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Quotes about thinking

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Reason is a harmonising, controlling force rather than a creative one.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Mysticism and Logic and Other Essays (1918), Ch. 1: Mysticism and Logic
It is clear that thought is not free if the profession of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 12: Free Thought and Official Propaganda
- Freedom
Every man, wherever he goes, is encompassed by a cloud of comforting convictions, which move with him like flies on a summer day.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Sceptical Essays (1928), Ch. 2: Dreams and Facts
Man is a rational animal – so at least I have been told.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Unpopular Essays (1950)
- Comedy
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
It is only when we think abstractly that we have such a high opinion of man.
Bertrand Russell1872–1970Essay Do We Survive Death? (1936)
In any case, we do not advance the human cause by refusing to consider ideas that make us frightened.
Carl Sagan1934–1996Broca’s Brain (1979), Chapter 25, “The Amniotic Universe” (p. 364)
- Fear
- Ideas
As a way of maintaining relative intellectual independence, having the attitude of an amateur instead of a professional is a better course.
Edward Said1935–2003Representations of the Intellectual: The 1993 Reith Lectures, p. 87
By their mind, its scope, quality, and temper, we estimate men, for by the mind only do we exist as men, and are more than so many storage-batteries for material energy. Let us therefore be frankly human.
George Santayana1863–1952The Genteel Tradition in American Philosophy (1911), p. 64
Most men make little other use of their Speech than to give evidence against their own Understanding.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Moral Thoughts and Reflections
- Intelligence
- Talking
No Man is so much a Fool as not to have Wit enough sometimes to be a Knave; nor any so cunning a Knave, as not to have the Weakness sometimes to play the Fool.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Moral Thoughts and Reflections
- Character
- Intelligence
Intellect is invisible to the man who has none.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860Essays
- Clever Jabs
- Intelligence
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860“Psychological Observations”
If a person is stupid, we excuse him by saying that he cannot help it; but if we attempted to excuse in precisely the same way the person who is bad, we should be laughed at.
Arthur Schopenhauer1788–1860The World as Will and Representation, vol. 2 (trans. E. F. J. Payne), p. 230
- Intelligence
- Morality
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