Naivety Quotes

• Complete honesty has nothing to do with 'purity' or naivety. The full truth is unattainable to naivety, and the completely honest artist is not pure in heart.

  Clement Greenberg

  Truth, Honesty, Heart

  Clement Greenberg (1971). “Art and Culture: Critical Essays”, p.146, Beacon Press

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• There are some who esteem that it is a naivety to believe that a moral regeneration may be possible ("soit possible", Fr.); now, if this was not the case, it would not be worth the trouble that humanity continue to vegetate without aim.

  African Spir

  Believe, Humanity, May

  "Paroles d'un sage: Choix de pensées d'African Spir" ("Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir") by Hélène Claparède-Spir, (p. 61), 1937.

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• The trust of the innocent is the liar's most useful tool.

  Stephen King

  Trust, Liars, Lying

  Stephen King (2016). “Needful Things”, p.507, Simon and Schuster

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• It is well for the heart to be naive and for the mind not to be.

  Anatole France

  Heart, Knowledge, Mind

  "The Literary Life". Book by Anatole France, 1888-1892.

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• It was my delusion and naivety that brought me here.

  Lady Gaga

  Delusion

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• The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naive forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

  Thomas Szasz

  Life, Forgiveness, Letting Go

  The Second Sin (1973) "Personal Conduct"

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• The cemetery is full of people who thought they could change themselves tomorrow.

  Boonaa Mohammed

  People, Tomorrow, Cemetery

  Twitter post from Oct 25, 2013

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• Money brings you security and choice. You can make decisions in a different way if you have a lot of money. But when you have nothing, you have a naivety, and a more fearless attitude because you have nothing to lose.

  Simon Cowell

  Attitude, Decision, Choices

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• I woke early like a condemned man to the naivety of birdsong.

  Nick Drake

  Men, Birdsong

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• As we get older, we tend to become more risk averse because we tend to find reasons why things won't work. When you are a kid, you think everything is possible, and I think with creativity it is so important to keep that naivety.

  Heston Blumenthal

  Creativity, Kids, Thinking

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• People expect me to be dark and gloomy, then write that I'm a jolly chap, and after all, that is what I am. I think it's a case of an absolute romantic naivety that there should be a parallel between the work and the artist.

  Michael Haneke

  Writing, Dark, Artist

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• I'm very aware, but I'm very naïve. When you are really naïve and expecting safety and expecting the best, you don't feel you're taking risks. You can get smacked a little, but usually it works out pretty well. I would say that, as much as you can instill your open-minded naivety, if you're basically open minded, then you can do damn near anything.

  Shirley MacLaine

  Safety, Work Out, Risk

  Source: www.moviesonline.ca

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• Cynicism and naivety lie cheek by jowl in the American imagination; if the United States is one of the most venal nations on Earth, it is also one of the most earnestly idealistic.

  Terry Eagleton

  Lying, Imagination, United States

  "Age of innocence" by Terry Eagleton, www.theguardian.com. July 25, 2008.

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• A lot of people have said that I've got a voice that speaks to children. I think I've got a natural naivety to me. I'm childish.

  Geri Halliwell

  Children, Thinking, Voice

  "This much I know". Interview with with Elizabeth Day, www.theguardian.com. July 5, 2008.

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• Leaders must not be naive. I used to say, "Liars shouldn't lie." What a sad waste of words that is! I found out liars are supposed to lie. That's why we call them liars - they lie! What else would you expect them to do?

  Jim Rohn

  Liars, Lying, Leader

  FaceBook post by Jim Rohn from Mar 12, 2016

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• I could spend my whole life prying loose the secrets of the insane. These people are honest to a fault, and their naivety has no peer but my own.

  Andre Breton

  People, Secret, Insane

  "First Manifesto of Surrealism". Book by Andre Breton, 1924.

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• I think that good parenting should allow children to be children. That naivety and slightly open way of looking at the world is very valuable.

  Robert Winston

  Children, Thinking, World

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• I know a lot about writing, but I don't know much about how other industries work. I've tried to use my naivety to my advantage.

  Alain de Botton

  Writing, Use, Advantage

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• The best poetry has its roots in the subconscious to a great degree. Youth, naivety, reliance on instinct more than learning and method, a sense of freedom and play, even trust in randomness, is necessary to the making of a poem.

  May Swenson

  Play, Roots, Degrees

  May Swenson, Gardner McFall (1998). “Made with words”, Univ of Michigan Pr

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• To speak of ‘limits to growth’ under a capitalistic market economy is as meaningless as to speak of limits of warfare under a warrior society. The moral pieties, that are voiced today by many well-meaning environmentalists, are as naive as the moral pieties of multinationals are manipulative. Capitalism can no more be ‘persuaded’ to limit growth than a human being can be ‘persuaded’ to stop breathing. Attempts to ‘green’ capitalism, to make it ‘ecological’, are doomed by the very nature of the system as a system of endless growth.

  Murray Bookchin

  Nature, Warrior, Breathing

  "Remaking Society: Pathways to a Green Future". Book by Murray Bookchin, 1990.

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• In my view, it’s irreverence, foolish confidence and naivety combined with persistence, open mindedness and a continual ability to learn that created Facebook, Google, Yahoo, eBay, Microsoft, Apple, Juniper, AOL, Sun Microsystems and others.

  Vinod Khosla

  Persistence, Views, Ebay

  "Vinod Khosla: Maintain the Silicon Valley Vision". bits.blogs.nytimes.com. July 13, 2012.

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• Scientists often have a naive faith that if only they could discover enough facts about a problem, these facts would somehow arrange themselves in a compelling and true solution.

  Theodosius Dobzhansky

  Faith, Science, Facts

  Theodosius Dobzhansky (1962). “Mankind Evolving: The Evolustion of the Human Species”

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• The human qualities of the raw materials show through. Naivety, error, contradiction, even (as in the cursing Psalms) wickedness are not removed. The total result is not "the Word of God" in the sense that every passage in itself, gives impeccable science or history. It carries the Word of God.

  C. S. Lewis

  Bible, Biblical, Errors

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• He destroyed in her the knowing, doubting, sophisticated Ella, and again and again he put her intelligence to sleep, and with her willing connivance, so that she floated darkly on her love for him, on her naivety, which is another word for a spontaneous creative faith. And when his own distrust of himself destroyed this woman-in-love, so that she began thinking, she would fight to return to naivety.

  Doris Lessing

  Sleep, Fighting, Thinking

  Doris May Lessing (1981). “The Golden Notebook”, Bantam

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• I don't want to compare myself to him - I don't want people to see me as this great genius - but when I see Charlie Chaplin's movies there is a combination of drama, naivety and social meaning that I can see in myself, at a different level.

  Michel Gondry

  Drama, People, Different

  "Surreal to reel" by Damon Wise, www.theguardian.com. February 15, 2008.

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