Preconceived notions are often rooted in irrationalities rather than truth and thus frequently lead to inaccurate and negative misconceptions about unfamiliar cultures and experiences. This in turn stymies personal growth and prevents us all from breaking out of our comfort zones and living life to the fullest. When they concern another person, these biases can also sometimes be insulting and harmful, which is why we should always take the time to get to know someone before judging them.
Many preconceived notions come from a place of ignorance, either intentional or not. As a result, they tend to perpetuate lies and stereotypes. We should strive to challenge them and seek out the truth whenever possible, as uncomfortable as that may initially seem. Odds are, we’ll be pleasantly surprised by what we learn in the process.
Here are 13 quotes about challenging preconceived notions that may just open you up to a whole array of new experiences. By embracing evidence and shunning fear, we can prevent our subconscious suppositions from expanding our worldview.
Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.Mark Twain
Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future, and renders the present inaccessible.Maya Angelou
Intolerance is the first sign of an inadequate education. An ill-educated person behaves with arrogant impatience, whereas truly profound education breeds humility.Alexander Solzhenitsyn
The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.Eldridge Cleaver
Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilised by education: they grow there, firm as weeds among stones.Charlotte Brontë
People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.Blaise Pascal
Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.Martin Luther King Jr.
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.Audre Lorde
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.Nelson Mandela
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them.Edward R. Murrow
Sit down before fact as a little child, be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abysses nature leads, or you shall learn nothing.Thomas Henry Huxley
Nothing is more capable of troubling our reason, and consuming our health, than secret notions of jealousy in solitude.Aphra Behn
I learned the lesson that great men cultivate love, and that only little men cherish a spirit of hatred. I learned that assistance given to the weak makes the one who gives it strong; and that oppression of the unfortunate makes one weak.Booker T. Washington
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