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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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By the time we awaken faintly to the awareness that we have been socially conditioned, we find ourselves so indoctrinated that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to break the old patterns.
Frank Herbert1920–1986“Science Fiction and a World in Crisis” in Science Fiction: Today and Tomorrow (1974) edited by Reginald Bretnor
- Change
Those who are really convinced that they have made progress in science would not demand freedom for the new views to continue side by side with the old, but the substitution of the new views for the old.
Vladimir Lenin1870–1924What is to be Done? (1902)
- Ideas
- Science
That books do not take the place of experience, and that learning is no substitute for genius, are two kindred phenomena; their common ground is that the abstract can never take the place of the perceptive.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860The World as Will and Representation, vol. 2, ch. 7 (trans. E. F. J. Payne), p. 74
- Experience
- Genius
Imagination, not intelligence, made us human.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015Foreword to The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy (1998) by David Pringle, and The Definitive Illustrated Guide to Fantasy (2003) by David Pringle
- Intelligence
Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.
Lauren Bacall1924–2014Lauren Bacall By Myself and Then Some (2005)
- Ideas
The free-thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.
Matthew Arnold1822–1888God and the Bible (1875)
- Change
As long as she thinks of a man, nobody objects to a woman thinking.
Virginia Woolf1882–1941Orlando: A Biography (1928), Ch. 6
- Women
Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860The World as Will and Representation, vol. 2, ch. 31 (“On Genius”)
- Children
- Genius
What has to be overcome is not difficulty of the intellect but of the will.
Ludwig Wittgenstein1889–1951Philosophical Occasions 1912-1951 (1993), Ch. 9: Philosophy (chapters 86–93 of the so called Big Typescript), p. 161
- Intelligence
I come to state that I’m a man, free to think for myself and do as I please.
Clarence Thomasborn 1948I Am a Man, a Black Man, an American (1998)
- Freedom
Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.
Thomas Carlyle1795–1881Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827–1855), Richter.
- Ideas
Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think.
John Wesley1703–1791Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
- Religion
One man that has a mind and knows it can always beat ten men who havnt and dont.
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950The Apple Cart (1928), Act I
- Intelligence
Freud was, after all, a genius. You can tell that because people still hate him.
Jordan Petersonborn 196212 Rules for Life (2017), p. 243
- Genius
I think like a genius, I write like a distinguished author, and I speak like a child.
Vladimir Nabokov1899–1977Strong Opinions (1973), Foreword