critical thinking quotes

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 man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.

Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.

There are some ideas so wrong that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

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

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

Religion is just mind control.

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.

Presented with the claims of nineteenth-century racist anthropology, a rational person will ask two sorts of questions: ‚What is the scientific status of the claims?‘ ‚What social or ideological needs do they serve?‘

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

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

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

We must always think about things, and we must think about things as they are, not as they are said to be.

Let’s not burn the universities yet. After all, the damage they do might be worse.

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?

Thinking isn’t agreeing or disagreeing. That’s voting.

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

Thinking 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.

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 cynics are right nine times out of ten.

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.

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

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

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.

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

A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.

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

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

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

As the biggest library if it is in disorder is not as useful as a small but well-arranged one, so you may accumulate a vast amount of knowledge but it will be of far less value than a much smaller amount if you have not thought it over for yourself.

There 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.

Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

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

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

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

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.

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.

Religion is the masterpiece of the art of animal training, for it trains people as to how they shall think.

It is wrong always, everywhere, and for everyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.

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

To be a real philosopher all that is necessary is to hate some one else’s type of thinking.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

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

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

Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we’re being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I’m liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That’s what’s insane about it.

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

The book to read is not the one which thinks for you, but the one which makes you think. No book in the world equals the Bible for that.

Learn to think continentally.

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.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

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

Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.

If you judge, investigate.

I 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.

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

All of the people in my life whom I consider to be close friends or colleagues are good thinkers.

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain.

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

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.

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.