Quotes about thinking
page 36

“Extraordinary things are always hiding in places people never think to look.”

Source: My Sister's Keeper

“I think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Money, Way

“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908–2006) American economist and diplomat

Pain

“You sure you don't need your Prince Charming to come and save you?
Sure, do you have one handy?
Oh, I think I could scrounge one up somewhere. As often as I have to rescue you.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Variant: You sure you don't need your Prince Charming to come and save you?"
The knot in my stomach evaporated. My Prince Charming huh. "Sure, do you have one handy?
Source: Magic Slays

“As they spoke, the only thing I could think about was that scene from Julius Caesar where Brutus stabs him in the back. Et tu, Eric?”

Nicholas Sparks book A Walk to Remember

Source: A Walk to Remember

“Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book.”

Madonna (1958) American singer, songwriter, and actress

Variant: Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book.

Truth, Books, Reading

“I like to think the world wasn't ready for me, but maybe the truth is that I wasn't ready for the world. I've always arrived too late for my life.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Life, Truth, World

“We should have stories in common, I found myself thinking. We should have stories, and jokes no one understands, and memories that we know will stay alive because neither of us will let the other forget.”

Kamila Shamsie (1973) Pakistani writer

Understanding, Memory, Forgetting

“Always start out with a larger pot than what you think you need.”

Julia Child (1921–2004) American chef

“Q: What is a fundamental mistake of man's?
A: To think that he is alive, when he has merely fallen asleep in life's waiting-room.”

Idries Shah book Seeker After Truth

Source: Seeker After Truth

Life, Waiting

“In one of his last newsletters, Mike Ranney wrote: "In thinking back on the days of Easy Company, I'm treasuring my remark to a grandson who asked, 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?'
No,'" I answered, 'but I served in a company of heroes.”

Stephen E. Ambrose (1936–2002) American historian

Source: Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

War

“It's not always easy being her daughter.'

I think,' she said, 'sometimes it's hard no matter whose daughter you are.”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Daughters, For Parents

“People with a high tolerance for boredom can get a lot of thinking done.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: Bag of Bones/the Green Mile/the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon

People

“People talk about how wonderful the world seems to children, and that's true enough. But children think they will grow into it and understand it, and I know very well that I will not, and would not if I had a dozen lives.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Children, People, World, Understanding

“Fifteen minutes later I was an expert. That's all you need. I think I was even getting the upper hand, which is very simple with a guy. Anything seems to turn them on.”

Melina Marchetta book Looking for Alibrandi

Source: Looking for Alibrandi

Guy

“If we love God while thinking that he does not exist, he will manifest his existence.”

Simone Weil book Gravity and Grace

Source: Simone Weil : An Anthology (1986), Detachment (1947), p. 260
Source: Gravity and Grace

Love, God

“Indeed, organizing atheists has been compared to herding cats, because they tend to think independently and will not conform to authority.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

Source: The God Delusion

Cats

“I seriously needed an extra-strength magic pillow, because my ba refused to stay put. [And no, Sadie, I don't think wrapping my head in duct tape would've worked either. ]”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

“I let it ring. I wanted to breathe for a few minutes, and I could think of nothing that couldn't wait. Besides, I had paid almost $50 for an answering machine. Let it earn its keep.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Waiting

“You might think I lost all hope at that point. I did. And as a result I perked up and felt much better.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Hope, Hope

“I just don't want you to worry about me, or think you've met me, or waste your time anymore.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Time

“Holly: Seven and a half hours to save the world. Isn’t there some law that says we get twenty-four?
Artemis I don't think Opal pays much attention to laws.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception (2005)

World, Law

“He shook his head. “No. Because there's no one else out there who understands you like I do.”
I waited for more. “That's it? You're not going to elaborate on what that means?”
Those green eyes held me. “I don't think I need to.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Understanding, Waiting

“The books that help you most are those which make you think the most. The hardest way of learning is that of easy reading; but a great book that comes from a great thinker is a ship of thought, deep freighted with truth and beauty.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Truth, Books, Beauty, Way

“Now," Graves finally said, "anyone else want to piss me off? Anyone else think this is a goddamn?”

Lilith Saintcrow (1976) American writer

Source: Betrayals

“Walls have ears.
Doors have eyes.
Trees have voices.
Beasts tell lies.
Beware the rain.
Beware the snow.
Beware the man
You think you know.
-Songs of Sapphique”

Catherine Fisher book Incarceron

Source: Incarceron

Tree

“It was just one of those things," I said, "You know, that just happen. You don't think or plan. You just do it.”

Sarah Dessen book The Truth About Forever

Source: The Truth About Forever

“Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. This is central to its success. Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don’t conform to our preconceptions.”

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science educator

"Why We Need To Understand Science" in The Skeptical Inquirer Vol. 14, Issue 3 (Spring 1990)
Context: Science is much more than a body of knowledge. It is a way of thinking. This is central to its success. Science invites us to let the facts in, even when they don’t conform to our preconceptions. It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which ones best match the facts. It urges on us a fine balance between no-holds-barred openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything — new ideas and established wisdom. We need wide appreciation of this kind of thinking. It works. It’s an essential tool for a democracy in an age of change. Our task is not just to train more scientists but also to deepen public understanding of science.

Way, Knowledge, Science, Success

“Always tell what you feel. Do what you think…”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Feeling

“There are no absolutes in relationships. You can't take anything for granted. You can count on absolutely nothing but the unexpected. You only get in trouble when you start thinking that you're some kind of exception to the rule.”

Emily Giffin (1972) American writer

Source: Baby Proof

“It is a good idea sometimes to think of the importance and dignity of our every-day duties. It keeps them from being so tiresome; besides, others are apt take us at our own valuation.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

Idea

“Above all, never think you're not good enough. Never think that. In life people will take you at your own reckoning.”

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) American writer and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, known for his works of science fiction …

Life, People

“I tried to think about other things. I tried to invent optimistic inventions. But the pessimistic ones were extremely loud.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

“Remember happiness doesn't depend upon who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

As quoted in Plenty of Time to Sleep When You're Dead : A Compilation of Life-changing Quotes (2006) by Richard Caridi
As quoted in Sprituality in a Materialistic World (2008) by Leslie Klein
Variant: Remember happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely upon what you think.

Happiness, Dependency

“My heart's with you, Bill, no matter how it turns out. My heart is with all of them, and I think that, even if we forget each other, we'll remember in our dreams.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It

Dreams, Heart, Forgetting

“People have obsessions and fears and passions which they don't admit to. I think every character is interesting and has extremes. It's the novelist privilege to see how odd everyone is.”

Iris Murdoch (1919–1999) British writer and philosopher

People, Fear, Passion

“Mortality, behold, and fear,
What a change of flesh is here!
Think how many royal bones
Sleep within this heap of stones”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Prince

Source: Clockwork Prince

Fear, Sleep, Change

“Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary

“We seldom think of what we have, but always of what we lack.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Variant: We seldom speak of what we have but often of what we lack.

“It's not that we fear the place of darkness, but that we don't think we are worth the effort to find the place of light.”

Hugh Prather (1938–2010) American writer

Source: Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person

Fear, Effort, Light

“I think that others can drive a creature to naughtiness, always accusing and blaming them. After a while it must make the creature unhappy and drive him… to be naughty, because nobody expects them to be good…”

Brian Jacques book Outcast of Redwall

Source: Outcast of Redwall

“I've been an idiot to think that real life could have a happy ending”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Life, Happiness

“Some people think they have discernment when actually they are just suspicious..

Suspicion comes out of the unrenewed mind; discernment comes out of the renewed spirit.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

People

“I also think he is given to disguises… Sometimes he wears spectacles and sometimes he does not. And twice he has worn an extremely peculiar hat. Inside.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: What Happens in London

“I think if you study--if you learn too much of what others have done, you may tend to take the same direction as everybody else.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Source: It's Not Easy Being Green: And Other Things to Consider

Study, Learning

“I think everybody should be nice to everybody.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Variant: I think everybody should like everybody.

“Since his mother died I have seen him steam a cucumber thinking it was zucchini. That's the kind of thing that turns my heart right over.”

Amy Hempel (1951) Short story writer

Heart

“That's how a scary story works. It echoes some ancient fear. It recreates some forgotten terror. Something we'd like to think we're grown beyond. But it can still scare us to tears. It's something you'd hoped was healed.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Haunted

Source: Haunted (2005), Chapter 19, Hot Potting, A story by Baroness Frostbite

Fear, Hope, Tear

“You become what you think about”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude

“But I'm not ready to stop listening to the screwed-up inner voice that's been ordering me around for a lifetime. My head thinks it can kill me… and go on living without me.”

Mary Karr (1955) American writer

Source: Lit

“Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.”

Peter Singer book Animal Liberation

Source: Animal Liberation

Age, Question

“She was feeling, thinking, trembling about everything; agitated, happy, miserable, infinitely obliged, absolutely angry.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Happiness, Feeling

“I think maybe part of what got him into trouble was that he did too much thinking. Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why people were bad to each other so often.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

People, World, Sense, Parting

“All I could think of when I got a look at the place from the outside was what fun it would be to stand out there and watch it burn down.”

Shirley Jackson book The Haunting of Hill House

Source: The Haunting of Hill House

“Grief is when you feel so helpless and stupid that you think nothing will ever be right again, and your macaroni and cheese tastes like sawdust, and you can't even jerk off because it seems like too much trouble.”

Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

Stupidity, Jerk, Feeling

“The greatest sin is to think yourself weak”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

Source: Pearls of Wisdom

“A writer never has a vacation. For a writer, life consists of either writing or thinking about writing.”

Eugéne Ionesco (1909–1994) Romanian playwright

Life

“I don't think anything might have been. What is, is.”

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) American writer, artist, and illustrator

“What do you think Dimitri? Is this a good idea, Dimitri? Please give us your blessing so that we can fall down and worship you, Dimitri.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Idea

“… that when you're buying books, you're optimistically thinking you're buying the time to read them.
(Paraphrase of Schopenhauer)”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

Books, Time, Reading

“Sometimes I feel like I’m actually on the wrong planet. It’s great when I’m in my garden, but the minute I go out the gate I think, ‘What the hell am I doing here?”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Feeling, Hell

“I have lost everything, Han thought. Then he corrected himself. Every time I think I’ve lost everything, I find there’s still something else to lose.”

Cinda Williams Chima (1952) Novelist

Source: The Gray Wolf Throne

Time

“When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions.”

Carter G. Woodson book The Mis-Education of the Negro

Preface 
Source: The Mis-Education of the Negro (1933)
Context: When you control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his actions. You do not have to tell him not to stand here or go yonder. He will find his "proper place" and will stay in it. You do not need to send him to the back door. He will go without being told. In fact, if there is no back door, he will cut one for his special benefit. His education makes it necessary.
The same educational process which inspires and stimulates the oppressor with the thought that he is everything and has accomplished everything worth while, depresses and crushes at the same time the spark of genius in the Negro by making him feel that his race does not amount to much and never will measure up to the standards of other peoples. The Negro thus educated is a hopeless liability of the race.

“It's a long way from not having enough serotonin to thinking the world is "stale, flat and unprofitable"; even further to writing a play about a man driven by that thought.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

World, Way

“Sometimes I think I live more closely to the past than the present.”

Patricia Briggs (1965) American writer

Source: Dragon Bones

Past

“As long as you live, you hope. You think that everything will just… get better.”

Romain Gary book Au-delà de cette limite votre ticket n'est plus valable

Source: Au-delà de cette limite votre ticket n'est plus valable

Hope

“I can't think of a case where poems changed the world, but what they do is they change people's understanding of what's going on in the world.”

Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer

People, World, Understanding, Change

“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom.”

Gillian Flynn book Sharp Objects

Source: Sharp Objects

Waiting

“Yeah, about that,” says Peeta, entwining his fingers in mine. “Don’t try something like that again.” “Or what?” I ask. “Or… or…” He can’t think of anything good. “Just give me a minute.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Source: The Hunger Games

“I don't think he could ever be a serial killer. He's way too shy. That Ted Bundy guy, he was pretty outgoing, from what I heard. -Jess about Doug p. 107”

Meg Cabot (1967) Novelist

Source: When Lightning Strikes

Way, Guy

“You may think it all very fine, Mr. Huntingdon, to amuse yourself with rousing my jealousy; but take care you don't rouse my hate instead. And when you have once extinguished my love, you will find it no easy matter to kindle it again.”

Anne Brontë book The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (1848), Ch. XXVII : Misdemeanour; Helen to Arthur

Love, Hate, Jealousy

“I do this real moron thing, and it's called thinking. And apparently I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

“So Mr. Bass why do you think you should become an Usher?" asked the interviewer. Chuck smiled.

Because I'm Chuck Bass.”

Cecily von Ziegesar (1970) American writer

Source: Would I Lie to You

Smile

“I could die in peace, I think, if the world was beautiful. To know it's being ruined is hard.”

Wendell Berry (1934) author

Source: Jayber Crow

World, Peace, Beauty

“Nature is so exact, it hurts exactly as much as it is worth, so in a way one relishes the pain, I think. If it didn't matter, it wouldn't matter.”

Julian Barnes (1946) English writer

Source: Levels of Life

Pain, Way, Nature, Hurt

“What seems natural to us is probably just something familiar in a long tradition that has forgotten the unfamiliar source from which it arose. And yet this unfamiliar source once struck man as strange and caused him to think and to wonder.”

Martin Heidegger (1889–1976) German philosopher

Nature

“It all depends on whatyou're talking about helping. That's the wonderful think about just about every religion on the planet - they're all so incredibly selfish.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

Religion, Help, Dependency, Selfishness

“If you don't like something, change it; if you can't change it, change the way you think about it.”

Mary Engelbreit (1952) American illustrator

Way, Change

“It's funny how different people are. If I'd been this kid and someone was snarling "Ordering a pizza?" at me, without even thinking, I would have snarled back "Yeah. You want pepperoni?"
-Maximum Ride”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: School's Out—Forever

People

“A true opium of the people is a belief in nothingness after death - the huge solace of thinking that for our betrayals, greed, cowardice, murders we are not going to be judged.”

Czeslaw Milosz (1911–2004) Polish, poet, diplomat, prosaist, writer, and translator

Death, People, Betrayal

“[W]hen a group of people make something sacred, the members of the cult lose the ability to think clearly about it. Morality binds and blinds.”

Jonathan Haidt (1963) American psychologist

Source: The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion

People

“The trouble was, if you were a chief you had to think, you had to be wise.”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Lord of the Flies

“If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow

"On Eating and Drinking".
Source: Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1886)
Context: Foolish people — when I say "foolish people" in this contemptuous way I mean people who entertain different opinions to mine. If there is one person I do despise more than another, it is the man who does not think exactly the same on all topics as I do.

Personality

“Sometimes I think I must have a Guardian Idiot. A little invisible spirit just behind my shoulder, looking out for me… only he's an imbecile.”

Spider Robinson (1948) Canadian author

Source: Off the Wall at Callahan's

“Sometimes I imagine myself looking back on right now and I think like where will I be standing when I look back Will right now look like the beginning of a great life or… or what”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Life, Imagination

“Everything everyone thinks they know about [Mother Teresa] is false. It must be the single most successful emotional con job of the twentieth century.”

Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist

Success, Falseness

“What I saw wasn't a ghost. It was simply--myself. I can never forget how terrified I was that night, and whenever I remember it, this thought always springs to mind: that the most frightening thing in the world is our own self. What do you think?”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

World, Spring, Night, Forgetting

“How do you fight someone smarter than yourself?' Rand Whispered. 'The answer is simple. You make her think that you are sitting down across the table from her, ready to play her game. Then you punch her in the face as hard as you can.”

Brandon Sanderson The Wheel of Time

Source: The Gathering Storm

Game, Fight

“What are other women really thinking, feeling, experiencing, when they slip away from the gaze and culture of men?”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth

Women, Men, Feeling

“I don't like to think of myself as a 'virgin'. I prefer to think of myself as 'sexually incomplete'. You know. Like I haven't finished the course yet.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

“I think they should have a Barbie with a buzz cut.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

“There's a boy who they call Pony! He's always acting gross and horny! He thinks he's got a lot down there, but he sure wears tiny underwear!”

Cecily von Ziegesar The It Girl

Source: The It Girl

Boy

“Jessica swallowed. "I think you had better stick to English."

"But Italian is so moving," Dain said.

"To ho voluto dal primo che ti vedi." I've wanted you from the first moment I saw you.

"Mi tormenti ancora." You've tormented me ever since.”

Loretta Chase book Lord of Scoundrels

Source: Lord of Scoundrels

“Do you take pride in your hurt? Does it make you seem large and tragic?… Well, think about it. Maybe you're playing a part on a great stage with only yourself as audience.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Parting, Hurt

“Another thing is no matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Invisible Monsters

Variant: No matter how much you think you love somebody, you'll step back when the pool of their blood edges up too close.
Source: Invisible Monsters

Love

“I think she just asked if she could touch my mango.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“Don't think of death as an ending. Think of it as a really effective way of cutting down your expenses.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Death, Way

“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking. Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.”

Ray Bradbury book The October Country

The Next in Line (1947)
Source: The October Country (1955)
Context: “Don’t these people ever get lonely?”
“They’re used to it this way.”
“Don’t they get afraid, then?”
”They have a religion for that.”
“I wish I had a religion.”
“The minute you get a religion you stop thinking,” he said. “Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.”

Religion, Idea

“I think reading is part of the birthright of the human being”

LeVar Burton (1957) actor, director

Reading, Parting

“Internet porn makes everything more reasonable -- once you've realized there is a massive subculture of upwardly mobile people who think it's erotic to see an Asian woman giving a hand job to a javelina, nothing else in the world seems crazy.”

Chuck Klosterman (1972) Author, Columnist

People, World

Quotes about thinking page 36

Quotes about thinking
page 36