Quotes about thinking
page 59

“I do think that families are the most beautiful things in all the world!”

Source: Little Women

“Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real.”

Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle

Source: I Capture the Castle

Past

“Good. Show me a man who thinks that he knows what 'good' is, and I will probably be able to show you a horror of a person. Show me a person who really knows what 'good' is, and I will show you that he almost never uses the word.”

Idries Shah book Caravan of Dreams

Source: Caravan of Dreams

Personality

“That's the kind of death that frightens me. The shadow of death slowly, slowly eats away at the region of life, and before you know it everything's dark and you can't see, and the people around you think of you as more dead than alive.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Life, Death, People, Dead

“It's what we think we know that keeps us from learning.”

Claude Bernard (1813–1878) French physiologist

Learning

“I would think that counted as offering resistance," Will said. "Eating one's son-in-law, that is. Though I suppose everyone has their family altercations.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

Source: Clockwork Princess

Family, Law

“He didn't think much of fates and prophecies, but he did believe in one thing: Annabeth and he were supposed to be together.”

Rick Riordan book The House of Hades

Source: The House of Hades

Fate

“You don't start out writing good stuff. You start out writing crap and thinking it's good stuff, and then gradually you get better at it.
That's why I say one of the most valuable traits is persistence.”

Octavia E. Butler (1947–2006) American science fiction writer

“If you feel the urge, don't be afraid to go on a wild goose chase. What do you think wild geese are for anyway?”

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer

Feeling

“Sometimes you build up these walls, you build and you build and you build up these walls and you think they’re so strong, but then someone can come along and tip them over with only his fingers, or the weight of his breath.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: Wild Roses

Strong

“Know this. I think you could be special if you only thought there was anything special about yourself.”

Pat Conroy (1945–2016) American novelist

Source: My Losing Season: A Memoir

“She thinks before she acts. Or more properly, she thinks instead of acts. A character flaw, not a virtue.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

“Have faith in the Yankees my son. Think of the great DiMaggio.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Old Man and the Sea

Source: The Old Man and the Sea

Faith

“It was the building from the drawing in my brain.
And if you don’t think that’s a weird sentence, maybe you should reread it.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: The Angel Experiment

Drawing

“Ever consider what pets must think of us? I mean, here we come back from a grocery store with the most amazing haul - chicken, pork, half a cow. They must think we're the greatest hunters on earth!”

Anne Tyler The Accidental Tourist

Source: The Accidental Tourist

“Forgiveness, reader, is, I think, something very much like hope and love - a powerful, wonderful thing.
And a ridiculous thing, too.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

Source: The Tale of Despereaux

Love, Hope, Forgiveness

“salvation is for the feeble, that's what I think. I don't want salvation, I want life, all of life, the miserable as well as the superb.”

Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume

Source: Jitterbug Perfume

Life

“And you stupid, stupid woman, stupid for caring, stupid for thinking that he cared.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Source: One Day

Stupidity

“Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”

Andy Warhol (1928–1987) American artist

Love, Hate, Art

“All I could think to say was, "The Lakers are my home team!”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Home

“Suddenly, I don't know what to say. It happens often to me. I know what I want to say, I think about whether it is what I mean, but when the moment comes to speak, I can't say it.
- Nana Kleinfrankenheim, Vivre Sa Vie.”

Jean-Luc Godard (1930) French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic

“I don’t think I will get married,” Polly said as she stood up. “I’m going to train to be a hero instead.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Fire and Hemlock

Source: Fire and Hemlock

Training

“Tell me about our legal issues. And use small words. I don't like to think at this hour of the morning. It hurts."

~Leo to Merripen”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: Married By Morning

Hurt

“I hate it when straight guys think all gay guys are attracted to them. I'm not attracted to every guy any more than you're attracted to every girl.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Variant: No, I couldn’t,” Alec said. “I hate it when straight guys think all gay guys are attracted to them. I’m not attracted to every guy any more than you’re attracted to every girl.
Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Hate, Guy, Girl

“There are two kinds of idiots - those who don't take action because they have received a threat, and those who think they are taking action because they have issued a threat.”

Paulo Coelho book The Devil and Miss Prym

Source: The Devil and Miss Prym

“I think there are two different oceans - the one that plays with you in the summer, and the one that gets so mad in the winter.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Winter, Summer, Madness

“My plans are still in embryo, a town on the edge of wishful thinking.”

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian

“Just let them sit in the goddam sun. But the world won't let them because there's nothing more dangerous than letting old farts sit in the sun. They might be thinking. Same thing with kids. Keep 'em busy or they might start thinking.”

Frank McCourt book Teacher Man

Source: Teacher Man

World, Business, Sun

“Stop thinking of what you intend to do. Stop thinking of what you have just done. Then, stop thinking that you have stopped thinking of those things. Then you will find the Now, the time that stretches eternal, and is really the only time there is.”

Robin Hobb book Royal Assassin

Source: Royal Assassin

Time

“I don't think necessity is the mother of invention — invention, in my opinion, arises directly from idleness, possibly also from laziness. To save oneself trouble.”

Agatha Christie (1890–1976) English mystery and detective writer

Part III: Growing Up, §II
Source: An Autobiography (1977)

“If you keep wiggling, things might get uncomfortable,” he said into my ear, his voice like a caress. “I’m doing my best, but thinking about baseball only takes you so far.” I froze.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Burn for Me

“Why are you unhappy?
Because 99.9 per cent
Of everything you think,
And of everything you do,
Is for yourself —
And there isn't one.”

Wei Wu Wei (1895–1986) writer

Part One : The Crossroads, p. 7
Ask the Awakened: the Negative Way (1963)

“They all think medicine should be magic, and they become mad at me when it's not.”

Neal Shusterman (1962) American novelist

Source: Challenger Deep

Madness

“I think I'd probably tell you that it's easier to desire and pursue the attention of tens of millions of total strangers than it is to accept the love and loyalty of the people closest to us.”

William Gibson book Idoru

Source: Idoru

Love, People, Loyalty

“There is music in words, and it can be heard you know, by thinking.”

E.L. Doctorow book Homer & Langley

Source: Homer & Langley

Music

“Did you think I was sitting on my hands?” “I thought you might be injured.” He looked at me. “We’ve met, you and I?” I deliberately took a big step back. “What?” he growled. “I’m making room for your ego.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Shifts

“What people don’t realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.”

Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer

Source: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

People, Faith, Religion

“Why do grown-ups think it's easier for children to bear secrets than the truth? Don't they know about the horror stories we imagine to explain the secrets?”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

Source: Inkheart

Children, Truth, Secret, Imagination

“Those who stay away from the election think that one vote will do no good. 'Tis but one step more to think one vote will do no harm.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”

Harlan Ellison (1934–2018) American writer

As quoted in The Volta Review (1934), p. 574 http://books.google.de/books?id=qWE4AQAAIAAJ&q=hate, Clifton Fadiman: The American Treasury 1455-1955 (New York 1955) p. 997 http://books.google.de/books?id=PEQ4AAAAIAAJ&q=really+make+them and Hugh Rawson, Margaret Miner: The Oxford Dictionary of American Quotations (2006) p. 431 #5 http://books.google.de/books?id=whg05Z4Nwo0C&pg=PA431&dq=mehitabel from archy and mehitabel (1927)

Love, Hate, People

“I think of myself as a freewheeling bisexual,' - Magnus Bane”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

“If I had bodily functions, I think I would have peed my pants.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: The Darkest Night

“It's funny whom we end up choosing to love and who ends up choosing to love us. It's rarely the people we think it should be.”

Robin Jones Gunn (1955) American writer

Source: Gardenias for Breakfast

Love, People

“I think that men ought to treat women like something other than weaker men with breasts.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

Women, Men

“The free-thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.”

Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools

God and the Bible (1875)

Age, Sense

“It’s fun to think of the what-if. Scary, but fun. It’s like, I thought this door was closed before, but here it is open just the tiniest crack. What if?”

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

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

“Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs.”

John Osborne (1929–1994) English playwright

Quoted in Time magazine, October 31, 1977. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,945814,00.html <br class="br">Also attributed to Christopher Hampton by the Sunday Times Magazine (16 October 1977)

Dogs, Feeling

“I think about you. But I don't say it anymore.”

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) French writer and film director

Source: Hiroshima Mon Amour

“I really had a lot of dreams when I was a kid, and I think a great deal of that grew out of the fact that I had a chance to read a lot.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

Dreams, Chance, Reading

“You become what you think about most.. But you also attract what you think about most. (John Assaraf)”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

“Oh, my God! It's a killer Pomeranian." I glanced up at Derek. "It's a tough call, but I think you can take him.”

Kelley Armstrong The Awakening

Source: The Awakening

God

“What others think about you is none of your business.”

Jack Canfield (1944) American writer

Source: The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be

Business

“Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.”

Dallas Willard (1935–2013) American philosopher

Source: Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God

Failure

“Sorry, Ms. Terwilliger. I'm flattered that you think I'm such an upstanding person, but I'm already caught up in one epic battle of good versus evil. I don't need another.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Evil, Personality

“Never worry what other people think of you, because no one ever thinks of you.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Saga, Vol. 2

People

“Okay. I'll help you fight. What do you think we're up against? Bears, Coyotes…"
"My Brother.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

Source: Night World, No. 1

Help, Fight

“I think today if we forbade our illiterate children to touch the wonderful things of our literature, perhaps they might steal them and find secret joy.”

John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Children, Secret, Literature, Joy

“Wishful thinking about the peaceful tolerance of Islam cannot interpret away this reality: hands are still cut off, women still stoned and enslaved, just as the Prophet Muhammad decided centuries ago.”

Ayaan Hirsi Ali book Infidel

Source: Infidel

Women, Peace, Reality

“Be more concerned with your character than with your reputation, for your character is what you are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

Wise, Deep, Life, Powerful

“Nostalgia is also a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare our lives to a memory that nostalgia has so completely edited that it never really existed.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Nostalgia, Memory

“What are you afraid of then?
Not Being able to see, I think not seeing because your obsessed by something that blots out the world.”

Eva Ibbotson book A Song for Summer

Source: A Song for Summer

World

“There's a gift in your lap and it's beautifully wrapped and it's not your birthday. You feel wonderful, you feel like somebody knows you're alive, you feel fear because it could be a bomb, because you think you're that important.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

Source: The Girl in the Flammable Skirt

Fear, Feeling, Birthday

“I think people would live a bit longer if they didn't know how old they were. Age puts restrictions on things.”

Karl Pilkington (1972) English television personality, social commentator, actor, author and former radio producer

People, Age

“Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Love, Life, God, Motivation

“Whenever you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right. (Henry Ford)”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Way, Motivational

“Fine. Let’s begin with something even you can’t screw up.” – Death
“Way to build up my crappy confidence there. You should volunteer for the suicide hotline.” – Nick
“What makes you think I don’t?” – Death”

Sherrilyn Kenyon (1965) Novelist

Source: Invincible

Death, Way, Confidence, Suicide

“I think reality is thin, you know, thin as lake ice after a thaw, and we fill our lives with noise and light and motion to hide that thinness from ourselves.”

Stephen King book Bag of Bones

Source: Bag of Bones

Reality, Light

“Poirot," I said. "I have been thinking."
"An admirable exercise my friend. Continue it.”

Agatha Christie book Peril at End House

Source: Peril at End House

Exercises

“You are what you love. No? You are, completely and only, what you would die for without, as you say, the thinking twice.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Love

“Alaska has long been a magnet for dreamers and misfits, people who think the unsullied enormity of the Last Frontier will patch all the holes in their loves. The bush is an unforgiving place, however, that care nothing for hope or longing.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

Love, People, Hope

“Think on it, Chani: the princess will have the name, yet she'll live as less than a concubine - never to know a moment of tenderness from the man to whom she's bound. While we, Chani, we who carry the name of concubine - history will call us wives.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

History, Princess

“When you're in a competitive environment, always give out the impression that you don't care. It makes people want you more. If you act desperate, it's over. I think a passive attitude is helpful. It comes naturally because I'm lazy.”

Diablo Cody (1978) Screenwriter and author

People, Nature, Help

“I think zombies are kind of cute.”
“Seriously?”
“I may be thinking about bunnies. Which one has the fluffy little tail, zombies or bunnies?”
“Bunnies.”
“Then it’s bunnies I’m thinking of.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

Source: Death Bringer

“But I MUST say what I feel and think in some way — it is such a relief! But the effort is getting to be greater than the relief.”

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

Source: The Yellow Wall-Paper

Way, Feeling, Effort

“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Personality

“Think of every single thing that we 'have to' do to get through a day as something that we 'get to' do… before our turn is over.

Everything is a gift.”

Mike Dooley (1961) American writer

“You ask me why I do not write something… I think one's feelings waste themselves in words; they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.”

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer and statistician, and the founder of modern nursing

Letter to a friend, quoted in The Life of Florence Nightingale (1913) by Edward Tyas Cook, p. 94

Feeling

“and I think that everything in life is kind of unreal, isn't it?”

James Patterson book Sundays at Tiffany's

Source: Sundays at Tiffany's

Life

“What you're thinking is what you're becoming.”

Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist

“The inspector ate only two of my tiny sandwiches: the first because he hadn't expected it to taste so awful; the second, I think, because he'd thought surely the first must have been a mistake.”

Karen Marie Moning (1964) author

Source: Faefever

“We don't know what kind of people we truly are until the moment before our deaths. As death comes to embrace you, you will realize what you are. That's what death is, don't you think?”

Masashi Kishimoto (1974) Japanese manga artist

Death, People

“I think all young women are cursed with a streak of unrelenting foolishness, and all young men are cursed with a streak of absolute stupidity.”

Neal Shusterman book Scythe

Source: Scythe

Women, Men, Stupidity

“Should I just bite you, and end it all?", he whispered. "I would never have to think about you again. Thinking about you is an annoying habit and one I want to be rid of.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead as a Doornail

Source: Dead as a Doornail

“Let's never try to get even with our enemies, because if we do we will hurt ourselves far more than we hurt them. Let's do as General Eisenhower does: let's never waste a minute thinking about people we don't like.”

Dale Carnegie book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Source: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (1948), p. 101.

People, Hurt

“I started making plans, thinking we would get that far.”

Daniel Handler book Why We Broke Up

Source: Why We Broke Up

“human relationships simply aren't
durable.
I think back to the women in
my life.
they seem non-existent.”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Life, Women

“I sometimes think it is because they are so bad at expressing themselves verbally that writers take to pen and paper in the first place”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

“The thinking mind is best controlled by the imagination.”

Carson McCullers (1917–1967) American writer

Source: Illumination and Night Glare: The Unfinished Autobiography of Carson McCullers

Imagination

“Send me out into another life
lord because this one is growing faint
I do not think it goes all the way”

W.S. Merwin (1927–2019) American poet

Life, Way

“… lend your ears to music, open your eyes to painting, and … stop thinking! Just ask yourself whether the work has enabled you to “walk about” into a hitherto unknown world. If the answer is yes, what more do you want?”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

World, Music, Painting

“Whoever it was, whether I knew them or not, if I could help in some way, I would. I mean, if you can help, you have to help. Don't you think? - Poppy Wyatt”

Sophie Kinsella book I've Got Your Number

Source: I've Got Your Number

Way, Help

“Each time I think there is no place lower to go, I find that there is at least one place that will mess you up worse than you were.”

Walter Dean Myers (1937–2014) American writer

Source: Lockdown

Time

“The less people speak of their greatness, the more we think of it.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

People

“He thinks he's happy but it's just a nerve cell in his brain that's getting too much stimulation or too little stimulation.”

Don DeLillo book White Noise

Source: White Noise (1984)

Happiness

“I think women are foolish to pretend they are equal to men — they are far superior and always have been.”

William Golding book Lord of the Flies

Source: Introduction to his reading https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYnfSV27vLY of Lord of the Flies in the unabridged audio version (1980)

Women, Men

“Any idea is a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize something means to think it.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel book Elements of the Philosophy of Right

Jede Vorstellung ist eine Verallgemeinerung, und diese gehört dem Denken an. Etwas allgemein machen, heißt, es denken.
"Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts oder Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse", Berlin, 1833, p. 35
"Every representation is a generalization, and this is inherent in thought. To generalize something means to think it."
"Any idea is a universalization, and universalizing is a property of thinking. To universalize something means to think."
"An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think."
Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820/1821)

Idea