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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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How quick come the reasons for approving what we like!
Jane Austen1775–1817Persuasion (1817), Chapter IIIn context
If any one faculty of our nature may be called more wonderful than the rest, I do think it is memory.
Jane Austen1775–1817Mansfield Park (1814), Chapter XXIIIn context
“It is particularly incumbent on those who never change their opinion, to be secure of judging properly at first.”
Jane Austen1775–1817Pride and Prejudice (1813), Volume I, Chapter XVIIIIn context
Where people wish to attach, they should always be ignorant. To come with a well-informed mind is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.
Jane Austen1775–1817Northanger Abbey (1817), Chapter 14In context
- Intelligence
- Knowledge
Just as we cannot stop the movement of the heavens, revolving as they do with such speed, so we cannot restrain our thought.
Teresa of Ávila1515–1582Fourth Mansions, Ch. 1, trans. E. Allison Peers (1961), p. 58–59
Imagination is the highest kite that can fly.
Lauren Bacall1924–2014Lauren Bacall By Myself and Then Some (2005)
- Ideas
The logic now in use serves rather to fix and give stability to the errors which have their foundation in commonly received notions than to help the search for truth. So it does more harm than good.
Francis Bacon1561–1626Novum Organum (1620), Book I, Aphorism 7
- Truth & Lies
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts he shall end in certainties.
Francis Bacon1561–1626The Advancement of Learning (1605), Book I, v, 8
- Knowledge
You don’t realize that you’re intelligent until it gets you into trouble.
James Baldwin1924–1987“James Baldwin: Reflections of a Maverick” interview (27 May 1984)
- Intelligence
Persons without minds are like weeds that delight in good earth; they want to be amused by others, all the more because they are dull within.
Honoré de Balzac1799–1850The Vicar of Tours (1832), Ch. I
- Intelligence
One should never mistake pattern…for meaning.
Iain Banks1954–2013The Hydrogen Sonata (2013), Chapter 7 (p. 127)
Reason shapes the future, but superstition infects the present.
Iain Banks1954–2013The State of the Art (1991), “Piece” (p. 75)
By reducing any quality to quantity, myth economizes intelligence: it understands reality more cheaply.
Roland Barthes1915–1980Mythologies (1957), p. 153
I’m not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why.
Bernard Baruch1870–1965New York Post (24 June 1965)
- Intelligence
- Science
“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