35 Quotes On Open-Mindedness

In a world that thrives on diversity and innovation, being open-minded is more important than ever. It is the catalyst for growth, understanding, and profound connection in both personal and professional realms. Open-mindedness enables us to embrace new experiences, challenge preconceived notions, and foster empathy by seeing the world from different perspectives. In this curated collection of the top 35 quotes on open-mindedness, we delve into the wisdom of philosophers, leaders, and thinkers who have championed the importance of keeping an open mind. These quotes serve as a reminder that by welcoming and valuing diverse viewpoints, we can unlock endless possibilities and discover a richer, more nuanced understanding of the world around us. Join us on this journey to explore the profound insights that encourage an open heart and an inquisitive mind.

1. “To be evenminded is the greatest virtue.Wisdom is to speakthe truth and actin keeping with its nature.” - Heraclitus

2. “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” - Charles Darwin

3. “Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.” - Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

4. “[B]egin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while or the light won’t come in.” - Alan Alda

5. “Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I've decided, is only a slow sewing shut.” - Jodi Picoult

6. “If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed.” - Marcus Aurelius

7. “It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.” - George Eliot

8. “All the systems which explain so precisely why the world is as it is and why it can never be otherwise, have always called forth in me the same kind of uneasiness one has when face to face with the regulations displayed under the glaring lights of a prison cell. Even if one had been born in prison and had never seen the stars or seas or woods, one would instinctively know of timeless freedom in unlimited space.My evil star, however, had fated me to be born in times when only the sharply demarcated and precisely calculable where in fashion.... "Of course, I am on the Right, on the Left, in the Centre; I descend from the monkey; I believe only what I see; the universe is going to explode at this or that speed" - we hear such remarks after the first words we exchange, from people whom we would not have expected to introduce themselves as idiots. If one is unfortunate enough to meet them again in five years, everything is different except their authoritative and mostly brutal assuredness. Now they wear a different badge in their buttonhole; and the universe now shrinks at such a speed that your hair stands on end.” - Ernst Jünger

9. “If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion, and avoid the people, you might better stay home.” - James A. Michener

10. “Few people ask from books what books can give us. Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.” - Virginia Woolf

11. “Nine times out of ten a man’s broad-mindedness is necessarily the narrowest thing about him. This is not particularly paradoxical; it is, when we come to think of it, quite inevitable. His vision of his own village may really be full of varieties; and even his vision of his own nation may have a rough resemblance to the reality. But his vision of the world is probably smaller than the world…hence he is never so inadequate as when he is universal; he is never so limited as when he generalizes. This is the fallacy in the many modern attempts at a creedless creed, at something variously described as...undenominational religion or a world faith to embrace all the faiths in the world...When a philosophy embraces everything it generally squeezes everything, and squeezes it out of shape; when it digests it necessarily assimilates.” - G.K. Chesterton

12. “But having quills is a waste, even a double luxury when one can choose not to have quills but open hands.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

13. “I believe one of the most sacrificial acts of love adoptive parents can do is to give up their preconceptions and agendas about what their child's views "should" be and be open to hear the conflicting emotions and thoughts their child often experiences.” - Sherrie Eldridge

14. “The patterns are simple, but followed together, they make for a whole that is wiser than the sum of its parts. Go for a walk; cultivate hunches; write everything down, but keep your folders messy; embrace serendipity; make generative mistakes; take on multiple hobbies; frequent coffeehouses and other liquid networks; follow the links; let others build on your ideas; borrow, recycle; reinvent. Build a tangled bank.” - Steven Johnson

15. “Despite my firm convictions, I have been always a man who tries to face facts, and to accept the reality of life as new experience and new knowledge unfolds it. I have always kept an open mind, which is necessary to the flexibility that must go hand in hand with every form of intelligent search for truth.” - Malcolm X

16. “By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out.” - Richard Dawkins

17. “The thing is, it's very dangerous to have a fixed idea. A person with a fixed idea will always find some way of convincing himself in the end that he is right” - Atle Selberg

18. “It does take great maturity to understand that the opinion we are arguing for is merely the hypothesis we favor, necessarily imperfect, probably transitory, which only very limited minds can declare to be a certainty or a truth.” - Milan Kundera

19. “Beware: open-mindedness will often say, 'Everything is permissible except a sharp opinion.” - Criss Jami

20. “Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads or you learn nothing. Don’t push out figures when facts are going in the opposite direction.” - Hyman G. Rickover

21. “A different species a different set of values a world completely unlike your own. There is a feeling you can only get when you meet the unknown and open your mind. - Nakajima (Gin no Saji)” - Hiromu Arakawa

22. “1. A Cup of Tea Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), recieved a university professor who came to inqure about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he could no longer restrain himself. "It is overfull. No more will go in!" "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your up?” - Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps

23. “Vulnerability is the only authentic state. Being vulnerable means being open, for wounding, but also for pleasure. Being open to the wounds of life means also being open to the bounty and beauty. Don’t mask or deny your vulnerability: it is your greatest asset. Be vulnerable: quake and shake in your boots with it. the new goodness that is coming to you, in the form of people, situations, and things can only come to you when you are vulnerable, i.e. open.” - Stephen Russell

24. “Flexibility requires an open mind and a welcoming of new alternatives.” - Deborah Day

25. “The Word frees us from smallness of mind (1 Kings 4:29) and from threatening confinements (Psalm 18:19).” - John Piper

26. “Where no paths exist, a man strays only when he misses his destination. There is no crime, no transgression, no sin save foolishness or incompetence, and no obscenity save the tyranny of custom.” - R. Scott Bakker

27. “Books and minds only work when they're open.” - James Dewar

28. “An open mind is not an end in itself but a means to the end of finding truth.” - Peter Kreeft

29. “Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in.” - Alan Alda

30. “Some people like living in black and white worlds. Let them stay there. Appreciate all the colors you see in your world though.” - Ashly Lorenzana

31. “Open eyes love blindly” - Holly Romero

32. “Create inclusion - with simple mindfulness that others might have a different reality from your own.” - Patti Digh

33. “We must quit thinking we know everything, and quit placing "knowledge" over kindness and compassion.” - Bryant McGill

34. “It's not about whether or not someone is a bigot, but whether or not the argument which that someone is arguing is worth being a bigot about.” - Criss Jami

35. “Foretold through memories I remember what dangers I was warned of if lived by ways of sinning. That by living a fruitful life with an open mind to love all people would bring me to a place of peaceful tranquility. I wonder if these are all lies. All of them.” - Nicholas A. McGirr