Quotes about thinking
page 54

“Here's what I think: the five most
unattractive traits in people are cheapness, clinginess, neediness, unwillingness to change and
jealousy. Jealousy is the worst, and by far the hardest to conceal.”

Douglas Coupland Hey Nostradamus!

Source: Hey Nostradamus!

People, Jealousy, Change

“I'm tired of people thinking they're doing me favours.”

Michael Thomas Ford (1968) American writer

Source: Suicide Notes

People

“When I am in the darkness, I want to think of it in the light, with you. - James Carstairs”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Light

“Each work has to pass through these stages—ridicule, opposition, and then acceptance. Those who think ahead of their time are sure to be misunderstood.”

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

Pearls of Wisdom

Time

“Positive thinking can be contagious. Being surrounded by winners helps you develop into a winner.”

Arnold Schwarzenegger (1947) actor, businessman and politician of Austrian-American heritage

Source: Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder

Help

“You love new boyfriend?"
"I think so. Yes."
"Then you must spoil him. And he must spoil you.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Love

“I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework”

Lily Tomlin (1939) American actress, comedian, writer, and producer

Contributions of Jane Wagner, As Edith Ann

Home, Teachers, Teachers' Day

“How much can a dragon carry?
As much as it thinks it can”

Anne McCaffrey (1926–2011) American-Irish novelist

“I owe her everything and I love her and I tell her these days, although every time I say it, it gets a little diluted. I think you run out of I love yous.”

Ned Vizzini book It's Kind of a Funny Story

Source: It's Kind of a Funny Story

Love, Time

“Don't look now, but there's one man too many in this room, and I think it's you.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

“The most dangerous thing about an academic education is that it enables my tendency to over-intellectualize stuff, to get lost in abstract thinking instead of simply paying attention to what’s going on in front of me.”

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

Education

“Think! There's nothing certain in our future! All we can hope for is a vague continuation. But in spite of that, you're going to keep on living. You can't give up on life just because it's vague. It's a question of possibilities…”

Kōji Suzuki book Ring

Source: Ring

Life, Hope, Question, Future

“To all, I would say how mistaken they are when they think that they stop falling in love when they grow old, without knowing that they grow old when they stop falling in love.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

Variant: I would prove to the men how mistaken they are in thinking that they no longer
fall in love when they grow old--not knowing that they grow old when they stop
falling in love.

Love

“Do you understand this is serious?"

"I understand you think it's serious.”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

Understanding

“I'm in a constant process of thinking about things.”

Richard Brautigan (1935–1984) American novelist, poet, and short story writer

“I suggest you leave. Now. (Nykyrian)
(The would-be attackers flee.)
Had you said ‘boo,’ I think they would have wet themselves. (Kiara)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Born of the Night

“I think I’m greedy, but I’m not greedy for money - I think that can be a burden - I’m greedy for an exciting life.”

David Hockney (1937) British artist

Life, Money

“I think… the secret is to just settle for the shape of your life takes… Instead of you know, always waiting and wishing for whatmake you happy.”

Wally Lamb book She's Come Undone

Source: She's Come Undone

Life, Happiness, Secret, Waiting

“The heart wants what the heart wants," she says, somewhat cryptically. I purse my lips in disapproval. "You'd think the heart would know better.”

Candace Bushnell book Summer and the City

Source: Summer and the City

Heart

“Caesar broke the law when he crossed the Rubicon," Frank said. "Great leaders have to think out side the box sometimes.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Law, Box

“You'll do what you think you want to do, or what you think you ought to do. If you're very lucky, luckier than anybody I know, the two will coincide.”

Wallace Stegner book Angle of Repose

Source: Angle of Repose

“Think of the solution, not the problem”

Terry Goodkind (1948) American novelist

Problem, Motivational, Wise, Deep

“I’m afraid of everything. Fear of being alone, fear of being hurt, fear of being made a fool of, fear of failure… Still, I think all my fears bleed from one big one…”

Tiffanie DeBartolo (1970) American writer

Source: God-Shaped Hole

Fear, Fools, Failure, Hurt

“You don't have to do this."
"I think I do," Julian said. "I remember making a vow to that affect."
"Whither thou goest, i will go, whatever stupid thing you do, i shall do also'." Emma said. "Was that the vow?”

Cassandra Clare book Lady Midnight

Source: Lady Midnight

Stupidity

“I want you to show them the difference between what they think you are and what you can be.”

Ernest J. Gaines A Lesson Before Dying

Source: A Lesson Before Dying

“Knowing that wishes don’t always come about in the way that we think, but if you believe and keep your mind open, there’s a really good chance they will manifest in some way.”

Alyson Nöel (1965) writer

Source: Night Star

Way, Chance

“Sometimes I think I’ll never trust another girl the way I trust you.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: We'll Always Have Summer

Way, Girl

“I think I know what military fame is; to be killed on the field of battle and have your name misspelled in the newspapers.”

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.

“Image is what people think we are; integrity is whar we really are.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

People

“Some morning while your eating breakfast and you need something new to think about, though, you might want to ponder the fact that you see your kids across the table not as they are but as they once were, about three nanoseconds ago.”

Neil deGrasse Tyson (1958) American astrophysicist and science communicator

Source: Death by Black Hole - And Other Cosmic Quandaries

“I used to think the years would go by in order, that you get older one year at a time. But it's not like that. It happens overnight.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Time

“To think what is true, to sense what is beautiful and to want what is good, hereby the spirit finds purpose of a life in reason.”

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic

Life, Beauty, Sense

“Our moments are music, and sometimes – just sometimes – we can catch them and put them into some lasting form. If we didn’t have music, I don’t think we could ever be truly happy, and if we didn’t have special moments, we would never find music.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: How They Met, and Other Stories

Happiness, Music

“So Sophos thinks you're going to marry me."
"While I think you'll marry Sophos."
"I might. We'll see what he's like when he grows up.”

Megan Whalen Turner The Thief

Source: The Thief

“People think of education as something they can finish.”

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

People, Education

“I try to deny myself any illusions or delusions, and I think that this perhaps entitles me to try and deny the same to others, at least as long as they refuse to keep their fantasies to themselves.”

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

Source: Hitch-22: A Memoir

“Knowledge, like all things, is best in moderation," intoned the Will. "Knowing everything means you don't need to think, and that is very dangerous.”

Garth Nix book Lady Friday

Source: Lady Friday

Knowledge

“Strange? I don't think that word comes anywhere near it. My troops are on an overnight camp three hundred kilometres away from here. I had to sleep at the Santangelo penitentiary for pre-pubescent girls.”

Melina Marchetta book On the Jellicoe Road

Source: On the Jellicoe Road

Girl, Sleep

“Stop thinking about life and choose to live it”

Paulo Coelho book The Fifth Mountain

Source: The Fifth Mountain

Life

“What we see before us is just one tiny part of the world. We get in the habit of thinking, this is the world, but that's not true at all. The real world is a much darker and deeper place than this, and much of it is occupied by jellyfish and things.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

World, Parting

“Well, I make that one murder victim, one police interrogation and one conversation with a ghost,” George said. “Now that’s what I call a busy evening.”
Lockwood nodded. “To think some people just watch television.”

Jonathan Stroud book The Whispering Skull

Source: The Whispering Skull

People, Business

“It's funny how you never think about the women you've had. It's always the ones who get away that you can't forget.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

Women, Forgetting

“… mediocre people find their way into positions of authority… because when it comes to even the most important positions, our selection decisions are a good deal less rational than we think.”

Malcolm Gladwell book Blink

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

People, Way, Decision

“I don't think anyone ever remembers what they were really like as kids. Adults think they do, but they don't. Photos and videos don't capture the real you, or bring back to life the person you used to be. You have to return to the past to do that.”

Darren Shan book Sons of Destiny

Source: Sons of Destiny

Life, Photo, Past, Personality

“People pay more attention when they think you’re up to something.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Complete Calvin and Hobbes

People

“Does the giraffe know what he's for? Or care? Or even think about his place in things? A giraffe has a black tongue twenty-seven inches long and no vocal cords. A giraffe has nothing to say. He just goes on giraffing.”

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

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

“Doubt is not always a sign that a man is wrong; it may be a sign that he is thinking.”

Oswald Chambers (1874–1917) British missionary

“I think it's important for girls to be confident. Believe in yourself and… everybody's hot”

Paris Hilton (1981) American socialite

Confidence, Girl

“Lara Jean, I think you half-fall in love with every person you meet. It’s part of your charm. You’re in love with love.”

Jenny Han book P.S. I Still Love You

Source: P.S. I Still Love You

Love, Parting, Personality

“I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that.”

Lauren Bacall (1924–2014) American actress, model

As quoted in The Daily Telegraph (2 March 1988)

Life

“Personally, I think knees should be kept for the eighth or ninth date, or the wedding day. As a nice surprise you know? 'oh, my darling, you have knees! I never would have thought”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Mortal Coil

Wedding, Personality

“I was thinking that if what distinguishes us as humans is our stupidity, what may redeem us is our grace.”

Earl Lovelace (1935) Trinidad and Tobago writer

Stupidity

“We're developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won't be able to think.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter

“I didn't think I should die but I did not know how I would Live.”

Julia Quinn (1970) American novelist

Source: The Lost Duke of Wyndham

“Thinking very often resembles napping, but the intent is different. --Stephanie Plum”

Janet Evanovich book Seven Up

Source: Seven Up

“The First Splendid Truth: To be happy, I need to think about feeling good, feeling bad, and feeling right, in an atmosphere of growth.”

Gretchen Rubin (1966) American writer

Source: The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun

Happiness, Truth, Feeling

“It’s how I fill the time when nothing’s happening. Thinking too much, flirting with melancholy.”

Tim Winton book Breath

Source: Breath

Time

“You think You're frightening me with Your hell, don't You? You think Your hell is worse than mine.”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Source: The Portable Dorothy Parker

Hell

“You have a conscience, and a conscience is a valuable attribute, but not if it begins to make you think you were to blame for what is far beyond the scope of your responsibility.”

Philip Roth book Nemesis

Source: Nemesis

“Men are more moral than they think and far more immoral than they can imagine.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

Men, Imagination

“Every time I think I'm missing a piece of me, you give it back.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Time

“I think by the time you're grown you're as happy as you're goin to be. You'll have good times and bad times, but in the end you'll be about as happy as you was before. Or as unhappy. I've knowed people that just never did get the hang of it.”

Cormac McCarthy book No Country for Old Men

Source: No Country for Old Men (2005)
Context: I aint got all that many regrets. I could imagine lots of things that you might think would make a man happier. I think by the time you're grown you're as happy as you're goin to be. You'll have good times and bad times, but in the end you'll be about as happy as you was before. Or as unhappy. I've knowed people that just never did get the hang of it.

Happiness, People, Time

“I just don't see the point in beating myself up. I think it's more productive to concentrate on being a better person right now than punishing myself for who I was in the past.”

Megan McCafferty (1973) American novelist

Source: Second Helpings

Past, Personality

“Great minds may have cold hearts. Form but no color. It is an incompleteness. And so they are afraid of any woman who both thinks and feels deeply.”

Sena Jeter Naslund (1942) American writer

Source: Ahab's Wife, or The Star-Gazer

Color, Feeling, Heart

“No, you don’t need to help me. But if you don’t, there’s nothing stopping me from calling you up again and again, now that I know you can’t kill me. Think of it as me leaning against your Heavenly doorbell… forever.”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

Help

“What was the self-sacrifice?"
I jettisoned half of a much-loved and I think irreplaceable pair of shoes."
Why was that self-sacrifice?"
Because they were mine!" said Ford, crossly.
I think we have different value systems."
Well mine's better.”

Douglas Adams book Mostly Harmless

Source: Mostly Harmless

Love, Shoe

“I am always glad when any of my books can be put into an inexpensive edition, because I like to think that any people who might wish to read them can do so. Surely books ought to be within reach of everybody.”

Pearl S. Buck book The Good Earth

Source: The Good Earth

People, Books, Reading

“For a man to think he can fulfil his destiny without a woman is a misunderstanding, a miscalculation; it is reckless and folly. Certainly a woman is not everthing, but everything depends on her.”

Yasmina Khadra book What the Day Owes the Night

Source: Ce que le jour doit à la nuit

Dependency

“I don't think any word can explain a man's life.”

Orson Welles (1915–1985) American actor, director, writer and producer

Source: Citizen Kane

Life

“If you think of yourselves as helpless and ineffectual, it is certain that you will create a despotic government to be your master. The wise despot, therefore, maintains among his subjects a popular sense that they are helpless and ineffectual.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

Sense

“That's how you know you really trust someone, I think; when you don't have to talk all the time to make sure they still like you or prove that you have interesting stuff to say.”

Sara Zarr book Story of a Girl

Source: Story of a Girl

Time

“I think there's too much mult-tasking going on. I think people need to quiet down and focus and be still more.”

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

People

“There’s Socialism and Communism and Capitalism and there’s Feminism and Hedonism, and there’s Catholicism and Bipedalism and Consumerism, but I think Narcissism is the system that means the most to me.”

Tony Hoagland (1953–2018) American writer

Communication

“I wonder: If you think of someone you love, do you become a little more like them? I would like to think so.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Love

“Hey, Cammie… tell Suzie she's a lucky cat."I seriously think not!”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Cats

“I think you have a case of either 'testitis' or 'I Didn't Do My Homework Syndrome'. It's common in the Spring.”

Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer

Source: Vampireville

Spring

“That's why I liked him, I think. Another guy pretending to be human, just like me.”

Jeff Lindsay book Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Source: Darkly Dreaming Dexter

Guy

“A nation which thinks that it is belief in God and not good law which makes people honest does not seem to me very advanced.”

Denis Diderot (1713–1784) French Enlightenment philosopher and encyclopædist

God, People, Law

“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.”

Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian psychiatrist

Intelligence, Courage, Courageous

“You think you know how this story is going to end, but you don't. Trust me, I was there. I know.”

Christopher Moore book Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

Biff, in Ch. 1
Source: Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal (2002)

“C'mon, Tabitha. You stabbed me the night we met without even blinking. (Valerius)
Yeah, but you were a dirtbag then. (Tabitha)
I think I'm offended. (Valerius)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Seize the Night

Night

“Why would I kill to know what she's thinking right now?
Probably because I enjoy killing.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Lothaire

“Mr. Franz, I think careers are a 20th Century invention and I don't want one. You don’t need to worry about me; I have a college education. I’m not destitute. I'm living like this by choice.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Education

“You behave as if everything is funny to you, but you never laugh. Sometimes you smile when you think no one is paying attention.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Smile

“I don't believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don't judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free”

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

Variant: I don't believe in guilt, I believe in living on impulse as long as you never intentionally hurt another person, and don't judge people in your life. I think you should live completely free...

Life, People, Hurt, Personality

“The mad rarely know that they are mad. It's the rest of the world, I think, that seems insane to them.”

Jim Butcher (1971) American author

World, Madness

“Thought's a luxury. Do you think the peasant sits and thinks of God and Democracy when he gets inside his mud hut at night?”

Graham Greene book The Quiet American

Source: The Quiet American

God, Democracy, Night

“There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same.”

Susanna Kaysen book Girl, Interrupted

Source: Girl, Interrupted

Feeling

“she is no longer
the beautiful woman
she was. she sends
photos of herself
sitting upon a rock
by the ocean
alone and damned.
I could have had
her once. I wonder
if she thinks I
could have
saved her?”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Beauty, Photo

“"You're not leaving me here alone," I say. Because if he dies, I'll never go home, not really. I'll spend the rest of my life in this arena trying to think my way out.”

Suzanne Collins The Hunger Games

Katniss Everdeen, p. 343
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, The Hunger Games (2008)

Life, Way, Home

“I think that most people would rather face the light of a real enemy than the darkness of their imagined fears.”

Max Brooks book World War Z

Source: World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

People, Fear, Imagination, Light

“It's not bad enough I am exiled? It's not bad enough you take away the few good heroes I'm allowed to meet? You think it's funny to send me this this ― this charbroiled runt of a boy to ruin my tranquility? This is NOT FUNNY! Take him back!”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Boy

“People will think what they want to," he said quietly. Never take too much notice of it.”

John Flanagan (1873–1938) Irish-American hammer thrower

Source: The Ruins of Gorlan

People

“I can always tell when you're thinking about food. You forget to be the Serious Wolf and you get this dreamy look in your eyes. You know, most people would think you were thinking about a girl. They have no idea that her name is bacon.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Stars

People, Food, Girl, Idea

“To belong to someone—I didn’t know it, but now that I think about, it seems like that’s all I’ve ever wanted. To really be somebody’s, and to have them be mine.”

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

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

“Maya Angelou observed you cant use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have. Sadly, too often creativity is smothered rather than nurtured. There has to be climate in which new ways of thinking, perceiving, questioning are encouraged.”

John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor

Source: How Successful People Think: Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life

Angels, Way, Question

“Now we're in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated. But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We're fickle, stupid beings with poor memories and a great gift for self-destruction.”

Suzanne Collins book Mockingjay

Katniss and Plutarch Heavensbee (p. 379)
Source: The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay (2010)
Context: “Are you preparing for another war, Plutarch?” I ask.
“Oh, not now. Now we’re in that sweet period where everyone agrees that our recent horrors should never be repeated,” he says. “But collective thinking is usually short-lived. We’re fickle, stupid beings with a great gift for self-destruction. Although who knows? Maybe this will be it, Katniss.”
“What?” I ask.
“The time it sticks. Maybe we are witnessing the evolution of the human race. Think about that.“

Stupidity, Memory