The only possible effect one can have on the world is through unpopular ideas.

The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.

Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

Premature certainty is the enemy of the truth.

Some minds remain open long enough for the truth not only to enter but to pass on through by way of a ready exit without pausing anywhere along the route.

I have one yardstick by which I test every major problem – and that yardstick is: Is it good for America?

I don’t consider myself to be that credulous.

It is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view.

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

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

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.

We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.

Philosophy is the highest music.

We’ve got to dumb America up again.

If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.

We are so conformist; nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff; we have been trained to be consumers, and we are all consuming far too much.

It is very nearly impossible… to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.

It 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.

The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.

I often advocate that we look at many sides of an issue, walk in someone else’s shoes, and identify and reject false choices.

If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.

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

There is always an easy solution to every problem – neat, plausible, and wrong.

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

I don’t pretend we have all the answers. But the questions are certainly worth thinking about.

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

I love argument, I love debate. I don’t expect anyone just to sit there and agree with me, that’s not their job.

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

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.

The purpose of Compulsory Education is to deprive the common people of their commonsense.

Mysteries are not necessarily miracles.

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.

Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance.

Sometimes it seems as if there are more solutions than problems. On closer scrutiny, it turns out that many of today’s problems are a result of yesterday’s solutions.

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

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

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

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.

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.

Either you think, or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

For all right judgment of any man or things it is useful, nay, essential, to see his good qualities before pronouncing on his bad.

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

We are here to unlearn the teachings of the church, state, and our education system.

I still think like a Marxist in many ways.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

The object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.

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

When 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.

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.

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 trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.

Faith… must be enforced by reason… when faith becomes blind it dies.

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

See first, think later, then test. But always see first. Otherwise, you will only see what you were expecting. Most scientists forget that.

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

A minute of thought is greater than an hour of talk.

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.

Good 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.

Only the aspirants for president are fool enough to believe what they read in the newspapers.

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

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