Echoes

If your mind is empty, it is always ready for anything, it is open to everything.

The most dangerous worldview is the worldview of those who have not viewed the world.

The greater the ignorance the greater the dogmatism.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

Whenever one tries to suppress doubt, there is tyranny.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they can see nothing but sea.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

The only certainty is that nothing is certain.

It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.

The snake which cannot cast its skin has to die.

Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.

Do not go by revelation; Do not go by tradition; Do not go by hearsay; Do not go on the authority of sacred texts; Do not go on the grounds of pure logic; Do not go by a view that seems rational; Do not go by reflecting on mere appearances; Do not go along with a considered view because you agree with it; Do not go along on the grounds that the person is competent; Do not go along because "the recluse is our teacher." Kalamas, when you yourselves know: These things are unwholesome, these things are blameworthy; these things are censured by the wise; and when undertaken and observed, these things lead to harm and ill, abandon them... Kalamas, when you know for yourselves: These are wholesome; these things are not blameworthy; these things are praised by the wise; undertaken and observed, these things lead to benefit and happiness, having undertaken them, abide in them.

We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depended on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.

Be sure you put your feet in the right place, then stand firm.

One special advantage of the skeptical attitude of mind is that a man is never vexed to find that after all he has been in the wrong.

In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.

Not-knowing is true knowledge. Presuming to know is a disease.

A man must shape himself to a new mark when the old one goes to ground.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul.

Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds… to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.