Quotes about thinking
page 33

“Learning how to think' really means learning how to exercise some control over how & what you think. It means being conscious & aware enough to choose what you pay attention to & to choose how you construct meaning from experience.”

David Foster Wallace (1962–2008) American fiction writer and essayist

Source: This Is Water: Some Thoughts, Delivered on a Significant Occasion, about Living a Compassionate Life

Exercises, Learning

“Dr. Barney stared at me, his lips puckered. What was he so serious about? Who hasn’t thought about killing themselves, as a kid? How can you grow up in this world and not think about it?”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

World

“This Sarah Palin phenomenon is very curious. I think somebody watching us from Mars—they would think the country has gone insane.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Country

“Miss Morland, no one can think more highly of the understanding of women than I do. In my opinion, nature has given them so much, that they never find it necessary to use more than half.”

Jane Austen book Northanger Abbey

Source: Northanger Abbey

Women, Understanding, Nature

“At that moment, she cannot think of a more reckless, irrational thing than choosing to become a parent.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

Parent

“Beautiful. He'd called her beautiful. Nobody had ever called her that before, except her mother, which didn't count. Mothers were required to think you were beautiful.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

Beauty

“You keep waiting for the heaviness to leave you. You keep waiting for the moment you never think about the ex again. It doesn't come.”

Junot Díaz book This Is How You Lose Her

Source: This Is How You Lose Her

Waiting

“Do you think…"
He raised his eyebrows. "Do I think what?"
"That Valentine might have drowned?"
"Never believe the bad guy is dead until you see a body," said Simon. "That just leads to unhappiness and surprise ambushes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Guy, Dead

“Come to think of it, an Aes Sedai would probably follow a man off a cliff, too, if only to explain to him - in detail - all the things he was doing incorrectly in the way he went about killing himself.”

Robert Jordan The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

Way

“I'm sure I never used to be so sensitive. I think it is due to this nervous condition.”

Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer

Source: The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories

“Think, Travel, Celebrate, Charm, Decorate, Dress, Live - colorfully”

Kate Spade (1962–2018) American fashion designer

Source: Becoming Myself: Reflections on Growing Up Female

Travel

“Because that's the thing about mean people: They make you think that the world will never work, that there are divides that you will fall into if you approach. It takes a whole lot of good people to fill in the breach created by a single mean one.”

David Levithan book Wide Awake

Source: Wide Awake

People, World

“There are a million things one might do with a block of wood. But what do you think might happen if someone, just once, believed in it?”

Suzanne Weyn book Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

Source: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium

“She said she thought there were different ways of loving someone, and there were some she used to think were the most important, and now she had changed her mind.”

Jodi Lynn Anderson American children's writer

Source: Tiger Lily

Love, Way, Change

“If you really want to remove a cloud from your life, you do not make a big production out of it, you just relax and remove it from your thinking. That's all there is to it.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

page 119
Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
Source: Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah

Life

“You aren't thinking or really existing unless you're willing to risk even your own sanity in the judgement of your existence.”

Frank Herbert book Children of Dune

Source: Children of Dune

“She wanted letters. Real letters written in his handwriting on actual paper that she could hold and keep and read whenever the mood struck her. They were proof, solid and tangible, that someone was thinking about her.”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Mood, Reading

“A silent man is a thinking man. A silent woman is an angry one …”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Styxx

“If you're texting Magnus to say 'I think u r kewl,' I'm going to kill you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Isabelle to Alec, pg. 329
Variant: If you're texting Magnus to say 'I think ur kewl,' I'm going to kill you.
Source: The Mortal Instruments, City of Ashes (2008)

“You're so earnest about morality that I hate to think how essentially immoral you must be underneath.”

Sinclair Lewis book Babbitt

Source: Babbitt

Hate

“The secret self knows the anguish of our attachments and assures us that letting go of what we think we must have to be happy is the same as letting go of our unhappiness.”

Guy Finley (1949) American self-help writer, philosopher, and spiritual teacher, and former professional songwriter and musician

Happiness, Secret

“You look back on some little decision you made and realize all the things that happened because of it, and you think to yourself "if only I'd known," but, of course, you couldn't have known.”

Mary Downing Hahn (1937) American children's writer

Source: The Dead Man in Indian Creek

Decision

“Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner

People, Smile

“He hates me more," says Peeta. "I don't think people in general are his sort of thing.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

Hate, People

“A man should look for what is, and not for what he thinks should be.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“The general public has long been divided into two parts; those who think that science can do anything and those who are afraid it will.”

Thomas Pynchon Mason & Dixon

Source: Mason & Dixon

Science, Parting

“You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it.”

Jean Paul Sartre book Nausea

Variant: It's quite an undertaking to start loving somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment right at the start where you have to jump across an abyss: if you think about it you don't do it.
Source: Nausea (1938)
Context: I know. I know that I shall never again meet anything or anybody who will inspire me with passion. You know, it's quite a job starting to love somebody. You have to have energy, generosity, blindness. There is even a moment, in the very beginning, when you have to jump across a precipice: if you think about it you don't do it. I know I'll never jump again.

Love

“I think of how and why and what happened and the thoughts come easily, but the answers don't.”

James Frey book A Million Little Pieces

Source: A Million Little Pieces

“It's not easy having a good marriage--but I don't want easy. Easy doesn't make you grow. Easy doesn't make you think. I thank God everyday that I am married to a man who makes me think. That's my definition of true love.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Love, God, Marriage

“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Walter Isaacson book Steve Jobs

Source: Steve Jobs

Way, Heart, Hope, Powerful

“Captain, I think you have a problem with your brain being missing.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

Problem

“Maybe the life I think I'm living is a paranoid delusion… Sanity is a valuable possession; I hoard it the way people once hoarded money. I save it, so I will have enough, when the time comes.”

Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale

Source: The Handmaid's Tale

Life, Money, People, Way

“I wasn’t gifted. Mom was wrong. I was just smart and I worked hard. I had fooled myself into thinking that was something important to the rest of the world. Other people were complicit in this ruse. Nobody had told me I was common.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

People, World, Fools, Moms

“don't stop to think of the words when you do stop, just stop to think of the picture better-and let your mind off yourself in this work.”

Jack Kerouac (1922–1969) American writer

Source: Dr Sax

“You know what's funny about death? I mean other than absolutely nothing at all? You'd think we could remember finding out we weren't immortal. Sometimes I see children sobbing airports and I think, "Aww. They've just been told.”

Carrie Fisher book Wishful Drinking

Source: Wishful Drinking

Death, Children

“An honest bookstore would post the following sign above its 'self-help' section: 'For true self-help, please visit our philosophy, literature, history and science sections, find yourself a good book, read it, and think about it.”

Roger Ebert (1942–2013) American film critic, author, journalist, and TV presenter

Source: I Hated, Hated, Hated This Movie

Books, History, Literature, Science

“My dream is to die thinking "Wow, that was fun! I'm tired.”

Masami Tsuda (1970) Japanese manga artist

Source: Kare Kano: His and Her Circumstances, Vol. 20

Dreams

“I'm often asked what I think about as I run. Usually the people who ask this have never run long distances themselves. I always ponder the question. What exactly do I think about when I'm running? I don't have a clue.”

Haruki Murakami book What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

Source: What I Talk About When I Talk About Running

People, Question

“Three more days. That’s what Sven always told me. When you think you’re at the end of your rope, give it three more days. And then another three. Sometimes you’ll find the rope is longer than you thought.”

Mary E. Pearson (1955) young-adult fiction writer

Source: The Heart of Betrayal

“A man is at his youngest when he thinks he is a man, not yet realizing that his actions must show it.”

Mary Renault book The King Must Die

Source: The King Must Die (1958)

“I think to feel this happy is to be miserable, to feel this much satisfaction is to burn.”

Anne Rice (1941) American writer

Happiness, Feeling

“I think the busiest people are often the loneliest.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

People

“I have things in my head that are not like what anyone taught me — shapes and ideas so near to me, so natural to my way of being and thinking.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

Way, Idea, Nature

“Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking,”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1930s, Wisehart interview (1930)
Context: Much reading after a certain age diverts the mind from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking, just as the man who spends too much time in the theaters is apt to be content with living vicariously instead of living his own life.

Age, Reading

“It's that a bit of irreverence is necessary to have any self-esteem at all. Not irreverence for people, but rather, for what other people think.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

People

“A conclusion is the place you get to when you’re tired of thinking.”

Jill Shalvis (1963) American writer

Source: The Sweetest Thing

“They're puttin' music to AIDS germs--putting a drum machine behind them and a metronome beat and Ted Turner's colorizing them, goddamn it. These aren't even really people, man. It's a CIA plot to make you think malls are good. Don't you see?”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Sane Man (1989)
Context: Rick Astley? Have you seen this banal incubus at work? Boy, if this guy isn't heralding Satan's imminent approach to Earth, huh. "Don't ever wanna make you cry, never wanna make you sigh … never gonna break your heart" … oh, I wouldn't worry about that without a dick, buddy. You got a corn nut! You got a clit! You're not even a guy! You're an AIDS germ that got off a slide! They're puttin' music to AIDS germs, they're puttin' a drum machine behind them in a metronome beat and Ted Turner's colorizing 'em, God damn it! These aren't even people man! It's a CIA plot to make you think malls are good!! Don't ya see? (Imitates stereotypical American in a robotic manner) "But Bill, malls are good! Malls allow us to shop 365 days of the year at a 72 degree heat. That must be good."

People, Music, Color

“So you drive as far as you can, even when you can clearly read the sign. You want to think you are exempt, that it doesn’t apply to you. But it does. Life is still a dead end. And we still have a hard time believing it”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Life, Time, Reading, Dead

“Strange though it is, Sarov still cares about you. He told me to leave you alone. But I think, this time, I must disobey the general. You are mine! And I intend to make you suffer…"

"Just talking to you makes me suffer," Alex said.”

Anthony Horowitz book Skeleton Key

Source: Skeleton Key

Suffering, Time

“I don’t know what they are called, the spaces between seconds– but I think of you always in those intervals.”

Salvador Plascencia The People of Paper

Source: The People of Paper

Missing You, Good Night

“and I shudder sometimes to think of all that stellar mystery of how she IS going to get me in a future lifetime, wow - And I seriously do believe that will be my salvation, too.
A long way to go.”

Jack Kerouac book Big Sur

Source: Big Sur

Way, Future

“You ate something yesterday. You sure?"asked Simon
Jace shrugged."Well, I wouldnt swear on a stack of Bibles. I think it was yesterday, though.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“I think women are sexy when they got some clothes on. And if later they take them off then you've triumphed.

Somebody once said it's what you dont see you're interested in, and this is true.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

Women, Clothes

“… I think I know the secret to a long and happy marriage - just choose someone you can't live without.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Smooth Talking Stranger

Marriage, Happiness, Secret

“Succes is a lousy teacher. It makes smart people think they can't lose.”

Bill Gates book The Road Ahead

The Road Ahead (1995)
Variant: Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose.

People, Teachers

“If I'm not the one thing you can't stand to lose,
If I'm not that arrow to the heart of you,
If you don't get drunk on my kiss,
If you think you can do better than this then I guess we're done.
Let's not drag this on,
Consider me gone…”

Reba McEntire (1955) American country music artist and actress

Kiss, Heart

“I would say act like a man of thought and think like a man of action.”

Henri Bergson (1859–1941) French philosopher

Je dirais qu'il faut agir en homme de pensée et penser en homme d'action. <br class="br">Speech at the Descartes Conference http://books.google.com/books?id=BynXAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Je+dirais+qu'il+faut+agir+en+homme+de+pens%C3%A9e+et+penser+en+homme+d'action%22&pg=PA1579#v=onepage in Paris (1937) <br class="br">Quoted in The Forbes Scrapbook of Thoughts on the Business of Life (1950), p. 442, as "Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought."

“What are you, in love with her?" Travis says. "You're staring like an idiot."
The weird thing is, I think I am.”

Alex Flinn (1966) American children's writer

Source: A Kiss in Time

Love

“every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise.”

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

“Every morning I walk like this around
the pond, thinking: if the doors of my heart ever close, I am as good as dead.”

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer

Heart, Dead

“The secret of being a top-notch con man is being able to know what the mark wants, and how to make him think he's getting it.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Secret

“The fact that my continuous and public rejection of Christianity does not worry me in the least should suggest to you just how inadequate I think your reasons for being a Christian are.”

Sam Harris Letter to a Christian Nation

Source: Letter to a Christian Nation

“We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Intelligence, Forgetting

“I'm not a person who thinks they can have it all, but I certainly feel that with a bit of effort and guile I should be able to have more than my fair share.”

George Carlin When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

Source: When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?

Feeling, Effort, Personality

“When I glanced at the chair, it started to shake. I’d like to think it was scared of me, but I rarely invoked that response in living things, let alone inanimate objects.”

Kelley Armstrong book Stolen

Source: Stolen

“‎"But you're the toughest son of a b!&€# i've ever seen. You never let anybody get near you. You never let anybody know what you really think.”

Mario Puzo book Fools Die

Source: Fools Die

“I wake up thinking: What am I reading? What will I read next? I'm terrified that I'll run out, that I will read through all I want to, and be forced to learn wildflowers at last, to keep awake.”

Annie Dillard book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Source: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

Learning, Reading

“Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Books, Art, Learning

“How ya doin'?' I always think, What kind of a question is that?, and I always reply, 'A bit early to tell.”

Christopher Hitchens book Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

Source: Love, Poverty, and War: Journeys and Essays

Question

“It takes long practice, yes. You have to work. Did you think you could snap your fingers, and have it as a gift? What is worth having is worth working for.”

Philip Pullman book The Amber Spyglass

Source: The Amber Spyglass

“Most true things are kind of corny, don’t you think? But we make them more sophisticated out of sheer embarrassment.”

Michel Faber book The Book of Strange New Things

Source: The Book of Strange New Things

“All I do know, for certain, after 53 years in this business, is that writers who sincerely think that their language can represent reality ought to be plumbers.”

Gilbert Sorrentino (1929–2006) American writer

Business, Reality, Sincerity

“I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.”

Billy Joel (1949) American singer-songwriter and pianist

Fools

“When I think about my relationship with America, I feel like a battered wife: Yeah, he knocks me around a lot, but boy, he sure can dance.”

Sarah Vowell book Take the Cannoli

Source: Take the Cannoli

Feeling, Boy, Dance

“What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of humility. This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Draft of a German reply to a letter sent to him in 1954 or 1955, p. 39
Attributed in posthumous publications, Albert Einstein: The Human Side (1979)
Context: I have never imputed to Nature a purpose or a goal, or anything that could be understood as anthropomorphic. What I see in Nature is a magnificent structure that we can comprehend only very imperfectly, and that must fill a thinking person with a feeling of "humility." This is a genuinely religious feeling that has nothing to do with mysticism.

Feeling, Nature, Personality

“It was a rather extraordinary conversation if you think about it -- both of us speaking in code. But not military code, not Intelligence or Resistance code -- just feminine code.”

Elizabeth Wein book Code Name Verity

Source: Code Name Verity

Intelligence

“He [Death] pulled a pure-black iPad from thin air. Death tapped the screen a few times and all Frank could think was: Please don't let there be an app for reading souls”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

Death, Soul, Time, Reading

“We're told that men are strong & brave, but I think women know how to endure, accept defeat & bear physical & mental agony much better than men.”

Lisa See book Shanghai Girls

Source: Shanghai Girls

Women, Men, Strong

“I think prime numbers are like life. They are very logical but you could never work out the rules, even if you spent all your time thinking about them”

Mark Haddon book The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Source: The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

Life, Time

“I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.”

Dave Eggers book What Is the What

Variant: If I ever fall in love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.
Source: What is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng (2006), Ch. 21, pp. 317-318
Source: What Is the What
Context: I cannot count the times I have cursed our lack of urgency. If I ever love again, I will not wait to love as best as I can. We thought we were young and that there would be time to love well sometime in the future. This is a terrible way to think. It is no way to live, to wait to love.

Love, Way, Time, Waiting