Thinking only begins at the point where we have come to know that Reason, glorified for centuries, is the most obstinate adversary of thinking. Martin Heidegger
Humanists recognize that it is only when people feel free to think for themselves, using reason as their guide, that they are best capable of developing values that succeed in satisfying human needs and serving human interests. Isaac Asimov
He had a better mind and a more rigorous temperament than me; he thought logically, and then acted on the conclusion of logical thought. Whereas most of us, I suspect, do the opposite: we make an instinctive decision, then build up an infrastructure of reasoning to justify it. And call the result common sense. Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending
Science attempts to find logic and simplicity in nature. Mathematics attempts to establish order and simplicity in human thought. Edward Teller, The Pursuit of Simplicity
Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. This is central to its success. Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don’t conform to our preconceptions. It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which ones best match the facts. It urges on us a fine balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything – new ideas and established wisdom. We need wide appreciation of this kind of thinking. It works. It’s an essential tool for a democracy in an age of change. Our task is not just to train more scientists but also to deepen public understanding of science. Carl Sagan, ‘Why We Need to Understand Science’ Skeptical Inquirer 14:3
Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. Carl Sagan
If we can’t think for ourselves, if we’re unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness. Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions – as attempts to find out something. Success and failure are for him answers above all. Friedrich Nietzsche
All truly great thoughts are conceived while walking. Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols
Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking. Albert Einstein, interview Viereck, 1929
The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Albert Einstein
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. We will not solve the problems of the world from the same level of thinking we were at when we created them. More than anything else, this new century demands new thinking: We must change our materially based analyses of the world around us to include broader, more multidimensional perspectives. Albert Einstein, summarised & attributed by Bob Samples, The Metaphoric Mind, 1976
We cannot solve our problems with the same level of thinking that created them. Albert Einstein, attributed
Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought. Albert Einstein
We want one man to be always thinking, and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative; whereas the workman ought often to be thinking, and the thinker often to be working, and both should be gentlemen, in the best sense. As it is, we make both ungentle, the one envying, the other despising, his brother; and the mass of society is made up of morbid thinkers and miserable workers. Now it is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity. John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, chapter The Nature of Gothic
We want one man to be always thinking, and another to be always working, and we call one a gentleman, and the other an operative; whereas the workman ought often to be thinking, and the thinker often to be working, and both should be gentlemen, in the best sense. As it is, we make both ungentle, the one envying, the other despising, his brother; and the mass of society is made up of morbid thinkers and miserable workers. Now it is only by labour that thought can be made healthy, and only by thought that labour can be made happy, and the two cannot be separated with impunity. John Ruskin, The Stones of Venice, chapter The Nature of Gothic
We spend our midday sweat our midnight oil;
We tire the night in thought, the day in toil. Francis Quaries, Emblems, 1635
Fredric March: We must not abandon faith! Faith is the most important thing!
Spencer Tracy: Then why did God plague us with the power to think? Mr Brady, why do you deny the one faculty of man that raises him above the other creatures of the Earth? The power of his brain to reason. Why other merit have we? Inherit the Wind 1960 starring Spencer Tracy & Gene Kelly & Fredric March & Dick York & Donna Anderson & Harry Morgan et al, director Stanley Kramer
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power. Rene Descartes
I doubt therefore I think; I think therefore I am. [Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum] Rene Descartes
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel
You are not who you think you are. Sylvia Hartmann
The importance of solitude is to help you to differentiate your own thoughts from those you have studied, read, heard, or unintentionally absorbed. Tonya Sheridan
Our brains are biological computers vulnerable to data theft. Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman s4e6: Can Our Minds Be Hacked? Science 2013
A laboratory in California has already begun to translate thoughts into pictures and words. ibid.
For centuries magicians, psychics and mentalists have claimed they can move objects, affect events or even cause bodily harm using only the power of thought. Do these paranormal powers actually exist? Weird or What? s3e10: Mind Control, Discovery 2012
Some happy tone
Of meditation, slipping in between
The beauty coming and the beauty gone. William Wordsworth, Most Sweet It Is 1835
Think like a wise man but express yourself like the common people. W B Yeats
We only believe in those thoughts which have been conceived not in the brain but in the whole body. W B Yeats
The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man
[Men] use thought only to justify their injustices, and speech only to conceal their thoughts. Voltaire, dialogues, 1763
Think for yourselves and allow others enjoy the privilege to do so too. Voltaire
My thought is me: that’s why I can’t stop. I exist by that I think … and I can’t prevent myself from thinking. John-Paul Sartre, Le Nausee
At thirty a man suspects himself a fool;
Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
At fifty chides his infamous delay,
Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve;
In all the magnanimity of thought
Resolves; and re-resolves; then dies the same. Edward Young, Night Thoughts
Heretics are the only bitter remedy against the entropy of human thought. Yevgeny Zamyatin