Quotes about thinking
page 2

“There are three persons living in each of us: the one we think we are, the one other people think we are, and the one God knows we are.”

Leonard Ravenhill (1907–1994) British writer

Source: Why Revival Tarries

God, People, Personality

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

Nature, Learning

“Some guy said to me: Don't you think you're too old to sing rock n' roll?

I said: You'd better check with Mick Jagger.”

Cher (1946) American singer and actress

Guy, Singing

“Being an actress was kind of like when you’re a kid, and you want to run away and join the circus, it's something you really want to do, but then you grew up and got a proper job. It was a dream, but I didn’t think it would ever be reality, and yet here I am!”

Katie McGrath (1983) Irish actress

She's magic https://web.archive.org/web/20090408064322/http://sundayheraldsalon.com/salon/2008/10/shes_magic.html (April 8, 2009)

Dreams, Reality

“As there are misanthropists, or haters of men, there are also misologists or haters of ideas, and both spring from the same cause, which is ignorance of the world. Misanthropy arises from too great confidence of inexperience; you trust a man and think him altogether true and good and faithful, and then in a little while he turns out to be false and knavish; and then another and another, and when this has happened several times to a man, especially within the circle of his most trusted friends, as he deems them, and he has often quarreled with them, he at last hates all men, and believes that no one has any good in him at all. …The reason is that a man, having to deal with other men, has no knowledge of them; for if he had knowledge he would have known the true state of the case, that few are the good and few the evil, and that the great majority are in the interval between them.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

Plato, Phaedo

Men, Hate, World, Faith

“I think it's rarely about what you actually learn in class it's mostly about things that you stay motivated to go and continue to do on your own.”

Maryam Mirzakhani (1977–2017) Iranian mathematician

Maryam Mirzakhani press conference after winning Field's Medal | august 2014

Motivation, Learning

“It's dangerous & humiliating. The whalers killed whales while green peace watched. Now, you don't walk by a child that is being abused, you don't walk by a kitten that is being kicked to death and do nothing. So I find it abhorrent to sit there and watch a whale being slaughtered and do nothing but "bear witness" as they call it. I think it was best illustrated a few years ago, the contradictions that we have, when a ranger in Zimbabwe shot and killed a poacher that was about to kill a black rhinoceros and uh human rights groups around the world said "how dare you? Take a human life to protect an animal". I think the rangers' answer to that really illustrated a hypocrisy. He said "Ya know, if I lived in, If I was a police officer in Herrari and a man ran out of Bark Place Bank with a bag of money and I shot him in the head in front of everybody and killed him, you'd pin a medal on me and call me a national hero. Why is that bag of paper more valued than the future heritage of this nation?" This is our values. WE fight, WE kill, WE risk our lives for things we believe in… Imagine going into Mecca, walk up to the black stone and spit on it. See how far you get. You’re not going to get very far. You’re going to be torn to pieces. Walk into Jerusalem, walk up to that wailing wall with a pick axe, start whacking away. See how far you’re going to get, somebody is going to put a bullet in your back. And everybody will say you deserved it. Walk into the Vatican with a hammer, start smashing a few statues. See how far you’re going to get. Not very far. But each and every day, ya know, people go into the most beautiful, most profoundly sacred cathedrals of this planet, the rainforests of the Amazonia, the redwood forests of California, the rainforests of Indonesia, and totally desecrate & destroy these cathedrals with bulldozers, chainsaws and how do we respond to that? Oh, we write a few letters and protest; we dress up in animal costumes with picket signs and jump up and down; but if the rainforests of Amazonia and redwoods of California, were as, or had as much value to us as a chunk of old meteorite in Mecca, a decrepit old wall in Jerusalem or a piece of old marble in the Vatican, we would literally rip those pieces limb from limb for the act of blasphemy that we’re committing but we won’t do that because nature is an abstraction, wilderness is an abstraction. It has no value in our anthropocentric world where the only thing we value is that which is created by humans.”

Paul Watson (1950) Canadian environmental activist

Life, Death, Money, People

“In the course of my life I have very often been a prophet, and have usually been ridiculed for it. During the time of my struggle for power it was in the first instance only the Jewish race that received my prophecies with laughter when I said that I would one day take over the leadership of the State, and with it that of the whole nation, and that I would then among other things settle the Jewish problem. Their laughter was uproarious, but I think that for some time now they have been laughing on the other side of their face. Today I will once more be a prophet: if the international Jewish financiers in and outside Europe should succeed in plunging the nations once more into a world war, then the result will not be the Bolshevizing of the earth, and thus the victory of Jewry, but the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe!”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Speech to the Reichstag, 30 January 1939, as quoted at The History Place http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/threat.htm. 1930s

Life, War, World, Problem

“The people think of wealth and power as the greatest fate,
But in this world a spell of health is the best state.
What men call sovereignty is a worldly strife and constant war;
Worship of God is the highest throne, the happiest of all estates.”

Suleiman (1494–1566) Sultan of the Ottoman Empire

Mansel, Philip, Constantinople: city of the world's desire 1453-1924 (1995), p. 84
Poetry

Men, God, Fate, War

“A long time ago I learned not to put the blame for backwardness in Brazil on the US. We have to blame ourselves. Our backwardness is caused by an elite which for a century didn't think about the majority and subordinated itself to foreign interests.”

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (1945) Brazilian politician, 35th president of Brazil

" Brazil rejects Bush move on climate change talks http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/04/brazil.usa" in: The Guardian, May 31, 2007.

Learning, Time

“You cannot love everyone; it is ridiculous to think you can. If you love everyone and everything you lose your natural powers of selection and wind up being a pretty poor judge of character and quality. If anything is used too freely it loses its true meaning. Therefore, the Satanist believes you should love strongly and completely those who deserve your love, but never turn the other cheek to your enemy!”

Anton LaVey book The Satanic Bible

The Satanic Bible (1969)

Love, Nature

“The thinking in the show, the hacker thinking of how do you approach every problem, I think they're hacking life more than they're hacking systems.”

Walter O'Brien (1975) Irish businessman, founder of Scorpion Computer Services

Scorpion's Origin

Life, Problem

“I'm very happy, very delighted.... for I am surrounded here by all that I love. I spent my time out of doors.... and naturally I'm working all the time, and I think this year I'm going to do some serious things. And then in the evening, dear fellow, I come home to my little cottage to find a good fire and a dear little family... Dear friend, it's a delight to watch this person [his first son Jean, born in 1867] grow, and I am glad to have him to be sure…”

Claude Monet (1840–1926) French impressionist painter

in a letter to Frédéric Bazille: as cited by K.E. Sullivan. Monet: Discovering Art, Brockhampton press, London (2004), p. 22
1850 - 1870

Love, Happiness, Family, Home

“She's driving me crazy, but I'm into it, but I'm into it
I'm kinda into it
It's getting crazy, I think I'm losing it, I think I'm losing it
Oh, I think she said "I'm having your baby, it's none of your business"
"I'm having your baby, it's none of your business"
"I'm having your baby, it's none of your business"
"I'm having your baby, it's none of your, it's none of your"”

Harry Styles (1994) English singer, songwriter, and actor

"Kiwi", written by Harry Styles, Jeff Bhasker, Mitch Rowland, Alex Salibian, Tyler Johnson, Ryan Nasci
Lyrics, Harry Styles (2017)

Business, Baby

“I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self.”

Arthur Miller After the Fall

After the Fall (1964)
Context: I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self. One day the house smells of fresh bread, the next of smoke and blood. One day you faint because the gardener cuts his finger off, within a week you're climbing over corpses of children bombed in a subway. What hope can there be if that is so? I tried to die near the end of the war. The same dream returned each night until I dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. I dreamed I had a child, and even in the dream I saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran away. But it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And I bent to its broken face, and it was horrible … but I kissed it. I think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.

Hope, Hope

“When you think of God, your God is the projection of your own thought, the result of social influences. You can think only of the known; you cannot think of the unknown, you cannot concentrate on truth.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

Vol. VI, p 5, "First Talk in Rajahmundry (20 November 1949) http://www.jkrishnamurti.com/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=335&chid=4655&w=%22You+cannot+find+truth+through+anybody+else%22, J.Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 491120 Posthumous publications, The Collected Works Context: You cannot find truth through anybody else. How can you? Surely, truth is not something static; it has no fixed abode; it is not an end, a goal. On the contrary, it is living, dynamic, alert, alive. How can it be an end? If truth is a fixed point, it is no longer truth; it is then a mere opinion. Sir, truth is the unknown, and a mind that is seeking truth will never find it. For mind is made up of the known; it is the result of the past, the outcome of time — which you can observe for yourself. Mind is the instrument of the known; hence it cannot find the unknown; it can only move from the known to the known. When the mind seeks truth, the truth it has read about in books, that "truth" is self-projected, for then the mind is merely in pursuit of the known, a more satisfactory known than the previous one. When the mind seeks truth, it is seeking its own self-projection, not truth. After all, an ideal is self-projected; it is fictitious, unreal. What is real is what is, not the opposite. But a mind that is seeking reality, seeking God, is seeking the known. When you think of God, your God is the projection of your own thought, the result of social influences. You can think only of the known; you cannot think of the unknown, you cannot concentrate on truth. The moment you think of the unknown, it is merely the self-projected known. So, God or truth cannot be thought about. If you think about it, it is not truth. Truth cannot be sought; it comes to you. You can go after only what is known. When the mind is not tortured by the known, by the effects of the known, then only can truth reveal itself. Truth is in every leaf, every tear; it is to be known from moment to moment. No one can lead you to truth; and if anyone leads you, it can only be to the known.

God, Truth

“Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
Context: Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love.

Men, God, Dreams, Way

“I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished”

Thomas More book Utopia

Source: Utopia (1516), Ch. 1 : Discourses of Raphael Hythloday, of the Best State of a Commonwealth
Context: I think putting thieves to death is not lawful; and it is plain and obvious that it is absurd and of ill consequence to the commonwealth that a thief and a murderer should be equally punished; for if a robber sees that his danger is the same if he is convicted of theft as if he were guilty of murder, this will naturally incite him to kill the person whom otherwise he would only have robbed; since, if the punishment is the same, there is more security, and less danger of discovery, when he that can best make it is put out of the way; so that terrifying thieves too much provokes them to cruelty.

Death, Law

“Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness.”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

As quoted in The Observer (11 January 1931); also in Psychic Research (1931), Vol. 25, p. 91
Context: Although I think that life may be the result of an accident, I do not think that of consciousness. Consciousness cannot be accounted for in physical terms. For consciousness is absolutely fundamental. It cannot be accounted for in terms of anything else.

Life

“If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter. ”

John Gotti (1940–2002) American crime boss

Stupidity, Back To Work

“I've been walking through a world gone blind
Can't stop thinking of your diamond mind
Careful creature made friends with time
He left her lonely with a diamond mind
And those ocean eyes”

Billie Eilish (2001) American singer-songwriter

"Ocean Eyes" — though her breakthrough hit after she posted her performance of it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d--DyK0wtYo to SoundCloud for her dance teacher on 18 November 2015, the lyrics were written entirely by her brother Finneas O'Connell, who also collaborates with her on most of her other musical work. · Official Music Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viimfQi_pUw Misattributed

World, Time

“I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
Not what you'd think
And if I'm being honest
It might have been a nightmare
To anyone who might care”

Billie Eilish (2001) American singer-songwriter

"everything i wanted" · First live performance, Mexico City (12 December 2019) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgdG91aCsPU Singles (2017 - )

Dreams

“Its okay to tell a lie but believing in your own lies makes you the first victim, you become your own enemy which limits ability to think progressively towards success in life.”

Hamis Kiggundu (1984) Ugandan business magnate, Internet entrepreneur, philanthropist, and author

Its okay to tell a lie but believing in your own lies makes you the first victim, you become your own enemy which limits ability to think progressively towards success in life. Quoted from his first book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Success_and_Failure_Based_on_Reason_and_Reality, "Success and Failure Based on Reason and Reality" https://www.amazon.co.uk/SUCCESS-FAILURE-BASED-REASON-REALITY/dp/9970983903/ on Amazon, P.124 (July 2018)

Life, Lie, Success

“A genius separates himself from things which are not useful nor beneficial. While you are eager to try new technologies—A genius is thinking about how to invent something totally different that will be used by all.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Tell me, do you think there is a crumb of ignorance in a loaf of wisdom bread?”

Titon Rahmawan

#wisdom

Wisdom

“They think I’m simpleminded because I seem to be happy. Why shouldn’t I be happy? I have everything I ever wanted and more. Maybe I am simpleminded. Maybe that’s the key: simple.”

Dolly Parton (1946) American singer-songwriter and actress

Source: Dolly: My Life and Other Unfinished Business

Happiness

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) Serbian American inventor

"Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World" in Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)
Context: The scientists from Franklin to Morse were clear thinkers and did not produce erroneous theories. The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

Deep

“When all by myself, I can think of all kinds of clever remarks, quick comebacks to what no one said, and flashes of witty sociability with nobody. But all of this vanishes when I face someone in the flesh: I lose my intelligence, I can no longer speak, and after half an hour I just feel tired. Talking to people makes me feel like sleeping. Only my ghostly and imaginary friends, only the conversations I have in my dreams, are genuinely real and substantial.”

Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher

People, Dreams, Feeling, Intelligence

“Birds born in a cage think flying is an illness.”

Alejandro Jodorowsky (1929) Filmmaker and comics writer

As quoted in Investing with Impact: Why Finance is a Force for Good (2016) by Jeremy Balkin

Bird, Flying, Powerful

“People think of life as being so sacred and they feel like this is their only chance and they have to do something with their life and make an impact As far as I'm concerned, it's just a pitstop for the afterlife. It's just a little test to see how you can handle reality.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Life, People, Feeling, Reality

“Don't you think it's sometimes wise not to grow up.”

Mick Jagger (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

“I think we dream so we don’t have to be apart for so long. If we’re in each other’s dreams, we can be together all the time.”

A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh

Source: Winnie-the-Pooh

Dreams, Time, Relationship, For Him

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Happiness, Beauty, Happy, Beauty

“Everyone thinks I'm showing off when I talk, ridiculous when I'm silent, insolent when I answer, cunning when I have a good idea, lazy when I'm tired, selfish when I eat one bite more than I should.”

Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary

Variant: If I talk, everyone thinks I'm showing off; when I'm silent they think I'm ridiculous, rude if I answer, sly if I get a good idea, lazy if I'm tired, selfish if I eat a mouthful more than I should, stupid, cowardly, crafty, etc., etc.
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl

Idea, Selfishness

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Learning, For women

“Do not stop thinking of life as an adventure. You have no security unless you can live bravely, excitingly, imaginatively; unless you can choose a challenge instead of competence.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Source: The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt

Life, Imagination, Motivational, Success

“There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction.”

Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) Spanish artist

“You should never, ever be understood completely. That's like the kiss of death, isn't it? It's a full stop. I don't ever think you should put full stops on thoughts. They change.”

John Lydon (1956) English singer, songwriter, and musician

Death, Kiss, Change

“I think you can love a person too much.

You put someone up on a pedestal, and all of a sudden, from that perspective, you notice what's wrong - a hair out of place, a run in a stocking, a broken bone. You spend all your time and energy making it right, and all the while, you are falling apart yourself. You don't even realize what you look like, how far you've deteriorated, because you only have eyes for someone else.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, Time, Personality

“The woman who thinks she is intelligent demands equal rights with men. A woman who is intelligent does not.”

Colette (1873–1954) 1873-1954 French novelist: wrote Gigi

Men, Intelligence

“Racism does not have a good track record. It's been tried out for a long time and you'd think by now we'd want to put an end to it instead of putting it under new management.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

Time

“Not thinking about anything is Zen. Once you know this, walking, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is Zen.”

Bodhidharma (483–540) Chinese philosopher and Buddhist Monk

Source: The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma

Lying

“I often think that the night is more alive and more richly colored than the day.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

Color, Night, Positive

“I think art is the only thing that's spiritual in the world. And I refuse to forced to believe in other people's interpretations of God. I don't think anybody should be. No one person can own the copyright to what God means.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Variant: I think art is the only thing that's spirtual in the world. And I refuse to be forced to believe in other people's interpretations of God. I don't think anybody should be. No one person can own the copyright to what God means.

God, People, World, Art

“Once you figure out who you are and what you love about yourself, I think it all kind of falls into place.”

Jennifer Aniston (1969) television and film actress from the United States

Love

“You are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world.”

Louise L. Hay (1926–2017) American writer

World, Personality

“All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.”

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008) Inventor of Transcendental Meditation, musician

“[My mom's] funny that way, celebrating special occasions with blue food. I think it's her way of saying anything is possible. Percy can pass seventh grade. Waffles can be blue. Little miracles like that.”

Rick Riordan book The Sea of Monsters

Source: The Sea of Monsters

Food, Way, Moms

“We only think when confronted with a problem.”

John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer

Problem

“We do not think ourselves into new ways of living, we live ourselves into new ways of thinking.”

Richard Rohr (1943) American spiritual writer, speaker, teacher, Catholic Franciscan priest

Way

“Why do we think love is a magician? Because the whole power of magic consists in love. The work of magic is the attraction of one thing by another because of a certain affinity of nature.”

Marsilio Ficino (1433–1499) Italian philosopher

Love, Nature

“Half the time you think your thinking you’re actually listening”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Time

“Any fool knows men and women think differently at times, but the biggest difference is this. Men forget, but never forgive; women forgive, but never forget.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

Thom Merrilin
(15 October 1991)

Women, Men, Fools, Forgiveness

“I think that little by little I'll be able to solve my problems and survive.”

Frida Kahlo (1907–1954) Mexican painter

Problem

“May we think of freedom not as the right to do as we please but as the opportunity to do what is right.”

Peter Marshall (1902–1949) American preacher

Freedom

“I don't mind your thinking slowly; I mind your publishing faster than you think.”

Wolfgang Pauli (1900–1958) Austrian physicist, Nobel prize winner

Ich habe nichts dagegen wenn Sie langsam denken, Herr Doktor, aber ich babe etwas dagegen wenn Sie rascher publizieren als denken.
As quoted in The Harvest of a Quiet Eye : A Selection of Scientific Quotations (1977) by Alan Lindsay Mackay, p. 117

“If aliens ever visit us, I think the outcome would be much as when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn’t turn out very well for the Native Americans.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

“I'd like to know why well-educated idiots keep apologizing for lazy and complaining people who think the world owes them a living.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

People, World, Education

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

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

Das Bedenklichste in unserer bedenklichen Zeit ist, dass wir noch nicht denken.
What is Called Thinking? [Was heisst Denken?] (1951–1952), as translated by Fred D. Wieck and J. Glenn Gray (1968)

Time

“Hearts can break. Yes. Hearts can break. Sometimes I think it would be better if we died when they did, but we don't.”

Stephen King book Hearts in Atlantis

Source: Hearts in Atlantis (1999)

Heart, Heartbreaking

“So you think that money is the root of all evil. Have you ever asked what is the root of all money?”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Money, Evil

“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, philosopher and activist

Source: Quotes 1990s, 1995-1999, The Common Good (1998)

People, Way, Sense, Time

“The truth is I love being alive. And I love feeling free. So if I can't have those things then I feel like a caged animal and I'd rather not be in a cage. I'd rather be dead. And it's real simple. And I think it's not that uncommon.”

Angelina Jolie (1975) American actress, film director, and screenwriter

Love, Truth, Feeling, Animals

“Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide.”

Marva Collins (1936–2015) American schoolteacher

Suicide

“Everybody seems to think I'm lazy
I don't mind, I think they're crazy.
Running everywhere at such a speed
Till they find there's no need.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

Speed

“When a person realizes he has been deeply heard, his eyes moisten. I think in some real sense he is weeping for joy. It is as though he were saying, "Thank God, somebody heard me. Someone knows what it's like to be me”

Carl R. Rogers (1902–1987) American psychologist

God, Sense, Joy, Personality

“And did you ever stop to think that im old enough to go to war but i aint old enough to drink.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

War, Drink

“The will for victory which gives a commander the strength to see a grave crisis through is something very different from Hitler's will, which in the last analysis stemmed from a belief in his own 'mission'. Such a belief makes a man impervious to reason and leads him to think that his own will can operate even beyond the limits of hard reality - whether these consist in the presence of far superior enemy forces, in the conditions of space and time, or merely in the fact that the enemy also happens to have a will of his own.”

Erich von Manstein (1887–1973) German general

Lost Victories, Hitler As Supreme Commander

Reality, Time, Victory

“Even the Russians are fighting us. They've brought in Jewish pilots, nurses, and doctors. Everybody's ganging up on us. We didn't think it would happen this way.”

Josef Mengele (1911–1979) Nazi officer and physician

As quoted in Defy the darkness: A Tale of Courage in the Shadow of Mengele (2000) by Joe Rosenblum and David Kohn, p. 192

Way, Fight

“I do the very best I can to look upon life with optimism and hope and looking forward to a better day, but I don't think there is anything such as complete happiness. It pains me that there is still a lot of Klan activity and racism. I think when you say you're happy, you have everything that you need and everything that you want, and nothing more to wish for. I haven't reached that stage yet.”

Rosa Parks (1913–2005) African-American civil rights activist

Quoted in "Standing Up for Freedom," Academy of Achievement.org (2005-10-31)

Life, Pain, Happiness, Hope

“If, I say now, when, as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfill the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods… then I would be fancying that I was wise when I was not wise. For this fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. …this is the point in which, as I think, I am superior to men in general, and in which I might perhaps fancy myself wiser than other men — that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know: but I do know that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man, is evil and dishonorable, and I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil.”

Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher

29a–b
Alternate translation: "To fear death, is nothing else but to believe ourselves to be wise, when we are not; and to fancy that we know what we do not know. In effect, no body knows death; no body can tell, but it may be the greatest benefit of mankind; and yet men are afraid of it, as if they knew certainly that it were the greatest of evils."
Plato, Apology

Death, Wisdom, Men, God

“I know myself, and I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do anything which I would not do before the whole world; but I am alarmed at the very thoughts of being in the society of people, during my journey, whose mode of thinking is so entirely different from mine (and from that of all good people). But of course they must do as they please. I have no heart to travel with them, nor could I enjoy one pleasant hour, nor know what to talk about; for, in short, I have no great confidence in them. Friends who have no religion cannot be long our friends.”

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Romantic composer

Letter to Leopold Mozart (Mannheim, 2 February 1778), from The letters of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 1769-1791, translated, from the collection of Ludwig Nohl, by Lady [Grace] Wallace (Oxford University Press, 1865, digitized 2006) vol. I, # 91 (p. 164) http://books.google.com/books?vid=0SGwLiCNxu7qZ5ch&id=KEgBAAAAQAAJ&printsec=titlepage&dq=%22The+letters+of+Wolfgang+Amadeus+Mozart,+1769-1791%22&hl=en#PRA1-PA164,M1

People, World, Religion, Travel

“They say there is a judgement day. I don't think judgement day comes when we are dead. The judgement day is today, the judgement day is now. And it is going to allow you to live a life of hell now; Or to choose your own kingdom, To live Heaven on earth now. Live dangerously until you die.”

Rich Piana (1970–2017) American bodybuilder and internet personality

Life, Hell, Dead

“Sometimes people mistake the way I talk for what I am thinking. I never had any formal education—not even a nursery school certificate. But sometimes I know more than Ph. D. s because as a military man I know how to act. I am a man of action.”

Idi Amin (1925–2003) third president of Uganda

Appears in Barbet Schroeder (1974), General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait.

People, Education, School, Way

“The company, then, were feasting in silence, as though some one in authority had commanded them to do so, when Philip the buffoon knocked at the door and told the porter to announce who he was and that he desired to be admitted; he added that with regard to food he had come all prepared, in all varieties—to dine on some other person's,—and that his servant was in great distress with the load he carried of—nothing, and with having an empty stomach. Hearing this, Callias said, “Well, gentlemen, we cannot decently begrudge him at the least the shelter of our roof; so let him come in.” With the words he cast a glance at Autolycus, obviously trying to make out what he had thought of the pleasantry. But Philip, standing at the threshold of the men's hall where the banquet was served, announced: “You all know that I am a jester; and so I have come here with a will, thinking it more of a joke to come to your dinner uninvited than to come by invitation.””

Xenophon Symposium

“Well, then,” said Callias, “take a place; for the guests, though well fed, as you observe, on seriousness, are perhaps rather ill supplied with laughter.”
Symposium, 1.11-13

Men, Food, Laughter, Silence

“I'm constantly embarrassed at the level of attention actors get and the level of money that we get. It's completely disproportionate. I think you have to feel guilty about it. I think it makes you a better person to keep reminding yourself.”

Bill Skarsgård (1990) Swedish actor

Interview: Bill Skarsgård http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/bill-skarsgard-1#_ (June 5, 2017)

Money, Feeling, Personality

“For some reason, people think that music must tell us only about the pinnacles of the human spirit, or at least about highly romantic villains. Most people are average, neither black nor white. They're gray. A dirty shade of gray. And it's in that vague gray middle ground that the fundamental conflicts of our age take place.”

Dmitri Shostakovich book Testimony

Page 94
Testimony (1979)

People, Age, Music

“I cannot think we are useless or Usen would not have created us. He created all tribes of men and certainly had a righteous purpose in creating each.”

Geronimo (1829–1909) leader of the Bedonkohe Apache

Geronimo's Story of His Life (1907)

Men

“I think my government are fascists. I feel that if we don't change from a society that worships money and power over to one that worships compassion and generosity, there is no hope for human survival this century.”

Patch Adams (1945) Physician, activist, diplomat, author

As quoted in "Entrevista com o médico americano P. Adams" in Roda Viva - Entrevista (13 November 2007)

Money, Hope, Feeling, Change

“The first and most important quality of all scientific ways of thinking must be the clear distinction between the outer object of observation and the subjective nature of the observer.”

Max Planck (1858–1947) German theoretical physicist

Where is science going? The Universe in the light of modern physics. (1932)

Way, Nature

“Do you think I wish to hang Taher? Well, I don’t. But the Law of the Land should carry its Course. And he (Colonel Abu Taher) did not send any Mercy Petition and so what is there for me to do?”

Ziaur Rahman (1936–1981) President of Bangladesh

During a conversation with Mir Shawkat Ali Khan on the night of Colonel Abu Taher's execution.

Law

“Looking at it now.
It all seems so simple.
We were lying on your couch.
I remember.
You took a Polaroid of us.
Then discovered (then discovered)
The rest of the world was black and white.
But we were in screaming color.
And I remember thinking…”

Taylor Swift (1989) American singer-songwriter

Out of the Woods, written by Taylor Swift and Jack Antonoff
Song lyrics, 1989 (2014)

World, Color, Lying

“He's probably the world's most beautiful-looking man, yet he doesn't think that he's gorgeous. And to me, he's just smelly, farty Leo.
- Kate Winslet (Vanity Fair, January 1998)”

Leonardo DiCaprio (1974) American actor and film producer

About

World, Beauty

“The most important thing is to actually think about what you do. To become aware and actually think about the effect of what you do on the environment and on society. That's key, and that underlies everything else.”

Jane Goodall (1934) British primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist

As quoted in Going Blue: A Teen Guide to Saving Our Oceans, Lakes, Rivers, & Wetlands (2010) by Cathryn Berger Kaye and Philippe Cousteau, p. 14

“Neither side is sacred; no one wants to win
Feeling so sedated; think I'll just give in.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Verse Chorus Verse.
Song lyrics, Posthumously released (post-1994)

Feeling

“Think of life as it really is, think of the details of life; and then think that there is no meaning in it, no purpose, no goal except the grave. Surely only fools or self-deceivers, or those whose lives are exceptionally fortunate, can face that thought without flinching?”

George Orwell book A Clergyman's Daughter

A Clergyman's Daughter, Ch. 2 (1935)

Life, Fools

“I am one of those who think like Nobel, that humanity will draw more good than evil from new discoveries.”

Marie Curie (1867–1934) French-Polish physicist and chemist

As quoted in White Coat Tales : Medicine's Heroes, Heritage and Misadventures‎ (2007) by Robert B. Taylor, p. 141. The original Source is the last sentence of https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/pierre-curie-lecture.pdf
Misattributed

Evil, Drawing

“I'm a much happier guy than a lot of people think I am.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

As quoted in Rolling Stone (1993-01-27).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print

People, Guy

“Music comes first; lyrics are secondary. Most of my lyrics are contradictions. I'll write a few sincere lines, and then I'll have to make fun of [them]. I don't like to make it too obvious, because if it is too obvious, it gets really stale. You shouldn't be in people's faces 100% all the time. We don't mean to be really cryptic or mysterious, but I just think that lyrics that are different and weird and spacey paint a nice picture. It's just the way I like art.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

Date unknown, but appears on Live! Tonight! Sold Out!!.
Interviews (1989-1994), Video

People, Art, Music, Way

“I've always been an actor, the reason I've been successful in the rap-game I think is that I treat my albums like movies, and I treat writing it like I'm a character writing a story, you know, for each album whatever I'm going through, whatever stages I'm going through, and I do it vividly with vivid pitcure, with action and description, and an beginning and with an end, and conflict, and you know, redemption, things like that. So I feel like I always been an actor and acting is my first love.”

Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) rapper and actor

1990s, Interview on the set Gridlock'd (1996)