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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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To Generalize is to be an Idiot. To Particularize is the Alone Distinction of Merit — General Knowledges are those Knowledges that Idiots possess.
William Blake1757–1827Annotations to Sir Joshua Reynolds’s Discourses, pp. xvii–xcviii (c. 1798–1809)
- Intelligence
- Knowledge
In every cry of every Man,
In every Infant’s cry of fear,
In every voice, in every ban,
The mind-forg’d manacles I hear.
William Blake1757–1827London (1794)In context
- Freedom
Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.
Niels Bohr1885–1962
- Talking
Your theory is crazy, but it’s not crazy enough to be true.
Niels Bohr1885–1962Said to Wolfgang Pauli after his presentation of Heisenberg’s and Pauli’s nonlinear field theory of elementary particles, at Columbia University (1958), as reported by F. J. Dyson in his paper “Innovation in Physics” (Scientific American, 199, No. 3
- Ideas
We are all agreed that your theory is crazy. The question that divides us is whether it is crazy enough to have a chance of being correct.
Niels Bohr1885–1962Said to Wolfgang Pauli at Columbia University (1958), as reported by Freeman Dyson, ‘Innovation in Physics’, Scientific American (September 1958)
- Ideas
- Science
There is a concept which corrupts and upsets all others. I refer not to Evil, whose limited realm is that of ethics; I refer to the infinite.
Jorge Luis Borges1899–1986“Avatars of the Tortoise” (1939), collected in Discussion (1957 edition)
- Ideas
- Philosophy
If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.
Charles F. Brannan1903–1992Often credited to George Bernard Shaw
- Ideas
Feel no sadness because of evil thoughts: it only strengthens them.
NBNachman of Bratslav
- Good & Evil
Thinking is more precious than all five senses.
NBNachman of Bratslav
The surest defense against Evil is extreme individualism, originality of thinking, whimsicality, even — if you will — eccentricity.
Joseph Brodsky1940–1996“A Commencement Address” (1984), delivered at Williams College; As quoted in: Robert Inchausti (2014) Thinking through Thomas Merton. p. 110
- Good & Evil
I’ve dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they’ve gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.
Emily Brontë1818–1848Wuthering Heights (1847), Chapter IXIn context
- Sleep
An idea that is developed and put into action is more important than an idea that exists only as an idea.
Gautama Buddha501–501 BC
- Ideas
What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday and our present thoughts build our life tomorrow. Our life is the creation of our mind.
Gautama Buddha501–501 BC
It is your mind that creates this world.
Gautama Buddha501–501 BC
As rain breaks through an ill-thatched house, passion will break through an unreflecting mind.
Gautama Buddha501–501 BCDhammapada, Ch. 1: The Twin Verses, verse 13
- Emotion