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Quotes about thinking

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It is by logic that we prove, but by intuition that we discover. To know how to criticize is good, to know how to create is better.
Henri Poincaré1854–1912Science and Method (1908), Part II. Ch. 2: Mathematical Definitions and Education, p. 129
- Science
Thought is only a gleam in the midst of a long night. But it is this gleam which is everything.
Henri Poincaré1854–1912The Value of Science (1905), Ch. 11: Science and Reality
Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
Alexander Pope1688–1744An Essay on Man (1733), Epistle II, Line 101In context
Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.
Karl Popper1902–1994Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972)
- Ideas
If we are uncritical we shall always find what we want: we shall look for, and find, confirmations, and we shall look away from, and not see, whatever might be dangerous to our pet theories.
Karl Popper1902–1994The Poverty of Historicism (1957) Ch. 29 The Unity of Method
- Science
Genius is the capacity to see ten things where the ordinary man sees one.
Ezra Pound1885–1972Jefferson and/or Mussolini (1935), Ch. 23
- Genius
I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015
Everything makes sense a bit at a time. But when you try to think of it all at once, it comes out wrong.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015Only You Can Save Mankind (1992)
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
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
Terry Pratchett1948–2015Diggers (1990)
- Comedy
Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.
Marcel Proust1871–1922Remembrance of Things Past (1913-1927), Vol. VII: The Past Recaptured (1927), Ch. III: “An Afternoon Party at the House of the Princesse de Guermantes”
- Happiness
Any mental activity is easy if it need not take reality into account.
Marcel Proust1871–1922
A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to him who challenges it.
Marcel Proust1871–1922
- Ideas
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don’t have to worry about answers.
Thomas Pynchonborn 1937Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), Part 3, Proverbs for Paranoids
- Power
Some day, the world will discover that, without thought, there can be no love.
Ayn Rand1905–1982Apollo and Dionysus (1969)
- Love