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Quotes about thinking

552 quotes from 279 people

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We become what we think about all day long. The question is, ‘What do you think about?’
Wayne Dyer1940–2015
One man alone can be pretty dumb sometimes, but for real bona fide stupidity, there ain’t nothing can beat teamwork.
Edward Abbey1927–1989The Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), Seldom Seen Smith, page 313
- Comedy
- Intelligence
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions.
Scott Adams1957–2026
- Intelligence
Books are the legacies that a great genius leaves to mankind, which are delivered down from generation to generation, as presents to the posterity of those who are yet unborn.
Joseph Addison1672–1719The Spectator (1711–1714), No. 166 (10 September 1711)
- Genius
- Reading
The freedom of thought is a sacred right of every individual man, and diversity will continue to increase with the progress, refinement, and differentiation of the human intellect.
Felix Adler1851–1933Founding Address (1876)
- Freedom
A prosperous fool is a grievous burden.
Aeschylus525–456 BCFragment 392 (220 Smyth), from an unidentified play. Included in Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
- Intelligence
- Money
Necessity is the mother of invention.
Aesop620–564 BCAesop’s Fables (6th century BC), The Kites and the Swans – The Monkey and the DolphinIn context
- Ideas
- Intelligence
It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women.
Louisa May Alcott1832–1888Little Women (1868–1869), Part Second, Chapter XXVIIn context
- Genius
- Youth
Talent isn’t genius, and no amount of energy can make it so. I want to be great, or nothing.
Louisa May Alcott1832–1888Little Women (1868–1869), Part Second, Chapter XXXIXIn context
- Genius
- Motivation & Goals
It is a failure of human imagination and human arrogance to assume that we will never build things smarter than ourselves.
Sam Altmanborn 1985“The Merge”, blog post (2017)
- Intelligence
- Technology
Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
Thomas Aquinas1225–1274Opuscule II, De Regno (On Kingship, c. 1267)
- God
I am a woman, but I’m not a fool.
And what of natural intelligence I own
Has been filled out with the remembered precepts
My father and the city-elders taught me.
Aristophanes446–386 BCLysistrata (411 BC), spoken by LysistrataIn context
- Intelligence
- Women
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
Aristotle384–322 BC
- Education
- Ideas
No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.
Aristotle384–322 BC
- Genius
It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.
Aristotle384–322 BC
- Ideas