfully.

When the facts change, one ought to change one’s opinion.

We're frightened of what makes us different.

Happiness often sneaks in through a door you didn't know you left open.

America is great precisely because it is an open society, and an open society recognizes that nobody is the ultimate arbiter — and that we may be wrong at times, even if we are powerful. We must be open to criticism and respect divergent and different views and interests.

The only thing more dangerous than ignorance is arrogance.

Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.

Think your own thoughts.

Skepticism is the first step towards truth.