quotations about thinking
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
OSCAR WILDE
The Soul of Man Under Socialism
Thinking makes the man.
W. A. ALCOTT
attributed, Day's Collacon
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
I figure if you think too much about things, life sometimes just passes you by.
DAVID BALDACCI
Split Second
There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.
HANNAH ARENDT
The Life of the Mind
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
If one learns from others but does not think, one is still at a loss. If, on the other hand, one thinks but does not learn from others, one is in peril.
CONFUCIUS
The Analects
The habit of thinking gives an inner life, which all that we see animates and embellishes; in this disposition of the soul everything becomes an object of thought; if the young botanist trembles with joy at the sight of a new plant, the moral botanist joys no less to see germinate around him truths with a much superior prize to that of an unknown flower.
BONSTELLEN
attributed, Day's Collacon
Life always gives you plenty to think about, but seldom enough to think with.
EVAN ESAR
20,000 Quips & Quotes
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
Though man a thinking being is defined,
Few use the grand prerogative of mind.
How few think justly of the thinking few!
How many never think, who think they do.
JANE TAYLOR
Essays in Rhyme
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
Curtsy while you're thinking what to say. It saves time.
LEWIS CARROLL
Alice Through the Looking Glass
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
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"
Not to be able to stop thinking is a dreadful affliction, but we don't realize this because almost everybody is suffering from it, so it is considered normal. This incessant mental noise prevents you from finding that realm of inner stillness that is inseparable from Being.
ECKHART TOLLE
The Power of Now
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
One never lives so intensely as when one has been thinking hard.
FERNANDO PESSOA
The Book of Disquiet
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
HARLAN ELLISON
Sleepless Nights in the Procrustean Bed