“There seem to be two fundamental schisms in thinking: the hard/soft and the open/closed.”

“That is a good book it seems to me, which is opened with expectation and closed with profit.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

“It seems to me a fundamental dishonesty, and a fundamental treachery to intellectual integrity to hold a belief because you think it's useful and not because you think it's true.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

“There is as much guidance in way that closes behind us as in way that opens up ahead of us. The opening may reveal our potentials while the closing may reveal our limits—two sides to the same coin, the coin called identity.”

Parker Palmer (1939) American theologian

“The suggestion that somehow, because this was a close election, we should fundamentally change our beliefs I just think is silly.”

Dick Cheney (1941) American politician and businessman

“Two girls called me closed minded. I tell them that they are so open-minded their brains leaked out.”

Tucker Max (1975) Internet personality; blogger; author

“What scares me? The way the world is going. People seem to think that development is more important than sustainability. That fundamentalism is more important than openness. That racial differences should dictate political decisions. That a person's sexuality is somebody else's business.”

Ursula Goodenough (1943) American biologist

“I spoke it soft, but close enough to brush against her lips. I spoke it quiet, but near enough so that the sound of it went twining through her hair. I spoke it hard and firm and dark and sweet.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear

“Do not close the circle. Leave it open. Descartes closes the circle. Pascal leaves it open. Rousseau's triumph over the encyclopedists is to have left his circle open when they closed theirs.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

“I think the major good idea in Unix was its clean and simple interface: open, close, read, and write.”

Ken Thompson (1943) American computer scientist, creator of the Unix operating system