quotations about thinking
What do such machines really do? They increase the number of things we can do without thinking. Things we do without thinking -- there's the real danger.
FRANK HERBERT
God Emperor of Dune
Man has been born for two things--thinking and acting; to think is to live.
CICERO
attributed, Day's Collacon
Man is distinguished from the brute animals in proportion as thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy processes of the mind, a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward objects and the inward operations of the intellect:--for if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man thereby becomes the creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action.
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
"Notes on Hamlet"
If I could think how these my thoughts to leave,
Or thinking still, my thoughts might have good end:
If rebel sense would reason's law receive;
Or reason foil'd would not in vain contend:
Then might I think what thoughts were best to think:
Then might I wisely swim, or gladly sink.
PHILIP SIDNEY
sonnet
Thinking is a momentary dismissal of irrelevancies.
BUCKMINSTER FULLER
Utopia or Oblivion: The Prospects of Humanity
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.
Strength to Love
Forty years ago, you didn't need advanced critical thinking skills to earn a good living on an assembly line. But in today's knowledge-based economy, critical thinking skills are at a premium: according to a survey of chief human resources and strategy officers by the World Economic Forum, by 2020, complex problem solving and critical thinking will be the top two skills workers need.
TERRI WILLIAMS
"Study: Nearly Half of Millennials Get an 'F' In Critical Thinking", GoodCall, May 30, 2017
If you are not a thinking man, to what purpose are you a man at all?
SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE
Aids to Reflection
I don't believe in thought. Too much thinking.
PHILIP MOELLER
The Roadhouse in Arden
Thinking makes the great distinction between the mind of the philosopher and that of the fool.
REV. E. THOMPSON
attributed, Day's Collacon
We have a default tendency to make fast thinking snap judgments that oversimplify analyses of complex situations. Shortcuts or "heuristics" allow for quick decisions, but we tend to overuse them.
STUART R. LEVINE
"Improve decisions through slower thinking", CU Insight, May 31, 2017
Thinking nurseth thinking.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY
Aphorisms of Sir Philip Sidney
Our thinking is always based in the past or in the future, never in the present. Horses are always in the present, just enjoying the lifeforce and the nature around them, aware of sounds and feelings.
KATHERINE BEAUMONT
"Meditation with a horse proves to be a rewarding experience", The Visitor, June 1, 2017
At Learning's fountain it is sweet to drink,
But 'tis a nobler privilege to think.
JOHN GODFREY SAXE
The Library
If negative thinking is the source of stress and limitation, reframing those thoughts into positive ones will naturally begin to shift you out of stress and toward an awareness of the opportunities all around you that are just waiting for you to recognize them.
ALLISON MASLAN
"Flip the Switch on Fear-Based Thinking", Entrepreneur, May 19, 2017
Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.
JOHN LOCKE
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Try thinking more if just for your own sake
THE BEATLES
"Think for Yourself", Rubber Soul
All power is indeed weak compared with that of the thinker. He sits upon the throne of his Empire of Thought, mightier far than they who wield material sceptres.
CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought
There is nothing worth thinking but it has been thought before; we must only try to think it again.
JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE
The Maxims and Reflections of Goethe
Thinking begins when you ask really difficult questions.
SLAVOJ ZIZEK
"Slavoj Zizek: I am not the world's hippest philosopher!", Salon, December 29, 2012