» On thinking

… sixteen thought-provoking quotations

There seems to be a general consensus that there is not enough thinking going on (I do not know of a single quotation lamenting the excessive cogitation of mankind). All I can say is that there isn’t enough feeling going on, either.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

attributed, Aristotle . 384-322 BC . Greek philosopher, polymath *

Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think.

Ambrose Bierce . 1842-1914 . American satirist and critic . The devil’s dictionary

No, no, you’re not thinking; you’re just being logical.

attributed, Niels Bohr . 1885-1962 . Danish physicist [quoted, The mass-extinction debates (1994)] *

The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum—even encourage the more critical and dissident views. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the range of the debate.

Noam Chomsky . 1928- . American linguist, cognitive scientist, philosopher, activist . The common good

If you lose the power to laugh, you lose the power to think.

Clarence Darrow . 1857-1938 . American lawyer and libertarian *

Cogito ergo sum.
I think, therefore I am.

René Descartes . 1596-1650 . French philosopher and mathematician . Principia philosophiae

One of the most detrimental (and least discussed) effects of the crisis in science education in the world today is that we are creating a population increasingly unable to think skeptically about a wide range of issues.

Andrew Fraknoi . 1948- . American professor of astronomy . Science education and the crisis of gullibility

In a very real sense we have two minds, one that thinks and one that feels. These two fundamentally different ways of knowing interact to construct our mental life.

Daniel Goleman . 1946- . American author, psychologist and journalist . Emotional intelligence

The most thought-provoking thing in our thought-provoking time is that we are still not thinking.

Martin Heidegger . 1889-1976 . German philosopher . What is called thinking?

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

William James . 1842-1910 . American philosopher and psychiatrist *

When men yield up the exclusive privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine . 1737-1809 . English-American political writer, theorist and activist . Common sense

Most people would rather die than think—in fact, they do so.

Bertrand Russell . 1872-1970 . British philosopher, mathematician and historian . The ABC of relativity

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

William Shakespeare . 1564-1616 . English poet and playwright . Hamlet, II ii

The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.

BF Skinner . 1904-1990 . American behavioural psychologist and author . Contingencies of reinforcement

As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.

Henry David Thoreau . 1817-1862 . American author, poet and philosopher . The art of leading a meaningful life

We cannot think first and act afterwards. From the moment of birth we are immersed in action and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought.

Alfred North Whitehead . 1861-1947 . British mathematician and American philosopher . Science and the modern world

* I don’t (yet) have full provenance of this quotation, but no reason to doubt its attribution

On thinking