“The prejudiced and obstinate man does not so much hold opinions, as his opinions hold him.”

—  Tryon Edwards

Source: A Dictionary of Thoughts, 1891, p. 438.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The prejudiced and obstinate man does not so much hold opinions, as his opinions hold him." by Tryon Edwards?
Tryon Edwards photo
Tryon Edwards57
American theologian 1809–1894

Related quotes

Karl Popper photo

“There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

"The Importance of Critical Discussion" in On the Barricades: Religion and Free Inquiry in Conflict (1989) by Robert Basil
Context: There is an almost universal tendency, perhaps an inborn tendency, to suspect the good faith of a man who holds opinions that differ from our own opinions. … It obviously endangers the freedom and the objectivity of our discussion if we attack a person instead of attacking an opinion or, more precisely, a theory.

Socrates photo

“Anyone who holds a true opinion without understanding is like a blind man on the right road.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Plato, Republic, 506c
Plato, Republic

Benjamin Franklin photo

“I think opinions should be judged of by their influences and effects; and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous, which I hope is the case with me.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Letter to his father, 13 April 1738, printed in Memoirs of Benjamin Franklin (Philadelphia, 1834), volume 1, p. 233. Also quoted in Benjamin Franklin: An American Life (2003) by Walter Isaacson
Epistles

Mandell Creighton photo

“The tolerant man has decided opinions, but recognises the process by which he reaches them, and keeps before himself the truth that they can only be profitably spread by repeating in the case of others a similar process to that through which he passed himself. He always keeps in view the hope of spreading his own opinions, but he endeavours to do so by producing conviction. He is virtuous, not because he puts his own opinions out of sight, nor because he thinks that other opinions are as good as his own, but because his opinions are so real to him that he would not anyone else hold them with less reality”

Mandell Creighton (1843–1901) English historian and ecclesiastic

Persecution and Tolerance, Hulsean Lectures, University of Cambridge (Winter 1893–94)

Karl Kraus photo

“Sound opinions are valueless. What matters is who holds them.”

Karl Kraus (1874–1936) Czech playwright and publicist

Half-Truths and One-And-A-Half Truths (1976)

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury photo

“We are a Teutonic people. We hold steadily to our opinions.”

Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician

Speech to the Conference of the National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations in Oxford (23 November 1887), quoted in The Times (24 November 1887), p. 6
1880s

Shaun Chamberlin photo

“Accusations of hypocrisy themselves tend to be rather hypocritical — if no hypocrites were permitted to hold opinions, there would likely be no opinions at all.”

Shaun Chamberlin

"Confessions of a Hypocrite: Utopia in the Age of Ecocide" Kosmos (2016) https://www.kosmosjournal.org/article/confessions-of-a-hypocrite-utopia-in-the-age-of-ecocide/

A. P. Herbert photo

“A man who has made up his mind on a given subject twenty-five years ago and continues to hold his political opinions after he has been proved to be wrong is a man of principle; while he who from time to time adapts his opinions to the changing circumstances of life is an opportunist.”

A. P. Herbert book Uncommon Law

"Which Is the Liberal Party?"
Uncommon Law (1935)

Related topics