People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

The root of all superstition is that men observe when a thing hits, but not when it misses.

People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.

Those parts of history that would undermine the vision of the Left – which prevails in our education system from elementary school to postgraduate study – are not likely to get much attention.

There’s an urgent need to stop reacting to each immediate vexing issue in isolation. Such response often creates unanticipated second-order effects and even more problems for us.

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn’t thinking.

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.

I do not pretend to start with precise questions. I do not think you can start with anything precise. You have to achieve such precision as you can, as you go along.

The two worst strategic mistakes to make are acting prematurely and letting an opportunity slip; to avoid this, the warrior treats each situation as if it were unique and never resorts to formulae, recipes or other people’s opinions.

The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character – that is the goal of true education.

Small is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.

I think a lot of things that are the norm, that are very systematic, don’t work.

It is the mark of a truly intelligent person to be moved by statistics.

The major networks, the cable networks, they’re being prosecutors. They’re judges and jurors and executioners. Well, c’mon, that’s ridiculous. But they’re doing it.

I am neither bitter nor cynical but I do wish there was less immaturity in political thinking.

I know that the arts are important. I’m not denying that, but I can’t associate myself with all the claptrap that goes on around it.

The moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.

I hate all politics. I don’t like either political party. One should not belong to them – one should be an individual, standing in the middle. Anyone that belongs to a party stops thinking.

Many people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.

Whenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.

Learn to think continentally.

Too much of what is called ‚education‘ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

If you judge, investigate.

Every fact is related on one side to sensation, and, on the other, to morals. The game of thought is, on the appearance of one of these two sides, to find the other: given the upper, to find the under side.

Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.

But your questions, which are unanswerable without exception, all spring from the same erroneous thinking.

Those who cannot understand how to put their thoughts on ice should not enter into the heat of debate.

The dangers of not thinking clearly are much greater now than ever before. It’s not that there’s something new in our way of thinking – it’s that credulous and confused thinking can be much more lethal in ways it was never before.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.

Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in a newspaper.

What troubles me most about my lovely country is that its children are seldom taught that American freedom will vanish, if, when they grow up, and in the exercise of their duties as citizens, they insist that our courts and policemen and prisons be guided by divine or natural law.

Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.

The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

As for my own views, they’ve of course evolved over the years. This conception of ‚renouncing beliefs‘ is very odd, as if we’re in some kind of religious cult. I ‚renounce beliefs‘ practically every time I think about the topics or find out what someone else is thinking.

I don’t know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.

The problem isn’t that Johnny can’t read. The problem isn’t even that Johnny can’t think. The problem is that Johnny doesn’t know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling.

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

If two men agree on everything, you may be sure that one of them is doing the thinking.

We are too much accustomed to attribute to a single cause that which is the product of several, and the majority of our controversies come from that.

One of the very important characteristics of a student is to question. Let the students ask questions.

My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.

We call a man a bigot or a slave of dogma because he is a thinker who has thought thoroughly and to a definite end.

It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

The most common criticism I get is that I’m being manipulated and you shouldn’t use children in political ways, because that is abuse, and I can’t think for myself and so on. And I think that is so annoying! I’m also allowed to have a say – why shouldn’t I be able to form my own opinion and try to change people’s minds?

Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

All of us should be on guard against beliefs that flatter ourselves. At the very least, we should check such beliefs against facts.

The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently.

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.

A subtle thought that is in error may yet give rise to fruitful inquiry that can establish truths of great value.

The most dangerous man to any government is the man who is able to think things out… without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost inevitably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane, intolerable.

The problem is that at a lot of big companies, process becomes a substitute for thinking. You’re encouraged to behave like a little gear in a complex machine. Frankly, it allows you to keep people who aren’t that smart, who aren’t that creative.

Issues are never simple. One thing I’m proud of is that very rarely will you hear me simplify the issues.

Throughout my years in business, I discovered something. I would always ask why you do things. The answers that I would invariably get are: ‚Oh, that’s just the way things are done around here.‘ Nobody knows why they do what they do. Nobody thinks very deeply about things in business.

No matter what your mission is, have some notion in your head. Forget the model, whether it’s government or nonprofit or profit. Ask yourself the more important question: Is my mission improving the world? Are you sure about it? Seek to disconfirm that all the time. And if you can, change your mission.

The most basic question is not what is best, but who shall decide what is best.

How well he’s read, to reason against reading!

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.