Inspirational and Insightful Quotations #35 --- Prejudice

There are many kinds or forms of prejudice, but all forms of it indicate littleness or an inferiority complex. Prejudice is a premature or biased opinion. It is an unfair judgment.

—J.H. Avery, Panama City News-Herald, Panama City, Fla., Nov. 20, 1955.

Prejudice is an opinion formed without considering evidence, usually to gratify our emotions.

—Frank Crane, The Chicago Daily News, Chicago, Ill., Aug. 28, 1916.

There's something good in most everybody, but some of you are so busy trying to find the bad in the best folks that you can't see the good in the worst folks.

—Albert C. Fisher, Tulia Herald, Tulia, Texas, Feb. 3, 1922.

The larger your race prejudice or sect animosity the smaller your caliber. The really big man has tolerance written all over his habits, and he reforms men by winning them, not driving them.

—A.J. Gearheard, The Shreveport Times, Shreveport, La., Aug. 10, 1924.

Prejudices are nails hammered into the mind by environment.

—Minna Thomas Antrim, Lippincott's Monthly Magazine, Philadelphia, Pa., April 1912.

The man who allows his prejudice to run away with his common sense usually returns with lame excuses.

—Benjamin Arstein, San Antonio Express, San Antonio, Texas, March 26, 1911.

Ignorance and prejudice always do business in partnership.

—J.B. Cranfill, Baptist Standard, Waco, Texas, April 4, 1895.

Superstition is the mother of bigotry and it is always spawned in ignorance.

—Bruce Brown, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 22, 1924.

A prejudice is declination in the chronic stage. It is judgment before all the facts are in. It is condemnation without evidence–the lynch law of society.

—Rollin S. Burhans, The Baptist Training Union Magazine, Nashville, Tenn., December 1954.

Men put those who differ in belief into the little hells the gimlet of their prejudice has bored.

—W.A. MacKenzie, The Leesburg Morning Commercial, Leesburg, Fla., Jan. 19, 1927.

Unless you think in terms of principles, you are apt to in terms of prejudice.

—Lynn W. Landrum, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, May 22, 1939.

Prejudice limits the boundaries of clear thinking.

—Clifton N. Memmott, Roosevelt Standard, Roosevelt, Utah, Nov. 1, 1956.

Racial prejudice is just a pigment of someone's imagination.

—John Mooney, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, Dec. 14, 1956.

Prejudice is the crutch that supports a lame brain.

—Olin Miller, Daily Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, Miss., Jan. 3, 1936.

The difference between prejudice and conviction is that you can explain conviction without getting mad.

—Nat Campbell, El Paso Times, El Paso, Texas, July 26, 1957.

Prejudice is a loose idea, tightly held.

—Theodore L. Cannon, Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan. 14, 1955.

The weeds of prejudice grow best in an intellectual desert.

—Henry F. Cope, Chicago Tribune, Chicago, Ill., Nov. 3, 1907.

Prejudice is intensified ignorance. It squints when it looks and lies when it speaks.

—Charles L. Hall, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, May 29, 1911.

Prejudice is the yellow jaundice of the soul.

—Nephi Jensen, Deseret News, Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan. 25, 1928.

Nothing’s easier to pick up and harder to drop than your own prejudices.

—Hamilton G. Park, Salt Lake Tribune, Salt Lake City, Utah, May 31, 1946.

Prejudice is far too powerful in our natures. It, like envy and jealousy, corrodes the lines of our thought, kills the true impulses of our judgment, distorts reason and prevents judgments and justice.

—William Pierson, Dallas Morning News, Dallas, Texas, June 17, 1922.

A single-track mind is all right if you can sidetrack prejudice to let an idea through.

—Robert Quillen, San Jose Evening News, San Jose, Calif., Feb. 25, 1928.

Some people mistake their prejudices for their best judgment.

—Roy L. Smith, Christian Advocate, Chicago, Ill., Oct. 30, 1941.

Every time you conquer a prejudice you have taken a long step toward true freedom.

—Roy L. Smith, Tampa Morning Tribune, Tampa, Fla., March 31, 1930.

Your prejudices can be fatal to your hopes for success.

Too many people imprison their intellects within walls of prejudice that prevent them from seeing the world about them in the clear light of reason.

They are the people who have "opinions" in any and every subject, who are so sure they know the answers that they ca never learn, who are constantly talking when they should be listening.

This doesn't mean that you should not have firm, solid convictions or attitudes. But it does mean that you should gather all available facts, then study and correlate them carefully before reaching a conclusion based on logic and sound judgment.

The conclusion you reach may not necessarily be the correct one. But at least you will not be guilty of prejudice.

Remember, too, that it isn't necessary to cling to an opinion throughout your lifetime. You should have no reluctance to change or modify your opinions in the light of new information or developments. The wise man does this eagerly when he realizes that his present concept has been proved invalid.

On the other hand, it is necessary for you to realize that opinions contribute to progress, both your progress as an individual and human beings in general. The mere gathering of facts is useless except as they are brought together, interrelated, and used for positive action. Everything man has ever learned lies dormant in libraries and museums until someone "does something" with that knowledge.

The scientist works from a hypothesis--a tentative opinion which gives him a line of investigation on which to proceed toward more positive information. You should learn to do the same.

But first of all, you must unchain your mind from any prejudice--from the unreasoned "convictions" built on emotion and false premises.

Above all, sweep away prejudice based on the word "impossible." Whenever that word creeps into your conversation, stop instantly and think over carefully what you are saying.

When Henry Ford asked his engineers to produce an automatic cylinder block cast in a single piece instead of the two pieces then being used, one man said: "Mr. Ford, it's my opinion you're asking the impossible."

"Gentleman," Ford said, "If I had listened to all the people who told me it was 'impossible' to produce a horseless carriage, there would be no jobs here for you now."

—Napoleon Hill, Houston Post, Houston, Texas, Nov. 22, 1956.