So, in the interests of survival, they trained themselves to be agreeing machines instead of thinking machines. All their minds had to do was to discover what other people were thinking, and then they thought that, too. Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
Every faction conditions its members to think and act a certain way. And most people do it. For most people, it’s not hard to learn, to find a pattern of thought that works and stay that way. But our minds move in a dozen different directions. We can’t be confined to one way of thinking, and that terrifies our leaders. It means we can’t be controlled. And it means that no matter what they do, we will always cause trouble for them. Veronica Roth, Divergent
No brain at all, some of them, only grey fluff that’s blown into their heads by mistake, and they don’t Think. A A Milne, The House at Pooh Corner
The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing – to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. John Keats
The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. John Kenneth Galbraith
Simple can be harder than complex: you have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. Steve Jobs
Thinking doesn’t pay. Just makes you discontented with what you see around you. Robert A Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land
As I say, I have never in all these years thought of the matter in quite this way; but then it is perhaps in the nature of coming away on a trip such as this that one is prompted towards such surprising new perspectives on topics one imagined one had long ago thought through thoroughly. Kazuo Ishiguro, The Remains of the Day
I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life. Warren Buffet
The most important thing is not to think very much about oneself. To investigate candidly the charge; but not fussily, not very anxiously. On no account to retaliate by going to the other extreme – thinking too much. Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary
Of our thinking it is but the upper surface that we shape into articulate thought; underneath the region of argument and conscious discourse lies the region of meditation. Thomas Carlyle
People don’t want to think. And the deeper they get into trouble, the less they want to think. But by some sort of instinct, they feel that they ought to and it makes them feel guilty. So they’ll bless and follow anyone who gives them a justification for not thinking. Anyone who makes a virtue – a highly intellectual virtue – out of what they know to be their sin, their weakness and their guilt. Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
At a time like this, we can’t afford the luxury of thinking! ibid.
2% of the people think; 3% of the people think they think; and 95% of the people would rather die than think. George Bernard Shaw
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. Martin Luther King
You can lead a man to Congress, but you can’t make him think. Milton Berle
As you think, so shall you become. Bruce Lee
We think too little and feel too much. Charlie Chaplin
People who say they don’t care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don’t care what people think. George Carlin
I’m not a very good American because I like to do my own thinking. George Carlin
The brain is a mystery; it has been and still will be. How does the brain produce thoughts? That is the central question and we have still no answer to it. Charles Scott Sherrington
Men have called me mad; but the question is not yet settled, whether madness is or is not the loftiest intelligence – whether much that is glorious – whether all that is profound – does not spring from disease of thought – from moods of mind exalted at the expense of the general intellect. Edgar Allan Poe, Complete
Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man. Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight
When you want to teach children to think, you begin by treating them seriously when they are little, giving them responsibilities, talking to them candidly, providing privacy and solitude for them, and making them readers and thinkers of significant thoughts from the beginning. That’s if you want to teach them to think. Bertrand Russell
I do not think the Empire will fall if a modest per cent of its females are taught to think for themselves. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie I ***** starring Geraldine McEwan & Amanda Kirby & Lynsey Baxter & Vivienne Ross et al
It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought – that is to be educated. Edith Hamilton
It was one thing to use computers as a tool, quite another to let them do your thinking for you. Tom Clancy, The Hunt for Red October
The greatest crime in fundamentalist Christianity is to think. The God Who Wasn’t There, 2005
I’m Johnny’s muscle; who gives a fuck what I think? Boardwalk Empire s1e1, Capone, HBO 2010
I keep telling you not to think. The Manchurian Candidate 1962 starring Frank Sinatra & Angela Lansbury & Janet Leigh & Laurence Harvey & Henry Silva & James Gregory & Leslie Parris & JohnMcGiver et al, director John Frankenheimer, wife to husband
Start thinking with your head instead of your hips. Sweet Smell of Success 1957 starring Burt Lancaster & Tony Curtis & Susan Harrison & Martin Milner & Sam Levene & Chico Hamilton & Emile Meyer & Barbara Nichols et al, director Alexander Mackendrick, Curtis
Wrong thinking is punishable; right thinking will be as quickly rewarded. You will find it an effective combination. Star Trek pilot episode The Cage (digitally remastered), completed and rejected by NBC 1965, writer Gene Roddenberry, director Robert Butler, Talosian to Pike in cage
You do understand don’t you that thought is the basis of all reality. Star Trek: The Next Generation s1e6: Where No One Has Gone Before, alien to Picard
Irrational thinking of any kind is very dangerous. 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God, Riccardo Giacconi
Think for yourself and question authority. Timothy Leary
Gareth: If you’re so clever, what am I thinking now?
Tim: You’re thinking, How can I kill a tiger armed only with a biro?
Gareth: No.
Tim: You’re thinking, If I crash land in a jungle will I be able to eat my own shoes?
Gareth: No. And you can’t.
Tim: What are you thinking, Gareth?
Gareth: I was just wondering whether will there ever be a boy born who can swim faster than a shark. The Office UK s1e5: New Girl, Tim, BBC 2001