Drop Your Assumptions and Opinions, Look Anew

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain (attributed)

If you would be a real seeker after truth,

it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible, all things.
- Rene Descartes

The more opinions you have, the less you see.
- Wim Wenders

About most subjects, there is not "The Truth."
There is merely one's personal truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The problem with making assumptions
is that we believe they are the truth
- don Miguel Ruiz

Examine, inquire.
Look into the nature of things.
Search out the grounds of your opinions,
the for and against.
Know why you believe, understand what you believe,
and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.
- Frances Wright

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- Proverb

People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
- 1997 Comedy Movie "Men In Black"

Further reading: Question Your Questions

The Illusion of Knowledge

Maybe So, Maybe Not.

Expectations

Truth isn't True

Assumptions
     

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment... not authority

Science is a way of thinking
much more than it is a body of knowledge.
- Carl Sagan

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment...
not authority.
- Thomas Huxley

What is a scientist after all?
It is a curious man looking through a keyhole,
the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
- Jacques Yves Cousteau

The scientist is motivated primarily by curiosity
and a desire for truth.
- Irving Langmuir

All truths are easy to understand
once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.
- Galileo Galilei

The saddest aspect of life right now
is that science gathers knowledge faster
than society gathers wisdom.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Understand More, Fear Less

Seek the Truth

Analysis AND Emotion

Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor
    

The Voyage of Discovery

 

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes.
- Marcel Proust

That is what learning is.
You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life,
but in a new way.
- Doris Lessing

I remind myself every morning:
Nothing I say this day will teach me anything.
So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.
- Larry King

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

True learning is not about facts,
but about conscious appreciation of the experience of living.
Let each day be a time to learn new appreciation for life.
To learn more about ourselves and the nature of life.
To learn what brings happiness to ourselves and to those around us.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Question Your Questions

The Nature of Learning

Learning From History
        

The Illusion of Knowledge is a Trap

 

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

The Danger of Assumptions

Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real
      

You Stop Growing When You Stop Learning

 

Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

We are not afraid to follow truth
wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate any error
so long as reason is left free to combat it.
- Thomas Jefferson

The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

Knowledge is Soon Changed

Open Minds

Reason
    

Consciously Spend Time In Your Own Company

 

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly -
spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity
to renew itself and create order.
- Susan Taylor

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

Further reading: A Truly Successful Life

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What Is Success?

What You Become
    

Never Take Life for Granted

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

Find out what you don't want to know about yourself

 

 You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
- Bodhidharma

He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu

Find out what you don't want to know about yourself,
what you're afraid of.
- Linda Evans

How strange that, although we dwell within ourselves,
we seldom know what we truly want
or what we truly believe about important matters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
- Benjamin Spock

Further reading: At the center of your being you have the answer

Be Simply Yourself

Know Thyself

Follow Your Bliss
      

Continually Expand Your Perspectives

I'm not afraid of storms for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

If you put yourself in a position where
you have to stretch outside your comfort zone,
then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
- Les Brown

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

Cultivate a 'learning consciousness,'
in which your experiences, knowledge,
and attitudes expand over time;
in contrast to a 'fixed consciousness,'
in which one stagnates and fails to progress.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

How We Learn

How Life Teaches

Learning From History

Renewing Yourself

Question Your Questions
    

 

Do Not be Seduced by the Illusion of Knowledge

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Further reading: Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.

The Danger of Assumptions

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind
    

Holding onto Opinions Gets in the Way of Finding Facts

It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble.
It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.

- Mark Twain (attributed)

If you would be a real seeker after truth,

it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt,
as far as possible, all things.

- Rene Descartes

The more opinions you have, the less you see.
- Wim Wenders

About most subjects, there is not "The Truth."
There is merely one's personal truth.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The problem with making assumptions
is that we believe they are the truth
- don Miguel Ruiz

Examine, inquire.
Look into the nature of things.
Search out the grounds of your opinions,
the for and against.
Know why you believe, understand what you believe,
and possess a reason for the faith that is in you.

- Frances Wright

Everything is not as it appears to be.
- Proverb

People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it. Fifteen hundred years ago everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and fifteen minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you'll know tomorrow.
- 1997 Comedy Movie "Men In Black"

Further reading: Question Your Questions

The Illusion of Knowledge

Maybe So, Maybe Not.

Expectations

Truth isn't True

Assumptions
     

Science is a Way of Thinking

 

Science is a way of thinking
much more than it is a body of knowledge.
- Carl Sagan

The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment...
not authority.
- Thomas Huxley

What is a scientist after all?
It is a curious man looking through a keyhole,
the keyhole of nature, trying to know what's going on.
- Jacques Yves Cousteau

The scientist is motivated primarily by curiosity
and a desire for truth.
- Irving Langmuir

All truths are easy to understand
once they are discovered;
the point is to discover them.
- Galileo Galilei

The saddest aspect of life right now
is that science gathers knowledge faster
than society gathers wisdom.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Understand More, Fear Less

Seek the Truth

Analysis AND Emotion

Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor
    

Practice a New Appreciation of Life

 

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes
but in having new eyes.
- Marcel Proust

That is what learning is.
You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life,
but in a new way.
- Doris Lessing

I remind myself every morning:
Nothing I say this day will teach me anything.
So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.
- Larry King

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

True learning is not about facts,
but about conscious appreciation of the experience of living.
Let each day be a time to learn new appreciation for life.
To learn more about ourselves and the nature of life.
To learn what brings happiness to ourselves and to those around us.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Question Your Questions

The Nature of Learning

Learning From History
        

Beware of the Illusion of Knowledge

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Further reading: Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind

The Danger of Assumptions

Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.
    

 

Learning Leads To Growth

 

Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire.
- William Butler Yeats

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

We are not afraid to follow truth
wherever it may lead,
nor to tolerate any error
so long as reason is left free to combat it.
- Thomas Jefferson

The mind is not a vessel to be filled,
but a fire to be kindled.
- Plutarch

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

Knowledge is Soon Changed

Open Minds

Reason
    

Cherish Quiet Time

 

Re-examine all that you have been told...
dismiss that which insults your soul.
- Walt Whitman

You are a product of your environment.
So choose the environment that will best develop you toward your objective.
Analyze your life in terms of its environment.
Are the things around you helping you toward success -
or are they holding you back?
- W. Clement Stone

Know thyself, and thou shalt know the Universe and God.
- Pythagoras

To know your ruling passion, examine your castles in the air.
- Richard Whately

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly -
spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity
to renew itself and create order.
- Susan Taylor

The unexamined life is not worth living.
- Socrates

Further reading: A Truly Successful Life

To Live, Not Merely To Exist

What Is Success?

What You Become
    

We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Find Joy In It

 

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted,
but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious,
thought begins.
- Albert Schweitzer

God is not what you imagine,
or what you think you understand.
If you understand you have failed.
- Saint Augustine

Be thankful that life is a mystery.
There is so much we can never know.
Breathe deeply and relax into the not-knowing.
There is much that we do not have to know in order to live joyfully.
We Can Never Understand Our World, But We Can Still Enjoy It.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The world is incomprehensible.
We won't ever understand it;
we won't ever unravel its secrets.
Thus we must treat the world as it is:
a sheer mystery.
- Carlos Castaneda

Uncertainty that comes from knowledge
(knowing what you don't know)
is different from uncertainty coming from ignorance.
- Isaac Asimov

Further reading: Wonder and Mystery

Pause to Wonder

Cherish Mystery

Life: Mystery and Riddle
    

Stop Deceiving Yourself

 

 You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.
- Bodhidharma

He who knows others is wise.
He who knows himself is enlightened.
- Lao Tzu

Find out what you don't want to know about yourself,
what you're afraid of.
- Linda Evans

How strange that, although we dwell within ourselves,
we seldom know what we truly want
or what we truly believe about important matters.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do.
- Benjamin Spock

Further reading: At the center of your being you have the answer

Be Simply Yourself

Know Thyself

Follow Your Bliss
      

Develop a Passion for Learning

 

I'm not afraid of storms for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
- Louisa May Alcott

Develop a passion for learning.
If you do, you will never cease to grow.
- Anthony J. D'Angelo

If you put yourself in a position where
you have to stretch outside your comfort zone,
then you are forced to expand your consciousness.
- Les Brown

Intellectual growth should commence at birth
and cease only at death.
- Albert Einstein

Cultivate a 'learning consciousness,'
in which your experiences, knowledge,
and attitudes expand over time;
in contrast to a 'fixed consciousness,'
in which one stagnates and fails to progress.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Lifelong Learning

How We Learn

How Life Teaches

Learning From History

Renewing Yourself

Question Your Questions
    

Beware the Illusion of Knowledge

 

To know yet to think that one does not know is best;
Not to know yet to think that one knows
will lead to difficulty.
- Lao Tzu

The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance -
it is the illusion of knowledge.
- Daniel J. Boorstin

Beware of false knowledge;
it is more dangerous than ignorance.
- George Bernard Shaw

We want the facts to fit the preconceptions.
When they don't, it is easier to ignore the facts
than to change the preconceptions.
- Jessamyn West

Truth is not defined by
how many people believe something.
Ask. Question. Think.
Decide - for yourself.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When you have a very strong FEELING that something is true, often it isn't.
WANTING something to be true doesn't make it true.
Likewise, being AFRAID that something is true doesn't make it true either.

Further reading: Truth isn't True. Reality isn't Real.

The Danger of Assumptions

Perspective on Tradition: An Open Mind