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Say, for what were hop-yards meant,
Or why was Burton built on Trent?
Oh many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink
For fellows whom it hurts to think. A E Housman, A Shropshire Lad
Nature, not content with denying him the ability to think, has endowed him with the ability to write. A E Housman
Could man be drunk for ever
With liquor, love, or fights,
Lief should I rouse at morning
And lief lie down at nights.
But men at whiles are sober
And think by fits and starts,
And if they think, they fasten
Their hands upon their hearts. A E Housman, X
Three minutes thought would suffice to find this out. But thought is irksome and three minutes is a long time. A E Houseman
God: If it were to be true, one would be living under a permanent surveillance, a round-the-clock celestial dictatorship that watched you while you slept; and could convict you of thought crime, could indict you for things you thought in the privacy of your own skull, and sentence you to quite a long stretch, namely an eternity of punishment for that. Or dangle not to me very attractive reward of life of eternal praise and grovelling and sprawling and singing the praises of someone who you are ordered to love; someone whom you must both love and fear ... Compulsory love – how fascinating. Christopher Hitchens, interview Divine Impulses
The greatest obligation you have is to keep an open mind. Christopher Hitchens v Dinesh D’Souza: The God Debate
Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way. Christopher Hitchens, v William Dembski, debate 2010
The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian
Religion is the frozen thought of men out of which they build temples. Jiddu Krishnamurti cited Observer 22nd April 1928
By all means let’s be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out. Richard Dawkins, The Richard Dimbleby Lecture, BBC 12th November 1996
Religious faith discourages independent thought, it’s divisive and it’s dangerous. Richard Dawkins, The Root of All Evil? The God Delusion, Channel 4 2006
Faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse to evade the need to think and evaluate evidence. Faith is belief in spite of, even perhaps because of, the lack of evidence. Richard Dawkins
Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It’s nothing to brag about. Bill Maher, Religulous, 2008
The widespread suspicion of disbelief is becoming a real threat to free thought. Jonathan Miller, A Rough History of Disbelief, BBC 2004
The high-minded man must care more for the truth than for what people think. Aristotle
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle
Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking. R Buckminster Fuller
Faith is a myth and beliefs shift like mists on the shore; thoughts vanish; words, once pronounced, die; and the memory of yesterday is as shadowy as the hope of to-morrow. Joseph Conrad
Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions. Joseph Conrad
One’s mind suffers only when one is young and while one is ignorant of the world. When one has lived for some time one learns that the young think too little and the old too much, and one grows careless about both. Horace Walpole, 1772
The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those that feel. Horace Walpole, 1776
When I think, I must speak. William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Rosalind, Globe Theatre, Sky Arts 2012
Away with slavish words and servile thoughts! William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus II i 18, Aaron
O! who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow
By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat?
O, no! the apprehension of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse. William Shakespeare, Richard II I iii 294
But thought’s the slave of life, and life time’s fool;
And time, that takes survey of all the world,
Must have a stop. William Shakespeare, I Henry IV V iv 81
O, teach me how I should forget to think! William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet I i 229-230, Romeo to Benvolio
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life. William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar I ii 95-96
He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous. ibid. I ii 196, Caesar
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. William Shakespeare, Hamlet II ii 259
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below:
Words without thoughts never to heaven go. ibid. III iii 97
… the thought thereof
Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards. William Shakespeare, Othello II i 295-296
As thou dost ruminate, and give thy worst of thoughts
The worst of words. ibid. III iii 136-137, Othello
Who has that breast so pure
But some uncleanly apprehensions
Keep leets and law-days, and in sessions sit
With meditations lawful? ibid. III iii @143, Iago
Even so my bloody thoughts, with violent pace,
Shall ne’er look back. ibid. III iii 454