THINKING QUOTES

quotations about thinking

Thinking quote

Either you think--or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD

Tender is the Night

Tags: F. Scott Fitzgerald


To have ideas is to gather flowers. To think is to weave them into garlands.

MADAME SWETCHINE

"Airelles", The Writings of Madame Swetchine

Tags: Madame Swetchine


He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.

JEREMY BENTHAM

The Works of Jeremy Bentham

Tags: Jeremy Bentham


Nay, in every epoch of the world, the great event, parent of all others, is it not the arrival of a Thinker in the world?

THOMAS CARLYLE

Heroes and Hero Worship

Tags: Thomas Carlyle


Five percent of the people think; ten percent of the people think they think; and the other eighty-five percent would rather die than think.

THOMAS EDISON

attributed, The Great Book of Best Quotes of All Time

Tags: Thomas Edison


A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

WILLIAM JAMES

attributed, Wisdom for the Soul

Tags: William James


I cannot conceive man without the thinking principle; that would be a stone or a brute.

PASCAL

attributed, Day's Collacon


There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Hamlet

Tags: William Shakespeare


Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed.

BERTRAND RUSSELL

"A Liberal Decalogue", New York Times Magazine, December 16, 1951

Tags: Bertrand Russell


Willpower is not some mythical force that we either have or don't have. Willpower is our decision to use higher-mind thinking instead of lazing around in the clutches of our primal mind.

A. B. CURTISS

Depression Is a Choice


Thinking about something is like picking up a stone when taking a walk, either while skipping rocks on the beach, for example, or looking for a way to shatter the glass doors of a museum. When you think about something, it adds a bit of weight to your walk, and as you think about more and more things you are liable to feel heavier and heavier, until you are so burdened you cannot take any further steps, and can only sit and stare at the gentle movements of the ocean waves or security guards, thinking too hard about too many things to do anything else.

LEMONY SNICKET

The End


Ultimately, thinking is a very inefficient method of processing data.

FREDERICK LENZ

Surfing the Himalayas

Tags: Frederick Lenz


Critical thinking is not a generic skill that exists independently of knowledge. Even the eight year-old, problem-solving their way through a Super Mario "level" relies heavily on their knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the various villains that they encounter.

GREG FOLEY

"Critical thinking and deep knowledge", Irish Times, May 18, 2017


Is it possible that positive thinking is only an overrated concept? What if everyone's just capitalizing on the idea? We are often told that one can simply choose to be happy, and poof, you are happy. Is it really that simple?

ANONYMOUS

"Can positive thinking make you depressed?", Times of India, May 28, 2017


What a man thinks in his spirit in the world, that he does after his departure from the world when he becomes a spirit.

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG

Divine Providence

Tags: Emanuel Swedenborg


Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

HENRY FORD

attributed, Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing

Tags: Henry Ford


I think, therefore I am.

RENÉ DESCARTES

Principes de la Philosophie

Tags: René Descartes


How ghastly for her, people actually thinking, with their brains, and right next door. Oh, the travesty of it all.

GAIL CARRIGER

Soulless


Man is but a reed, the weakest in nature, but he is a thinking reed.

BLAISE PASCAL

Thoughts

Tags: Blaise Pascal


Among adults, magical thinking is a reversion to a developmental stage of childhood that Swiss child psychologist Jean Piaget called "preoperational." During this period, usually between the ages of two and seven when children are in the process of developing logical thought, they believe that their internal feelings produce observable, external occurrences.

JIM GLYNN

"Magical thinking and Trump phenomenon", The Madera Tribune, May 29, 2017