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Quotes about thinking

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(Of Shakespeare) A man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce1882–1941Ulysses (1922) (243)
- Failure
- Genius
The conscious mind allows itself to be trained like a parrot, but the unconscious does not — which is why St. Augustine thanked God for not making him responsible for his dreams.
Carl Jung1875–1961Psychology and Alchemy (1952), par. 51 p.46
- Sleep
Naturally, every age thinks that all ages before it were prejudiced, and today we think this more than ever and are just as wrong as all previous ages that thought so.
Carl Jung1875–1961Synchronicity: An Acausal Connecting Principle (1960), p. 33
- History
The growth of the mind is the widening of the range of consciousness, and … each step forward has been a most painful and laborious achievement.
Carl Jung1875–1961Contributions to Analytical Psychology (1928), p. 340
The Genius of Poetry must work out its own salvation in a man: It cannot be matured by law and precept, but by sensation and watchfulness in itself.
John Keats1795–1821To James Hessey (9 October 1818)
- Genius
- Poetry
Toleration … is the greatest gift of the mind; it requires the same effort of the brain that it takes to balance oneself on a bicycle.
Helen Keller1880–1968The Story of My Life (1903), Part III, Ch. 2: Personality
We need men who can dream of things that never were.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Speech delivered to the Dail (Parliament of Ireland) (28 June 1963)
- Ideas
A man may die, nations may rise and fall, but an idea lives on. Ideas have endurance without death.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Remarks Recorded for the Opening of a USIA Transmitter at Greenville, North Carolina (8 February 1963) Audio at JFK Library (01:29—01:40) · Text of speech at The American Presidency Project
- Ideas
I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.
John F. Kennedy1917–1963Address at a White House dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners (29 April 1962), quoted in The White House Diary, at the JFK Library
- Genius
- Knowledge
The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), Preface
- Ideas
Words ought to be a little wild, for they are the assault of thoughts on the unthinking.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946National self-sufficiency, New Statesman and Nation (15 July 1933)
- Writing
A study of the history of opinion is a necessary preliminary to the emancipation of the mind.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946The End of Laissez-faire (1926), Ch. 1
- History
- Ideas
Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936), Ch. 24, p. 383
- Economics
- Ideas
Concepts, like individuals, have their histories, and are just as incapable of withstanding the ravages of time as are individuals.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855On the Concept of Irony with Continual Reference to Socrates (1841)
- Ideas
- Time
What the age needs is not a genius — it has had geniuses enough, but a martyr, who in order to teach men to obey would himself be obedient unto death. What the age needs is awakening.
Søren Kierkegaard1813–1855The Journals of Søren Kierkegaard, 1840s (20 November 1847)
- Genius