quotations about thinking
Man is distinguished from the brute animals in proportion as thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy processes of the mind, a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward objects and the inward operations of the intellect:--for if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man thereby becomes the creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
"Notes on Hamlet"
I view everything in life as white or black. I don't see color when it comes to life, lessons, situations, or the world. I think either it's meant to be or not, it's going to happen or it won't, either it's fate or it's not. There is no in between in my thoughts. This is the exact way I look at my life and trying to be perfect within it. It's not easy to explain, but when I fail at something I must sulk on it for days or weeks because it throws off my way of thinking.
CHERI VOIGT
"WRITE TEAM: Black-and-white thinking", My Web Times, May 18, 2017
Thinking makes the man.
W. A. ALCOTT
attributed, Day's Collacon
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking.
ALFRED KORZYBSKI
attributed, 20,000 Quips & Quotes
There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Life of the Mind
Speaking without thinking is shooting without aiming.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
Not out of right practice comes right thinking, but out of right thinking comes right practice. It matters enormously what you think. If you think falsely, you will act mistakenly; if you think basely, your conduct will suit your thinking.
ANNIE BESANT
Daily Meditations on the Path and Its Qualifications
Individuality in opinion, or, what is more, in thinking, is simply one with thinking at all; for he who thinks thereby looks at the thing or the fact itself and takes its measure by observation directly, not content with the measures of others.
JAMES VILA BLAKE
Essays
I figure if you think too much about things, life sometimes just passes you by.
DAVID BALDACCI
Split Second
One never lives so intensely as when one has been thinking hard.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Book of Disquiet
If thou thinkest twice, before thou speakest once, thou wilt speak twice the better for it.
WILLIAM PENN
Some Fruits of Solitude
What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking -- there's the real danger.
FRANK HERBERT
God Emperor of Dune
We are powerfully imprisoned in these Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.
BUCKMINSTER FULLER
Cosmography
The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think.
HORACE WALPOLE
The Letters of Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford
Our thinking is always based in the past or in the future, never in the present. Horses are always in the present, just enjoying the lifeforce and the nature around them, aware of sounds and feelings.
KATHERINE BEAUMONT
"Meditation with a horse proves to be a rewarding experience", The Visitor, June 1, 2017
Try thinking more if just for your own sake
THE BEATLES
"Think for Yourself", Rubber Soul
Man has been born for two things--thinking and acting; to think is to live.
CICERO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Life always gives you plenty to think about, but seldom enough to think with.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
All practical men try to bring the world under their hands; all thinkers, under their heads.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
All power is indeed weak compared with that of the thinker. He sits upon the throne of his Empire of Thought, mightier far than they who wield material sceptres.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought