"...the gentleman asked, 'Would you offer an opinion about Gandhi?,' or about X Y Z. Only
fools offer opinions. Why should one have an opinion about another? It is such a waste of
time and energy. Why should one clutter up one's brain, one's mind, with opinions, judgments,
conclusions? They prevent clarity and that clarity is denied when the mind observes with a
conclusion."
You Are The World, Ch.4 |
Questioner: I find certain very serious contradictions in what
you have said. I think that to begin with you said that only fools
give opinions, that it is stupid.
Krishnamurti: The gentleman says that I am giving opinions, evaluations, which contradict what I am saying. Have I given an opinion, a conclusion, a judgment? I have only said: look at the facts. It is not my fact or your fact, but the fact that man is violent. That's not an opinion, that's a fact. Man is a frightened animal, that's a fact. Man is jealous, man lives in conflict, his life is a battlefield and so on. These are not opinions, not judgments, this is actually what is going on inwardly in each one of us. How you translate it, what you do about it and whether you bring to it certain prejudices and conclusions, that is offering opinions. But we are only concerned with facts. You Are The World, Ch.4 |
"To see facts without opinion is one thing, but to have opinions about
facts is totally another. It is one thing just to see the fact that
a whole people are caught in superstition, but quite another to see
that fact and condemn it. Opinions are not important, because I will
have one opinion, you will have another, and a third person will have
still another. To be concerned with opinions is a stupid form of
thinking. What is important is to see facts as they are without
opinion, without judging, without comparing."
This Matter of Culture, Ch.11 |
"Opinion is not truth; we must put aside opinions to find truth. There are innumerable opinions,
but truth is not of this or of that group. For the understanding of truth, all ideas,
conclusions, opinions, must drop away as the withered leaves fall from a tree. Truth is not to
be found in books, in knowledge, in experience. If you are seeking opinions, you will find none
here."
Commentaries On Living, Series II, Chapter 18 |