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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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It appears to me that one defeats the fanatic precisely by not being a fanatic oneself, but on the contrary by using one’s intelligence.
George Orwell1903–1950Letter to Richard Rees (3 March 1949), The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, Vol. 4: In front of your nose, 1945-1950 (1968), ed. Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus, p. 478
- Intelligence
I say there is more stupidity than hydrogen, and that is the basic building block of the universe.
Frank Zappa1940–1993The Real Frank Zappa Book (1989), p. 239
- Comedy
- Intelligence
Invention, it must be humbly admitted, does not consist in creating out of void, but out of chaos.
Mary Shelley1797–1851Frankenstein (1818), Introduction to the 1831 edition of FrankensteinIn context
- Ideas
We are powerfully imprisoned in these Dark Ages simply by the terms in which we have been conditioned to think.
Buckminster Fuller1895–1983Cosmography (1992)
Whoever prefers the material comforts of life over intellectual wealth is like the owner of a palace who moves into the servants’ quarters and leaves the sumptuous rooms empty.
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach1830–1916Aphorisms (1880/1893), p. 53.
- Intelligence
- Money
To me, when we talk about the world, we are talking about our ideas of the world. Our ideas of organisation, our different religions, our different economic systems, our ideas about it are the world.
Alan Mooreborn 1953De Abaitua interview (1998)
- Ideas
Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Unpopular Essays (1950)
- Comedy
Our knowledge has made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little.
Charlie Chaplin1889–1977The Great Dictator (1940), the barber’s closing speech
- Knowledge
A mind that has understood the whole movement of thought becomes extraordinarily quiet, absolutely silent. That silence is the beginning of the new.
Jiddu Krishnamurti1895–19866th Public Talk, Saanen (28 July 1970) ‘The Mechanical Activity of Thought” in The Impossible Question (1972) Part I, Ch. 6
The history of human thought recalls the swinging of a pendulum which takes centuries to swing. After a long period of slumber comes a moment of awakening.
Peter Kropotkin1842–1921Anarchist Morality (1890)
- History
The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holder’s lack of rational conviction.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Introduction: “On the Value of Scepticism”
- Emotion
The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.
Felix Adler1851–1933Founding Address (1876)
- Freedom
The best thing you can do for your fellow, next to rousing his conscience, is — not to give him things to think about, but to wake things up that are in him; or say, to make him think things for himself.
George MacDonald1824–1905The Fantastic Imagination (1893)
- Education
If those in charge of our society — politicians, corporate executives, and owners of press and television — can dominate our ideas, they will be secure in their power.
Howard Zinn1922–2010Declarations of Independence: Cross-Examining American Ideology (1991): “American Ideology”
- Ideas
- Power
We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.
Giacomo Casanova1725–1798Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
- Intelligence