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Quotes about thinking

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There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind
F. Scott Fitzgerald1896–1940The Great Gatsby (1925), Chapter VIIIn context
- Intelligence
Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it.
A. A. Milne1882–1956Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Chapter IIn context
- Comedy
“I have been Foolish and Deluded,” said he, “and I am a Bear of No Brain at All.”
A. A. Milne1882–1956Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), Chapter IIIIn context
- Comedy
- Intelligence
Very simple was my explanation, and plausible enough⁠—as most wrong theories are!
H. G. Wells1866–1946The Time Machine (1895), Chapter VIIn context
- Ideas
There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change.
H. G. Wells1866–1946The Time Machine (1895), Chapter XIIIIn context
- Change
- Intelligence
No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinised and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinise the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water.
H. G. Wells1866–1946The War of the Worlds (1898), Book One: The Coming of the Martians, Chapter IIn context
- Intelligence
- Science
Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.
H. G. Wells1866–1946The War of the Worlds (1898), Book One: The Coming of the Martians, Chapter IIn context
- Envy
- Intelligence
“All the same,” said the Scarecrow, “I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.”
“I shall take the heart,” returned the Tin Woodman; “for brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world.”
L. Frank Baum1856–1919The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), Chapter VIn context
For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is a flame that burns to its own destruction.
Kahlil Gibran1883–1931The Prophet (1923), On Reason and PassionIn context
- Emotion
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881Crime and Punishment (1867), Part III, Chapter VIn context
- Emotion
- Intelligence
A fool with a heart and no brains is just as unhappy as a fool with brains and no heart.
Fyodor Dostoyevsky1821–1881The Idiot (1869), Part I, Chapter VIIIn context
- Happiness
- Intelligence
They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.
Hermann Hesse1877–1962Steppenwolf (1927), PrefaceIn context
Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep a-nights:
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Julius Caesar (1599), Act I, Scene II, spoken by CaesarIn context
- Character
O judgement, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.
William Shakespeare1564–1616Julius Caesar (1599), Act III, Scene II, spoken by AntonyIn context
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
William Shakespeare1564–1616A Midsummer Night’s Dream (c. 1595), Act V, Scene I, spoken by TheseusIn context
- Love