“The finest minds seem to be formed rather by efforts at original thinking, by endeavours to form new combinations, and to discover new truths, than by passively receiving the impressions of other men's ideas.”
Essay on the Principle of Population (1798; rev. through 1826)
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Thomas Robert Malthus 60
British political economist 1766–1834Related quotes

Source: The Courage to Create (1975), Ch. 1 : The Courage to Create, p. 21

An Essay on the Nature and Conduct of the Passions and Affections (1728), Treatise II: Illustrations upon the Moral Sense, Sect. I

“To be modern only means to fill new forms with eternal truths.”
Modern sein heißt nichts anderes als ewige Inhalte in wechselnde neue Formen zu füllen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)

“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”

“The mind that opens to a new idea, Never comes back to its original size.”
Actually said by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. in his book The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table: "Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions."
Misattributed

Source: The Limits of State Action (1792), Ch. 16