If I have done the public any service, it is due to my patient thought.
—Isaac Newton (1643–1727) English Physicist, Mathematician, Astronomer, Theologian
You need not aspire for or get any new state. Get rid of your present thoughts, that is all.
—Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian Hindu Mystic
A man thinks as well through his legs and arms as this brain.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The birthplace of success for each person is in his Inner-Consciousness. The Inner-Consciousness will use whatever it is given. If constructive thoughts are planted positive outcomes will be the result. Plant the seeds of failure and failure will follow. And since the only real freedom a person has is the choice of what thoughts he will feed to his Inner-Consciousness he is totally responsible for the outcomes he gets.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
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
Thought is action in rehearsal.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
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
Some people do not become thinkers simply because their memories are too good.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
You can actually shift your thinking in such a way as to make a wrong decision or mistake an impossibility.
—Susan Jeffers (1938–2012) American Psychologist, Self-Help Author
Arouse the mind without resting it on anything.
—Buddhist Teaching
No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
Sometimes I think and other times I am.
—Paul Valery (1871–1945) French Critic, Poet
I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.
—Billy Joel (b.1949) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
All thought is naught but a footnote to Plato.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
Thought would destroy their paradise.
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) English Poet, Book Collector
You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. Yet in their hearts there is unspoken—unspeakable!—fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts! Words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home, all the more powerful because they are forbidden. These terrify them. A little mouse—a little tiny mouse!—of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
Learn to think like a winner. Think positive and visualize your strengths.
—Vic Braden (b.1929) American Sportsperson, Author
Positive anything is better than negative nothing.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
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
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The world we have created is a product of our thinking; it cannot be changed without changing our thinking.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
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
When I am attacked by gloomy thoughts, nothing helps me so much as running to my books. They quickly absorb me and banish the clouds from my mind.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
The mind is like a richly woven tapestry in which the colors are distilled from the experiences of the senses, and the design drawn from the convolutions of the intellect.
—Carson McCullers (1917–67) American Novelist
A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.
—Thomas J. Watson, Sr. (1874–1956) American Business Executive