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.
Thomas JeffersonThose who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
VoltaireI 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.
Bertrand RussellI think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better. I think that’s the single best piece of advice: constantly think about how you could be doing things better and questioning yourself.
Elon MuskThink for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too.
VoltaireA good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers.
PlatoAny man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.
Albert EinsteinI 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.
Lady GagaIt is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.
James BaldwinWhenever I go on a ride, I’m always thinking of what’s wrong with the thing and how it can be improved.
Walt DisneyIn all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.
Bertrand RussellMan is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.
Bertrand RussellThe answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.
Margaret AtwoodGood thinkers always prime the pump of ideas. They always look for things to get the thinking process started, because what you put in always impacts what comes out.
John C. MaxwellThinking is a wonderful tool if it’s applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you’re dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.
Eckhart TolleIt is a most mortifying reflection for a man to consider what he has done, compared to what he might have done.
Samuel JohnsonAs 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.
Noam ChomskyPeople are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come in to the mind of others.
Blaise PascalWe can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.
Albert EinsteinI 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.
Robert GreenePeople look at the same passage, and one person will say this is the best thing he’s ever read, and another person will say it’s absolutely idiotic. I mean, there’s no way to reconcile those two things. You just have to forget the whole business of what people are saying.
Paul AusterEducation is not merely neglected in many of our schools today, but is replaced to a great extent by ideological indoctrination.
Thomas SowellPeople do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
Helen KellerThere’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.
Jim MattisWe cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Albert EinsteinIf you are giving a graduate course you don’t try to impress the students with oratory, you try to challenge them, get them to question you.
Noam ChomskyWhat 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.
Kurt VonnegutIf the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.
George WashingtonMany people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
Bertrand RussellEverything popular is wrong.
Oscar WildeThinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.
Henry FordEvery man is guilty of all the good he did not do.
VoltaireRational discussion is useful only when there is a significant base of shared assumptions.
Noam ChomskyThere are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.
George OrwellThe man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas JeffersonIt has not yet become obvious to me that there’s no real problem. I cannot define the real problem; therefore, I suspect there’s no real problem, but I’m not sure there’s no real problem.
Richard P. FeynmanMany people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William JamesI hate books; they only teach us to talk about things we know nothing about.
Jean-Jacques RousseauSmall is the number of people who see with their eyes and think with their minds.
Albert EinsteinHe who learns but does not think, is lost! He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.
ConfuciusThose 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.
Thomas SowellA great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.
William JamesWhenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.
Mark TwainThe moment we want to believe something, we suddenly see all the arguments for it, and become blind to the arguments against it.
George Bernard ShawWhen the intensity of emotional conviction subsides, a man who is in the habit of reasoning will search for logical grounds in favour of the belief which he finds in himself.
Bertrand RussellThere must be no barriers to freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.
J. Robert OppenheimerToo much of what is called ‚education‘ is little more than an expensive isolation from reality.
Thomas SowellReserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.
HypatiaPremature certainty is the enemy of the truth.
Nipsey HussleThe 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?
Greta ThunbergAnyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory.
Leonardo da VinciLearn to think continentally.
Alexander HamiltonThe purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.
Gilbert K. ChestertonPatriotism, when it wants to make itself felt in the domain of learning, is a dirty fellow who should be thrown out of doors.
Arthur SchopenhauerI don’t consider myself to be that credulous.
Christopher HitchensIt is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
AristotleFor all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.
Thomas CarlyleThose who have never known the deep intimacy and the intense companionship of mutual love have missed the best thing that life has to give.
Bertrand RussellEngage your brain before you engage your weapon.
Jim MattisIntellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them.
Albert Einstein