The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
Your automatic creative mechanism is teleological. That is, it operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve, you can depend upon its automatic guidance system to take you to that goal much better than “you” ever could by conscious thought. “You” supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results. Your automatic mechanism then supplies the means whereby.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.
—Edward de Bono (b.1933) Maltese-British Psychologist, Writer
When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain, and you Think of Things, you find sometimes that a Thing which seemed very Thingish inside you is quite different when it gets out into the open and has other people looking at it.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.
—William Lawrence Bragg (1890–1970) British Physicist
Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts.
—George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–95) British Statesman, Writer, Politician
Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
—Rick Warren (b.1954) American Evangelical Pastor
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with a pure thought, happiness follows him, like a shadow that never leaves him.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
Reading is equivalent to thinking with someone else’s head instead of with one’s own.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Better to be without logic than without feeling.
—Charlotte Bronte (1816–1855) English Novelist, Poet
Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
People hardly ever make use of the freedom they have, for example, freedom of thought; instead they demand freedom of speech as a compensation.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German Existential Philosopher
And we’re seeing a higher level of consciousness and many more opportunities for people to challenge their present ways of thinking and move into a grander and larger experience of who they really are.
—Neale Donald Walsch (b.1943) American Spiritual Writer
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
It was at a particular moment in the history of my own rages that I saw the Western world conditioned by the images of Marx, Darwin and Freud; and Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western world. The simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.
—William Golding (1911–93) English Novelist
The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of cliches.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Some people do not become thinkers simply because their memories are too good.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
No brain is stronger than its weakest think.
—Thomas Masson (1866–1934) American Journalist, Humorist, Author
To think is to differ.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Habits of thinking need not be forever. One of the most significant findings in psychology in the last twenty years is that individuals can choose the way they think.
—Martin Seligman (b.1942) American Psychologist, Author
If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end; if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin, and in the end, despair.
—C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) Irish-born British Academic, Author, Literary Scholar
Man’s mind stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in Eternal awareness or Pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.
—Sivananda Saraswati (1887–1963) Indian Hindu Spiritual Teacher
It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. For those who do not think, it is best at least to rearrange their prejudices once in a while.
—Luther Burbank (1849–1926) American Botanist, Scientist
A man’s life is what his thoughts make of it.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.
—Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) French Essayist, Polymath, Philosopher
All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
All thought must, directly or indirectly, by way of certain characters, relate ultimately to intuitions, and therefore, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.
—Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) Prussian German Philosopher, Logician
Faith is much better than belief. Belief is when someone else does the thinking.
—Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American Inventor, Philosopher
The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself.
—Archibald MacLeish (1892–1982) American Poet, Dramatist
We must dare to think ‘unthinkable’ thoughts. We must learn to explore all the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing world. We must learn to welcome and not to fear the voices of dissent. We must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things’ because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.
—J. William Fulbright (1905–95) American Political leader, Politician
Start thinking about yourself as a lifetime student at a large university. Your curriculum is your total relationship with the world you live in, from the moment you’re born to the moment you die.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Man is what he believes.
—Anton Chekhov (1860–1904) Russian Short-Story Writer
It is no good getting furious if you get stuck. What I do is keep thinking about the problem but work on something else. Sometimes it is years before I see the way forward. In the case of information loss and black holes, it was 29 years.
—Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) English Theoretical Physicist, Cosmologist, Academic
The most successful politician is he who says what the people are thinking most often and in the loudest voice.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.
—Frederick William Faber (1814–63) British Hymn writer, Theologian
Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in.
—Alan Alda (b.1936) American Actor, TV Personality, Screenwriter
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
Those who know how to think need no teachers.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
A man is what he thinks about all day long.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Anything’s possible if you’ve got enough nerve.
—J. K. Rowling (b.1965) English Novelist
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
—Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) Italian Poet, Dramatist
It is clear that all verbal structures with meaning are verbal imitations of that elusive psychological and physiological process known as thought, a process stumbling through emotional entanglements, sudden irrational convictions, involuntary gleams of insight, rationalized prejudices, and blocks of panic and inertia, finally to reach a completely incommunicable intuition.
—Northrop Frye
Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That is voting.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Men always do leave off really thinking, when the last bit of wild animal dies in them.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
Think twice before you speak to a friend in need.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
When I get ready to talk to people, I spend two thirds of the time thinking what they want to hear and one third thinking about what I want to say.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable. One must fight one’s way through before regaining one’s original primal state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely.
—Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian Hindu Mystic
No one can tell you what is right for you except yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another.
—Vernon Howard (1918–92) American Spiritual Teacher, Philosopher
We were not taught financial literacy in school. It takes a lot of work and time to change your thinking and to become financially literate.
—Robert Kiyosaki (b.1947) American Businessperson, Author, Motivational Speaker
The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
What luck for the rulers that men do not think.
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Nazi Leader, Chancellor of Germany
The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–65) American Head of State
The how” thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile “ifs” but goes right to work on the creative “how”.”
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
The actions of men are the best interpreters of their thoughts.
—John Locke (1632–1704) English Philosopher, Physician
Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Rarely do we find men who willingly to 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, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
If you keep thinking about what you want to do or what you hope will happen, you don’t do it, and it won’t happen.
—Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar
Greatness is attained only by the thinking of great thoughts.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Nothing is more active than thought, for it travels over the universe, and nothing is stronger than necessity for all must submit to it.
—Thales of Miletus (c.624–c.545 BCE) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician
Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable. Fame usually comes to those who are thinking about something else, – very rarely to those who say to themselves, “Go to, now, let us be a celebrated individual!”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think — rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.
—James Beattie
Masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The secret of living a life of excellence is merely a matter of thinking thoughts of excellence. Really, it’s a matter of programming our minds with the kind of information that will set us free.
—Chuck Swindoll (b.1934) American Evangelical Christian Pastor, Author
It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
I don’t think the human mind can comprehend the past and the future. They are both just illusions that can manipulate you into thinking there’s some kind of change.
—Bob Dylan (b.1941) American Singer-songwriter
Your mind will be like its habitual thoughts; for the soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. Soak it then in such trains of thoughts as, for example: Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something…almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.
—Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American Entrepreneur, Businessperson
One ought to look a good deal at oneself before thinking of condemning others.
—Moliere (1622–73) French Playwright
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
A discovery is said to be an accident meeting a prepared mind.
—Albert Szent-Gyorgyi (1893–1986) Hungarian-American Biochemist
I succeeded by saying what everyone else is thinking.
—Joan Rivers (1933–2014) American Comedienne, Writer
He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.
—William Eugene Drummond (1876–1946) American Architect
If the track is tough and the hill is rough, THINKING you can just ain’t enough!
—Shel Silverstein (1930–99) American Children’s Books Writer, Poet, Short story Author, Playwright, Author, Songwriter
How we think shows through in how we act. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind. They reflect thinking.
—David J. Schwartz (1927–87) American Self-help Author
I would rather think of life as a good book. The further you get into it, the more it begins to come together and make sense.
—Harold Kushner (b.1935) American Jewish Religious Leader, Priest
As you think, so shall you become.
—Bruce Lee (1940–73) American Martial Artist, Actor, Philosopher
Your silent thoughts are like the roots of a plant. They remain hidden in the dark recesses of the earth, but from them stems the whole plant–its life and form, its strength and beauty. From them and through them the plant lives and dies. So, too, your thoughts, although hidden, are your real, vital force.
—Lawrence G. Lovasik
Don’t think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t “try” to do things. You simply “must” do things.
—Ray Bradbury (b.1920) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.
—Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) British Philosopher, Economist
People mistakenly assume that their thinking is done by their head; it is actually done by the heart which first dictates the conclusion, then commands the head to provide the reasoning that will defend it.
—Anthony de Mello (1931–87) Indian-born American Theologian
Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don’t bite everybody.
—Stanislaw Jerzy Lec (1909–1966) Polish Aphorist, Poet
Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take firm root in our personal experience.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing.
—Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848) English Writer, Scholar
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur
Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
There are lots of people who cannot think seriously without injuring their minds.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes, rather than their minds.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Nothing comes merely by thinking about it.
—John Wanamaker (1838–1922) American Merchant, Civil Servant
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 (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try.
—Theodor Seuss Geisel (‘Dr. Seuss’) (1904–91) American Children’s Books Writer, Writer, Cartoonist, Animator
The average person thinks he isn’t.
—Larry Lorenzoni
Those who will not reason, are bigots, those who cannot, are fools, and those who dare not, are slaves.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Our minds are lazier than our bodies.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
In dwelling, live close to the ground. In thinking, keep to the simple. In conflict, be fair and generous. In governing, don’t try to control. In work, do what you enjoy. In family life, be completely present.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.
—David Ogilvy (1911–99) British-American Advertising Executive
Get into a line that you will find to be a deep personal interest, something you really enjoy spending twelve to fifteen hours a day working at, and the rest of the time thinking about.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy soul-for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then, with a continuous series of such thoughts as these-that where a man can live, there if he will, he can also live well.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Pride is pleasure arising from a man’s thinking too highly of himself.
—Baruch Spinoza (1632–77) Dutch Philosopher, Theologian
No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
A state of expectancy is a great assetl; a state of uncertainty—one moment thinking “perhaps” and the next moment thinking “I don’t know”—will never get desired results.
—Ernest Holmes (1887–1960) American New Thought Writer, Teacher
These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas, such as: “I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat budget.” But they have no slow, big ideas.
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) American Journalist, Editor, Writer, Teacher
Sometimes I think and other times I am.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
There are very many people who read simply to prevent themselves from thinking.
—Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–99) German Philosopher, Physicist
Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering — because you can’t take it in all at once.
—Audrey Hepburn (1929–93) Belgian-born British Actor, Humanitarian
You become what you think about.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
My thought is me: that is why I cannot stop thinking. I exist because I think I cannot keep from thinking.
—Jean-Paul Sartre (1905–80) French Philosopher, Playwright, Novelist, Screenwriter, Political Activist
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.
—Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian Philosopher
Modern man likes to pretend that his thinking is wide-awake. But this wide-awake thinking has led us into the mazes of a nightmare in which the torture chambers are endlessly repeated in the mirrors of reason.
—Octavio Paz (1914–98) Mexican Poet, Diplomat
I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads onto actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny.
—Tryon Edwards American Theologian
All that we are is the result of what we have thought: it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts. If a man speaks or acts with an evil thought, pain follows him, as the wheel follows the foot of the ox that draws the carriage.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
Guard your roving thoughts with a jealous care, for speech is but the dialer of thoughts, and every fool can plainly read in your words what is the hour of your thoughts.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809–92) British Poet
Think of your own faults the first part of the night when you are awake, and of the faults of others the latter part of the night when you are asleep.
—Chinese Proverb
A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
No man should think himself a zero, and think he can do nothing about the state of the world.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
I have things in my head that are not like what anyone has taught me—shapes and ideas so near to me—so natural to my way of being and thinking that it hasn’t occurred to me to put them down.
—Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986) American Painter
There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.
—Robert Henri (1865–1929) American Painter, Teacher
Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution. It forces us to change our thinking in order to find it.
—Niels Bohr (1885–1962) Danish Physicist
Think wrongly, if you please, but in all cases think for yourself.
—Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British Novelist, Poet
Mental fight means thinking against the current, not with it. It is our business to puncture gas bags and discover the seeds of truth.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man really is so; but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think.
—Walter Anderson
Logic teaches rules for presentation, not thinking.
—Mason Cooley (1927–2002) American Aphorist
There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first … when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.
—Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Indian Hindu Mystic, Religious Leader, Philosopher, Teacher
No problem can be solved until it is reduced to some simple form. The changing of a vague difficulty into a specific, concrete form is a very essential element in thinking.
—J. P. Morgan (1837–1913) American Financier, Philanthropist, Art Collector
The human mind prefers to be spoon-fed with the thoughts of others, but deprived of such nourishment it will, reluctantly begin to think for itself and such thinking, remember is original thinking and may have valuable results.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d druther not.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
People like to imagine that because all our mechanical equipment moves so much faster, that we are thinking faster, too.
—Christopher Morley (1890–1957) American Novelist, Essayist
In America we can say what we think, and even if we can’t think, we can say it anyhow.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
Thinking begins only when we have come to know that reason, glorified for centuries, is the stiff-necked adversary of thought.
—Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German Existential Philosopher
Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.
—Benjamin Disraeli (1804–81) British Head of State
A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor.
—Victor Hugo (1802–85) French Novelist
In private conversation between intimate friends the wisest men very often talk like the weakest; for, indeed, the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Thinking will not overcome fear but action will.
—W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American Self-help Guru, Entrepreneur
Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.
—Alan Watts (1915–73) British-American Philosopher, Author
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
On artificial intelligence: the real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
—B. F. Skinner (1904–90) American Psychologist, Social Philosopher, Inventor, Author
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
As you inquire into issues and turn judgments around, you come to see that every perceived problem appearing “out there” is really nothing more than a misperception within your own thinking.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
Step aside from all thinking, and there is nowhere you can’t go.
—Jianzhi Sengcan (d.606 CE) Chinese-Buddhist Monk
Thought means life, since those who do not think do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
What luck for rulers, that men do not think.
—Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Nazi Leader, Chancellor of Germany
If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
The birth of thought in the depths of the spirit, the shaping and ordering of it into periods, the translation into signs, and above all the transference of it from one spirit to another, the communication that is, if only for an instant, the meeting of two beings, with the unforeseeable consequences that such a meeting always causes, is in fact a miracle; except that the moment one stops to think about it one can’t even write a letter.
—Salvatore Satta (1902–75) Italian Jurist, Novelist