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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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Our best thoughts come from others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882
Man Thinking must not be subdued by his instruments.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882The American Scholar (1837), par. 20
Explore, and explore, and explore. Be neither chided nor flattered out of your position of perpetual inquiry. Neither dogmatise yourself, nor accept another’s dogmatism.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Literary Ethics (1838)
- Advice
To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men,⁠—that is genius.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Self-Reliance (1841)In context
- Genius
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Self-Reliance (1841)In context
- Genius
- Ideas
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882Self-Reliance (1841)In context
- Wisdom
It is not enough to be in the right place at the right time. You should also have an open mind at the right time.
Paul Erdős1913–1996My Brain Is Open: The Mathematical Journeys of Paul Erdos (1998) by Bruce Schechter, p. 99
- Luck
This is slavery, not to speak one’s thought.
Euripides481–407 BCPhoenissae (c. 409 BC), l. 392 (tr. Elizabeth Wyckoff, 1958)
How can any man, whose eyes
Are wholesome, seek to rear his children wise
Beyond men’s wont? Much helplessness in arts
Of common life, and in their townsmen’s hearts
Envy deep-set … so much their learning brings!
Come unto fools with knowledge of new things,
They deem it vanity, not knowledge.
Euripides481–407 BCMedea (431 BC), Part 1, spoken by MedeaIn context
Have no respect whatsoever for authority; forget who said it and instead look what he starts with, where he ends up, and ask yourself, “Is it reasonable?”
Richard Feynman1918–1988“What Do You Care What Other People Think?”, p. 28-29
- Advice
Genius goes around the world in its youth incessantly apologizing for having large feet. What wonder that later in life it should be inclined to raise those feet too swiftly to fools and bores.
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940Notebook E, edited by Edmund Wilson (1945)
- Genius
There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter VIIIn context
- Intelligence
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert1821–1880Letters to Madame Louise Colet, 13 August 1846
- Happiness
- Intelligence
Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.
Henry Ford1863–1947
- Work
Think before you speak is criticism’s motto; speak before you think is creation’s.
E. M. Forster1879–1970Two Cheers for Democracy (1951)
- Talking