# Quotes about thinking - Quotes: 48 - Authors: 17 - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking ## Quotes > The aim of the book is to set a limit to thought, or rather — not to thought, but to the expression of thoughts: for in order to be able to set a limit to thought, we should have to find both sides of the limit thinkable (i.e. we should have to be able to think what cannot be thought). > > It will therefore only be in language that the limit can be set, and what lies on the other side of the limit will simply be nonsense. [Ludwig Wittgenstein](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludwig-wittgenstein.md) · [Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludwig-wittgenstein/tractatus-logico-philosophicus.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ludwig-wittgenstein/tractatus-logico-philosophicus/the-aim-of-the.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [words](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/words.md) > The vice of the modern notion of mental progress is that it is always something concerned with the breaking of bonds, the effacing of boundaries, the casting away of dogmas. But if there be such a thing as mental growth, it must mean the growth into more and more definite convictions, into more and more dogmas. The human brain is a machine for coming to conclusions; if it cannot come to conclusions it is rusty. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/the-vice-of-the.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > Whether the human mind can advance or not, is a question too little discussed, for nothing can be more dangerous than to found our social philosophy on any theory which is debatable but has not been debated. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/whether-the-human.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are least dangerous is the man of ideas. He is acquainted with ideas, and moves among them like a lion-tamer. Ideas are dangerous, but the man to whom they are most dangerous is the man of no ideas. The man of no ideas will find the first idea fly to his head like wine to the head of a teetotaller. It is a common error, I think, among the Radical idealists of my own party and period to suggest that financiers and business men are a danger to the empire because they are so sordid or so materialistic. The truth is that financiers and business men are a danger to the empire because they can be sentimental about any sentiment, and idealistic about any ideal, any ideal that they find lying about, just as a boy who has not known much of women is apt too easily to take a woman for the woman, so these practical men, unaccustomed to causes, are always inclined to think that if a thing is proved to be an ideal it is proved to be the ideal. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/ideas-are-dangerous.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > I wish to deal with my most distinguished contemporaries, not personally or in a merely literary manner, but in relation to the real body of doctrine which they teach. I am not concerned with Mr. Rudyard Kipling as a vivid artist or a vigorous personality; I am concerned with him as a Heretic — that is to say, a man whose view of things has the hardihood to differ from mine. I am not concerned with Mr. Bernard Shaw as one of the most brilliant and one of the most honest men alive; I am concerned with him as a Heretic — that is to say, a man whose philosophy is quite solid, quite coherent, and quite wrong. I revert to the doctrinal methods of the thirteenth century, inspired by the general hope of getting something done. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/i-wish-to-deal.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > There are some people, nevertheless — and I am one of them — who think that the most practical and important thing about a man is still his view of the universe. … We think that for a general about to fight an enemy, it is important to know the enemy's numbers, but still more important to know the enemy's philosophy. We think the question is not whether the theory of the cosmos affects matters, but whether in the long run, anything else affects them. [G. Chesterton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton.md) · [Heretics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/g-chesterton/heretics/there-are-some.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > [I]t might even be questioned if the various causes of deterioration which had been at work in the meanwhile, had not more than counterbalanced the tendencies to improvement. I had learnt from experience that many false opinions may be exchanged for true ones, without in the least altering the habits of mind of which false opinions are the result. The English public, for example, are quite as raw and undiscerning on subjects of political economy since the nation has been converted to free-trade, as they were before; and are still further from having acquired better habits of thought and feeling, or being in any way better fortified against error, on subjects of a more elevated character. For, though they have thrown off certain errors, the general discipline of their minds, intellectually and morally, is not altered. I am now convinced, that no great improvements in the lot of mankind are possible, until a great change takes place in the fundamental constitution of their modes of thought. Autobiography · p. 238 Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md) > In this third period (as it may be termed) of my mental progress, which now went hand in hand with hers, my opinions gained equally in breadth and depth, I understood more things, and those which I had understood before, I now understood more thoroughly. I had now completely turned back from what there had been of excess in my reaction against Benthamism. I had, at the height of that reaction, certainly become much more indulgent to the common opinions of society and the world, and more willing to be content with seconding the superficial improvement which had begun to take place in those common opinions, than became one whose convictions on so many points, differed fundamentally from them. I was much more inclined, than I can now approve, to put in abeyance the more decidedly heretical part of my opinions, which I now look upon as almost the only ones, the assertion of which tends in any way to regenerate society. Autobiography · p. 230 Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md) > I never turned recreant to intellectual culture, or ceased to consider the power and practice of analysis as an essential condition both of individual and of social improvement. But I thought that it had consequences which required to be corrected, by joining other kinds of cultivation with it. The maintenance of a due balance among the faculties, now seemed to me of primary importance. The cultivation of the feelings became one of the cardinal points in my ethical and philosophical creed. Autobiography · p. 143 Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [wisdom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/wisdom.md) > For I now saw, or thought I saw, what I had always before received with incredulity—that the habit of analysis has a tendency to wear away the feelings: as indeed it has, when no other mental habit is cultivated, and the analysing spirit remains without its natural complements and correctives. Autobiography · p. 137 Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > My previous education had been, in a certain sense, already a course of Benthamism. The Benthamic standard of "the greatest happiness" was that which I had always been taught to apply; I was even familiar with an abstract discussion of it, forming an episode in an unpublished dialogue on Government, written by my father on the Platonic model. Yet in the first pages of Bentham it burst upon me with all the force of novelty. What thus impressed me was the chapter in which Bentham passed judgment on the common modes of reasoning in morals and legislation, deduced from phrases like "the law of nature," "right reason," "the moral sense," "natural rectitude," and the like, and characterized them as dogmatism in disguise, imposing its sentiments upon others under cover of sounding expressions which convey no reason for the sentiment, but set up the sentiment as its own reason. It had not struck me before, that Bentham's principle put an end to all this. The feeling rushed upon me, that all previous moralists were superseded, and that here indeed was the commencement of a new era in thought. Autobiography · p. 64 Topics: [morality](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/morality.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > Most boys or youths who have had much knowledge drilled into them, have their mental capacities not strengthened, but over-laid by it. They are crammed with mere facts, and with the opinions or phrases of other people, and these are accepted as a substitute for the power to form opinions of their own: and thus the sons of eminent fathers, who have spared no pains in their education, so often grow up mere parroters of what they have learnt, incapable of using their minds except in the furrows traced for them. Mine, however, was not an education of cram. My father never permitted anything which I learnt to degenerate into a mere exercise of memory. He strove to make the understanding not only go along with every step of the teaching, but, if possible, precede it. Anything which could be found out by thinking I never was told, until I had exhausted my efforts to find it out for myself. Autobiography · p. 31 Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md) > No one can be a great thinker who does not recognise, that as a thinker it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead...Not that it is solely, or chiefly, to form great thinkers, that freedom of thinking is required. On the contrary, it is as much and even more indispensable to enable average human beings to attain the mental stature which they are capable of. On Liberty Topics: [freedom](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/freedom.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > He was often, and much beyond reason, provoked by my failures in cases where success could not have been expected; but in the main his method was right, and it succeeded. I do not believe that any scientific teaching ever was more thorough, or better fitted for training the faculties, than the mode in which logic and political economy were taught to me by my father. Striving, even in an exaggerated degree, to call forth the activity of my faculties, by making me find out everything for myself, he gave his explanations not before, but after, I had felt the full force of the difficulties; and not only gave me an accurate knowledge of these two great subjects, as far as they were then understood, but made me a thinker on both. Autobiography · p. 28 Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion. On Liberty Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md) > Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think. On Liberty Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [truth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/truth.md) > There is no author to whom my father thought himself more indebted for his own mental culture, than Plato, or whom he more frequently recommended to young student. I can bear similar testimony in regard to myself. The Socratic method, of which the Platonic dialogues are the chief example, is unsurpassed as a discipline for correcting the errors, and clearing up the confusions incident to the intellectus sibi permissus... Autobiography · p. 21 Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > The first intellectual operation in which I arrived at any proficiency, was dissecting a bad argument, and finding in what part the fallacy lay: and though whatever capacity of this sort I attained was due to the fact that it was an intellectual exercise in which I was most perseveringly drilled by my father, yet it is also true that the school logic, and the mental habits acquired in studying it, were among the principal instruments of this drilling. I am persuaded that nothing, in modern education, tends so much, when properly used, to form exact thinkers, who attach a precise meaning to words and propositions, and are not imposed on by vague, loose, or ambiguous terms. The boasted influence of mathematical studies is nothing to it; for in mathematical processes, none of the real difficulties of correct ratiocination occur. Autobiography · p. 19 Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > Although his body had been around quite a lot, his mind had never gone further than the inside of his own head. [Terry Pratchett](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett.md) · [Equal Rites](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/equal-rites.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/terry-pratchett/equal-rites/although-his-body.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > "Don't finish, Pete. I've heard it all before. All I have to do is decipher the thinking of a non-human intelligence." > > "A better-than-human intelligence. Those creatures from the para-Universe are trying to make themselves understood." > > "That may be," sighed Bronowski, "but they're trying to do it through my intelligence, which is better than human I sometimes think, but not much. Sometimes, in the dark of the night, I lie awake and wonder if different intelligences can communicate at all; or, if I've had a particularly bad day, whether the phrase 'different intelligences' has meaning at all." > > "It does," said Lamont savagely, his hands clearly bailing into fists within his lab coat pockets. "It means Hallam and me. It means that fool-hero, Dr. Frederick Hallam and me. We're different intelligences because when I talk to him he doesn't understand. His idiot face gets redder and his eyes bulge and his ears block. I'd say his mind stops functioning, but lack the proof of any other state from which it might stop." [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Gods Themselves](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves.md) · p. 12 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-gods-themselves/dont-finish-pete.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > Why, he wondered, did so many people spend their lives not trying to find answers to questions—not even thinking of questions to begin with? Was there anything more exciting in life than seeking answers? [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 281 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/why-he-wondered.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [knowledge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/knowledge.md) > The cure for advanced gullibility is to go to sleep and consider matters again the next day. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Prelude to Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation.md) · p. 253 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/prelude-to-foundation/the-cure-for.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > "First, you refused to admit that there was a menace at all! Then you reposed an absolutely blind faith in the Emperor! Now you've shifted it to Hari Seldon. Throughout you have invariably relied on authority or on the past – never on yourselves. It amounts to a diseased attitude – a conditioned reflex that shunts aside the independence of your minds whenever it is a question of opposing authority. There seems no doubt ever in your minds that the Emperor is more powerful than you are, or Hari Seldon wiser. And that's wrong, don't you see? It isn't just you. It's the whole Galaxy. Pirenne heard Lord Dorwin's idea of scientific research. Lord Dorwin thought the way to be a good archaeologist was to read all the books on the subject – written by men who were dead for centuries. He thought that the way to solve archaeological puzzles was to weigh the opposing authorities. And Pirenne listened and made no objections. Don't you see that there's something wrong with that? And you men and half of Terminus as well are just as bad. We sit here,considering the Encyclopedia the all-in-all. We consider the greatest end of science is the classification of past data. It is important, but is there no further work to be done? We're receding and forgetting, don't you see? Here in the Periphery they've lost nuclear power. In Gamma Andromeda, a power plant has undergone meltdown because of poor repairs, and the Chancellor of the Empire complains that nuclear technicians are scarce. And the solution? To train new ones? Never! Instead they're to restrict nuclear power. Don't you see? It's Galaxy wide. It's a worship of the past. It's a deterioration – a stagnation!" [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [Foundation](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/foundation/first-you-refused.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [the past](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/the-past.md) > A robot, the man had said, is logical but not reasonable. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Naked Sun](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun.md) · p. 265 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun/a-robot-the.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > “Is that important?” > > “Everything is important till proven otherwise.” [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Naked Sun](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun.md) · p. 356 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-naked-sun/is-that-important.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > The division between human and robot is perhaps not as significant as that between intelligence and nonintelligence. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [The Caves of Steel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel.md) · p. 29 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/the-caves-of-steel/the-division-between.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > I accept nothing on authority. A hypothesis must be backed by reason, or else it is worthless. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/i-accept-nothing.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > There's nothing like deduction. We've determined everything about our problem but the solution. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/theres-nothing-like.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > The machine is only a tool after all, which can help humanity progress faster by taking some of the burdens of calculations and interpretations off its back. The task of the human brain remains what it has always been; that of discovering new data to be analyzed, and of devising new concepts to be tested. [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 187 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/the-machine-is-only.md) Topics: [science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/science.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > “You can prove anything you want by coldly logical reason—if you pick the proper postulates. We have ours and Cutie [robot QT-1] has his.” > > “Then let’s get at those postulates in a hurry. The storm’s due tomorrow.” > > Powell sighed wearily. “That’s where everything falls down. Postulates are based on assumptions and adhered to by faith. Nothing in the Universe can shake them. ...” [Isaac Asimov](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov.md) · [I, Robot](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot.md) · p. 63 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/isaac-asimov/i-robot/you-can-prove.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [faith](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/faith.md) > The false logic involved is: “We exist; therefore something—call it X—created us.” Once this assumption is made, the properties of the hypothetical X can be fantasied in an unlimited number of ways. > > But the entire process is obviously fallacious; for by the same logic something must have created X—and so on. We are immediately involved in an infinite regress, which can have no meaning in the real universe. [Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke.md) · [The Collected Stories Of Arthur C. Clarke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke.md) · p. 878 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/arthur-c-clarke/the-collected-stories-of-arthur-c-clarke/the-false-logic.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [god](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/god.md) > Perhaps the most concise summary of enlightenment would be: transcending dualism. … Dualism is the conceptual division of the world into categories … human perception is by nature a dualistic phenomenon—which makes the quest for enlightenment an uphill struggle, to say the least. Godel, Escher, Bach Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > This type of paradox is quite characteristic of Zen. It is an attempt to "break the mind of logic". Godel, Escher, Bach Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > When I have to think about it, I know the picture is wrong. And sizing is a form of thinking and coloring is too. My instinct about painting says, 'If you don’t think about it, it's right'. As soon as you have to decide and choose, it's wrong. And the more you decide about, the more wrong it gets. Some people, they paint abstract, so they sit there thinking about it because their thinking makes them feel they're doing something. But my thinking never makes me feel I'm doing anything. The Philosophy of Andy Warhol · p. 149 Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [art](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art.md) > Blow the candle out, I don’t need to see what my thoughts look like. Germinal Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > I grieved to think how brief the dream of the human intellect had been. It had committed suicide. It had set itself steadfastly towards comfort and ease, a balanced society with security and permanency as its watchword, it had attained its hopes—to come to this at last. Once, life and property must have reached almost absolute safety. The rich had been assured of his wealth and comfort, the toiler assured of his life and work. No doubt in that perfect world there had been no unemployed problem, no social question left unsolved. And a great quiet had followed. > > It is a law of nature we overlook, that intellectual versatility is the compensation for change, danger, and trouble. An animal perfectly in harmony with its environment is a perfect mechanism. Nature never appeals to intelligence until habit and instinct are useless. There is no intelligence where there is no change and no need of change. Only those animals partake of intelligence that have to meet a huge variety of needs and dangers. [H.G. Wells](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells.md) · [The Time Machine](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hg-wells/the-time-machine/i-grieved-to-think.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md) > My guess is that well over eighty per cent of the human race goes through life without ever having a single original thought. That is to say, they never think anything that has not been thought before, and by thousands. > > A society made up of individuals who were all capable of original thought would probably be unendurable. The pressure of ideas would simply drive it frantic. The normal human society is very little troubled by them. Whenever a new one appears the average man displays signs of dismay and resentment. The only way he can take in such a new idea is by translating it crudely into terms of more familiar ideas. That translation is one of the chief functions of politicians, not to mention journalists. They devote themselves largely to debasing the ideas launched by their betters. This debasement is intellectually reprehensible, but probably necessary to carry on the business of the world. [H.L. Mencken](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken.md) · [Minority Report](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hl-mencken/minority-report/my-guess-is-that.md) Topics: [society](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/society.md), [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > If Nietzsche and Hegel serve as alibis to the masters of Dachau and Karaganda, that does not condemn their entire philosophy. But it does lead to the suspicion that one aspect of their thought, or of their logic, can lead to these appalling conclusions. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Rebel](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-rebel/if-nietzsche-and.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > The important thing isn't the soundness or otherwise of the argument, but for it to make you think. [Albert Camus](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus.md) · [The Plague](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/albert-camus/the-plague/the-important-thing.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > All that is not thought is pure nothingness; since we can think only thought and all the words we use to speak of things can express only thoughts, to say there is something other than thought, is therefore an affirmation which can have no meaning. > > And yet—strange contradiction for those who believe in time—geologic history shows us that life is only a short episode between two eternities of death, and that, even in this episode, conscious thought has lasted and will last only a moment. Thought is only a gleam in the midst of a long night. But it is this gleam which is everything. [Henri Poincaré](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare.md) · [The Value of Science](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/henri-poincare/the-value-of-science/all-that-is-not.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md), [transience](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/transience.md) > All opinions are not equal. Some are a very great deal more robust, sophisticated and well supported in logic and argument than others. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Salmon of Doubt](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-salmon-of-doubt.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-salmon-of-doubt/all-opinions-are.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > What was the Sherlock Holmes principle? 'Once you have discounted the impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' > > I reject that entirely. The impossible often has a kind of integrity to it which the merely improbable lacks. How often have you been presented with an apparently rational explanation of something that works in all respects other than one, which is just that it is hopelessly improbable? Your instinct is to say 'Yes, but he or she simply wouldn't do that.' [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul/what-was-the.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > It was his subconscious which told him this — that infuriating part of a person's brain which never responds to interrogation, merely gives little meaningful nudges and then sits humming quietly to itself, saying nothing. [Douglas Adams](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams.md) · [The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/douglas-adams/the-long-dark-tea-time-of-the-soul/it-was-his.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > It is difficult, if not impossible, for most people to think otherwise than in the fashion of their own period. [George Bernard Shaw](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw.md) · [Saint Joan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/saint-joan.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-bernard-shaw/saint-joan/it-is-difficult.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > The animals listened first to Napoleon, then to Snowball, and could not make up their minds which was right; indeed, they always found themselves in agreement with the one who was speaking at the moment. [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [Animal Farm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/animal-farm.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/animal-farm/the-animals-listened.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > To exchange one orthodoxy for another is not necessarily an advance. The enemy is the gramophone mind, whether or not one agrees with the record that is being played at the moment. [George Orwell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell.md) · [Animal Farm](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/animal-farm.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/george-orwell/animal-farm/to-exchange-one.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > There is little hope for us until we become toughminded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance. The shape of the world today does not permit us the luxury of softmindedness. A nation or a civilization that continues to produce softminded men purchases its own spiritual death on an installment plan. > > But we must not stop with the cultivation of a tough mind. The gospel also demands a tender heart. ... What is more tragic than to see a person who has risen to the disciplined heights of toughmindedness but has at the same time sunk to the passionless depths of hardheartedness? [Martin Luther King, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/there-is-little.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md) > The tough mind is sharp and penetrating, breaking through the crust of legends and myths and sifting the true from the false. The tough-minded individual is astute and discerning. He has a strong austere quality that makes for firmness of purpose and solidness of commitment. > > Who doubts that this toughness is one of man's greatest needs? 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, Jr.](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr.md) · [Strength to Love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/martin-luther-king-jr/strength-to-love/the-tough-mind.md) Topics: [thinking](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/thinking.md)