Prejudgments become prejudices only if they are not reversible when exposed to new knowledge. Gordon Allport More Quotes by Gordon Allport More Quotes From Gordon Allport People who are aware of, and ashamed of, their prejudices are well on the road to eliminating them. Gordon Allport diversityjusticepeople Personality is and does something...It is what lies behind specific acts and within the individual Gordon Allport personalitydoelying Many studies have discovered a close link between prejudice and "patriotism" . . . Extreme bigots are almost always super-patriots. Gordon Allport prejudicestudylinks If a person is capable of rectifying his erroneous judgments in the light of new evidence he is not prejudiced. Prejudgments become prejudices only if they are reversible when exposed to new knowledge. A prejudice, unlike a simple misconception, is actively resistant to all evidence that would unseat it. We tend to grow emotional when a prejudice is threatened with contradiction. Thus the difference between ordinary prejudgments and prejudice is that one can discuss and rectify a prejudgment without emotional resistance. Gordon Allport emotionallightsimple If there is a purpose in life at all, there must be a purpose in suffering and in dying. But no man can tell another what this purpose is. Each must find out for himself, and must accept the responsibility that his answer prescribes. If he succeeds he will continue to grow in spite of all indignities. Gordon Allport adversityresponsibilitymen Love received and love given comprise the best form of therapy. Gordon Allport love-and-marriagegivenand-love The outlines of the needed psychology of becoming can be discovered by looking within ourselves; for it is knowledge of our own uniqueness that supplies the first, and probably the best, hints for acquiring orderly knowledge of others. Gordon Allport acquiring-knowledgepsychologybecoming Life is too short so we must generalize. Gordon Allport life-is-too-shorttoo-shortlife-is Each person is an idiom unto himself, an apparent violation of the syntax of the species. Gordon Allport violationsyntaxscience The mature religious sentiment is ordinarily fashioned in the workshop of doubt. Gordon Allport religiousfaithdoubt Given a thimbleful of [dramatic] facts we rush to make generalizations as large as a tub. Gordon Allport tubsdramaticfacts Open-mindedness is considered to be a virtue. But, strictly speaking, it cannot occur. A new experience must be redacted into old categories. We cannot handle each event freshly in its own right. If we did so, of what use would past experience be? Gordon Allport new-experienceseventspast We cannot know the young child's personality by studying his systems of interest, for his attention is as yet too labile, his reactions impulsive, and interests unformed. From adolescence onward, however, the surest clue to personality is the hierarchy of interests, including the loves and loyalties of adult life. Gordon Allport loyaltypersonalitychildren It takes a major unhappiness, a prolonged and bitter experience, to drive us away from loyalties once formed. And sometimes no amount of punishment can make us repudiate our loyalty. Gordon Allport bitterpunishmentloyalty The dog [in Pavlov's experiments] does not continue to salivate whenever it hears a bell unless sometimes at least an edible offering accompanies the bell. But there are innumerable instances in human life where a single association, never reinforced, results in the establishment of a life-long dynamic system. An experience associated only once with a bereavement, an accident, or a battle, may become the center of a permanent phobia or complex, not in the least dependent on a recurrence of the original shock. Gordon Allport offeringdoglong There is a story of an Oxford student who once remarked, "I despise all Americans, but have never met one I didn't like." Gordon Allport hatestoriesoxford The scientist, by the very nature of his commitment, creates more and more questions, never fewer. Indeed the measure of our intellectual maturity, one philosopher suggests, is our capacity to feel less and less satisfied with our answers to better problems. Gordon Allport maturitysciencecommitment Reason adapts impulses and beliefs into the real world; rationalization, on the other hand, adapts the concept of reality to the impulses and beliefs of the individual. Reasoning discovers the true cause of our acts, rationalization finds good reasons for justifying our acts. Gordon Allport realhandsworld It is not that we have class prejudice, but only that we find comfort and ease in our own class. And normally there are plenty of people of our own class, or race, or religion to play, live, and eat with, and to marry. Gordon Allport raceplayclass Thwarted lives have the most character-conditioned hate Gordon Allport hatecharacter
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