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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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Better to be an animal than a man, an insect than an animal, a plant than an insect, and so on. Salvation? Whatever diminishes the kingdom of consciousness and compromises its supremacy.
ECEmil Cioran1911–1995The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
There’s nothing that’s ever happened in the world that didn’t start in one human mind.
Tom Clancy1947–2013In Depth with Tom Clancy (2002)
- Ideas
Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.
Carl von Clausewitz1780–1831On War (1832), Book 1, Ch. 1
- Intelligence
All humans are stupid, but the smarter ones at least have a handle on their own ignorance.
John Cleeseborn 1939In conversation with Matthew Syed. Matthew Syed, “When dogma beats data, reason is lost”, The Sunday Times (27 September 2020), p. 21
- Intelligence
Government resting upon the will and universal suffrage of the people has no anchorage except in the people’s intelligence.
Grover Cleveland1837–1908At the celebration of the sesquicentennial of Princeton College (October 22, 1896).
- Democracy
- Intelligence
Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
Jean Cocteau1889–1963Diary of an Unknown (1988)
- Ideas
That is the consolation of a little mind; you have the fun of changing it without impeding the progress of mankind.
FCFrank Moore Colby1865–1925
And all should cry, Beware! Beware!
His flashing eyes, his floating hair!
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread:
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drank the milk of Paradise.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge1772–1834Kubla Khan (1816), Kubla KhanIn context
- Genius
- Poetry
He who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
Confucius551–479 BC
- Education
Learning without thought is labor lost.
Confucius551–479 BCAnalects, Chapter II, To study and not think is a waste. To think and not study is dangerous.
- Education
The mind of man is capable of anything⁠—because everything is in it, all the past as well as all the future.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Heart of Darkness (1899), Part IIIn context
It’s extraordinary how we go through life with eyes half shut, with dull ears, with dormant thoughts. Perhaps it’s just as well; and it may be that it is this very dullness that makes life to the incalculable majority so supportable and so welcome.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Lord Jim (1900), Chapter 13In context
- Life & Death
Frankly, it is not my words that I mistrust but your minds. I could be eloquent were I not afraid you fellows had starved your imaginations to feed your bodies. I do not mean to be offensive; it is respectable to have no illusions⁠—and safe⁠—and profitable⁠—and dull.
Joseph Conrad1857–1924Lord Jim (1900), Chapter 21In context
It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.
Calvin Coolidge1872–1933From ‘Address at Holy Cross’ (25 June 1919), published in Have Faith In Massachusetts: A Collection of Speeches and Messages (2nd Ed.), Coolidge, Houghton Mifflin, p. 231.
- Ideas
- Knowledge
I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.
Michael Crichton1942–2008State of Fear (2004)