Quotes about thinking
page 83

Ryan C. Gordon photo
Jackie Speier photo
Percy Bysshe Shelley photo
Margrethe II of Denmark photo
Johannes Grenzfurthner photo
Larry Wall photo

“(To someone at New York University) If you consistently take an antagonistic approach, however, people are going to start thinking you're from New York.”

Larry Wall (1954) American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl

[10187@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV, 1990]
Usenet postings, 1990

Jane Roberts photo
Adelaide Crapsey photo

“I know
Not these my hands
And yet I think there was
A woman like me once had hands
Like these.”

Adelaide Crapsey (1878–1914) American writer

Amaze
Verses (1915)

Ervin László photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Chuck Lorre photo

“It's hard to think that in cities there's men who are goin' to mad,
Each strivin' to beat his fellows and get what the others had;
And from this here peaceful viewpoint, such doin's look bad, plum bad.”

Arthur Chapman (poet) (1873–1935) American poet and newspaper columnist

The Herder's Reverie, st. 3.
Out Where the West Begins and Other Western Verses http://www.cowboypoetry.com/ac.htm#outbk (1917)

Guillaume de Machaut photo

“And since my malady
Will not be
Cured at all
Without you, sweet enemy.
Who are glad
At my torment.
With folded hands I pray
To your heart, since it forgets me.
That it should kill me quickly.
For I languish too long.
Sweet pretty lady.
For God's sake do not think
That any one has authority
Over me but you alone.”

Guillaume de Machaut (1300–1377) French poet and composer

Et quant ma maladie
Garie
Ne sera nullement
Sans vous, douce anemie,
Qui lie
Estes de mon tourment,
A jointes mains deprie
Vo cuer, puis qu'il m'oublie,
Que temprement m'ocie,
Car trop langui longuement.
Douce dame jolie,
Pour dieu ne penses mie
Que nulle ait signourie
Seur moy fors vous seulement.
"Douce dame jolie", line 33; translation by Jennifer Garnham. http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/MMDB/composer/H0033004.HTM

Gary Johnson photo
Henry Moore photo
Stephen Harper photo

“we do not offer them a better health-care plan than the ordinary Canadian can receive. I think that’s something that new and old stock Canadians can agree with”

Stephen Harper (1959) 22nd Prime Minister of Canada

17 September 2015 according to 18 September 2015 article by Peter Edwards mentioning "the phrase “old stock Canadians” used by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Thursday’s leadership debate." https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2015/09/18/old-stock-canadians-phrase-chills-prof-ignites-twitter.html
2015

Carlo Carrà photo
Jay Leno photo

“Racecar driving is a lot like sex; all men think they're good at it.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

Said on a 2009 episode (13.7) of British motoring program Top Gear.
Miscellaneous

Ray Kurzweil photo

“I think all human beings are and should be fearful [of death, but realizing that death is a real tragedy.”

Ray Kurzweil (1948) Author, scientist, inventor, and futurist

Futurist Ray Kurweil Bring Dead Father Back to Life http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/futurist-ray-kurzweil-bring-dead-father-back-life/story?id14267712 (2011)

William Ellery Channing photo
Rudolf Karl Bultmann photo

“How strange that the young should always think the world is against them when in fact that is the only time it is for them.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

Little Richard photo
Michael Johns photo
Scott Lynch photo

“I never would’ve thought—“
“Don’t think,” said Locke. “I’m paid to do that for you.”

Source: The Republic of Thieves (2013), Chapter 6 “The Five-Year Game: Change of Venue” section 1 (p. 311)

Glenn Jacobs photo

“I think nullification would be a very good thing.”

Glenn Jacobs (1967) American professional wrestler and actor

13:47–13:49.
"WWE Wrestler Kane Talks Libertarianism, and His Heroes" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpqUIwu8nuc (2013)

Muhammad photo

“The greatest sin of a person who goes to ‘Arafat and then leaves is to think that he has not been forgiven of his sins.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Biharul Anwar, Volume 96, Page 248
Shi'ite Hadith

William D. Nordhaus photo

“We have to be grown-ups, I think [when discussing the payment of funds today to prevent climate harm which may be decades in the future]. There are lots of things we do where the investments come way, way in the future. Educating 4-year-olds... that's an investment that goes way into the future as well.”

William D. Nordhaus (1941) American economist

"Economist Says Best Climate Fix A Tough Sell, But Worth It." http://www.npr.org/2014/02/11/271537401/economist-says-best-climate-fix-a-tough-sell-but-worth-it National Public Radio. February 11, 2014.

John Hennigan photo
Greg Bear photo

“I sometimes think we deserve to die, we’re all so goddamned stupid.”

Source: The Forge of God (1987), Chapter 50 (p. 342)

Charles Boarman photo

“My dear Father, Charley wrote you in his letter to his Aunt Laura thanking you for your kindness in sending us a nice Christmas present. You must not think because I have not written you myself before this that I appreciated your kindness less. I have been so troubled with pains and weakness in my arm and hand as to be almost useless at times. I think it was nursing so much when the children were sick. I was so relieved when Anna's note to Charly arrived yesterday telling Frankie was better. It would have been dreadful for Mother to have gone out west at this miserable season of the year. I was wretchedly uneasy. I do hope poor Franky will get along nicely now. It will make him much more careful about exposing himself having had this severe attack. Charley received the enclosed letters Anna sent from Sister Eliza and Toad[? ]. I was very glad to get them. It is quite refreshing to read Sister Eliza's letters. They are so cheerful and happy. I had a letter from her on Friday. This Custom House investigating committee is attracting a great deal of attention and time here. It holds its sessions at the Fifth Avenue Hotel. Mr. Broome was up on Tuesday evening until ten o'clock but was not called upon. It is very slow. He has been for three weeks passed preparing the statement for those summoned from the Public Stores. Mr. Broome sends Laura a paper to look at—The Fisk tragedy. What is Nora doing with herself this winter. She might write to me sometimes. Give much love to Mother. Ask her for her receipt for getting fat. I would like to gain some myself. It is so much nicer to grow fleshy as you advance in life than to shrivel and dry up. The children are all well and growing very fast. Lloyd has to study very hard this year. His studies are quite difficult. I suppose Charley Harris is working hard too. Mr. Broome sent you a paper with the Navy Register in this week. I received your papers and often Richard calls and gets them. I must close. Mr. Broome and children join me in love to you, Mother, Laura, Anna, Nora, Charly & all.
With much love,
Your devoted child, Mary Jane
I enclose Nancy letter which was written some time ago.”

Charles Boarman (1795–1879) US Navy Rear Admiral

Mary Jane Boarman in a Sunday letter to her father (January 21, 1872)
The people mentioned in Mary Jane's letter were her children Lloyd, Charley, and Nancy; her husband, William Henry Broome; her sisters Eliza, Anna, Laura, and Nora; her brother Frankie; and her nephew frontier physician Dr. Charles "Charley" Harris, son of her sister Susan.
John Broome and Rebecca Lloyd: Their Descendants and Related Families, 18th to 21st Centuries (2009)

Bill Maher photo
Christopher Hitchens photo
Willem de Kooning photo
Bob Black photo

“I think my basic viewpoint is that everything the left and right say about each other is true. And the reason it's true is because they have so much in common.”

Bob Black (1951) American anarchist

As quoted in "Self-publisher takes sardonic aim at all views — including his", by Linda Barnas, in The Sunday Gazette (11 November 1990), p. H7 https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1957&dat=19901111&id=K3YhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O4kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1168,3286310&hl=en

Donald J. Trump photo

“I think I'm a sober person. I think the press tries to make you into something a little bit different. In my case, a little bit of a wild man, I'm not, I'm actually not. I'm a very sober person.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

During an interview on 60 Minutes (11 November 2016)
2010s, 2016, November

Frances Farmer photo
Johannes Warnardus Bilders photo

“This afternoon I had put myself down on this sweet spot, very tired of painting [with a view of the old castle of Vorden].... I was completely immersed in thinking of You... I would rather like to.... thank you, dear and beloved Lady, for the right judgments and remarks which You gave me in this [your? ] sweet letter. I solemnly promise you that I will use them for my benefit, and will spent all my powers as an artist, to make your attentions more worthy to me.”

Johannes Warnardus Bilders (1811–1890) painter from the Northern Netherlands

translation from Dutch, Fons Heijnsbroek
version in original Dutch (citaat van Johannes Warnardus Bilders' brief, in het Nederlands:) Toen ik heden middag mij zeer vermoeid van 't schilderen op dit lieve plekje had neder gezet [met zicht op het oude kasteel van Vorden].. ..ik was namelijk geheel verdiept in de gedachte aan UE.. .Ik wil liever.. ..bedenken, hoe ik U veel beminde juffrouw, dank zou zeggen, voor de juiste oordeelvellingen en bemerkingen, welke UE mij in dit [uw[?] lieve schrijven gemaakt heb, Ik beloof u plechtig dat ik ze mij ten nutte zal maken, en al mijn krachten als kunstenaar zal in spannen, om uwe atenties mij meer waardig te maken.
J.W. Bilders, in his letter [including a sketch by pen of the landscape with the castle, seen from the garden of the hotel where he stayed] to Georgina van Dijk van 't Velde, from Vorden, 1 Sept. 1868; from an excerpt of the letter https://rkd.nl/nl/explore/excerpts/751236 in the RKD-Archive, The Hague
1860's + 1870's

Walt Disney photo

“All right. I'm corny. But I think there's just about a-hundred-and-forty-million people in this country that are just as corny as I am.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

As quoted in The Magic Kingdom : Walt Disney and the American Way of Life (2001) by Steven Watts, p. 401

Roberto Clemente photo
Calvin Coolidge photo

“"You think you're so smart" is never a compliment; the only thing worse than being smart is thinking that you are.”

Laura Penny (1975) Canadian journalist

Source: More Money than Brains (2010), Chapter One, Don't Need No Edjumacation, p. 4

Rihanna photo

“He's one of my closest friends in the industry. He makes me feel like a teenager — I have to act and think like an adult so much. He makes me feel young again.”

Rihanna (1988) Barbadian singer, songwriter, and actress

On Chris Brown. Allure magazine, January 2008.

Cormac McCarthy photo
Roberto Clemente photo

“Everybody, they say Roberto just swings the bat and hits the ball. I work hard. No one works harder than I do. People think things come easy to me. They don't.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Clemente Says Hitting Does Not Come Easy" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=UagkAAAAIBAJ&sjid=xqAFAAAAIBAJ&pg=5876%2C6101257 by Ralph Bernstein (AP), in The Reading Eagle (March 26, 1968)
Baseball-related, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1968</big>

Koenraad Elst photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo

“The world’s vast and strange, Hara, but no vaster and no stranger than our minds are. Think of that sometimes.”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

Source: Earthsea Books, The Other Wind (2001), Chapter 2 “Palaces” (p. 72)

Roberto Clemente photo

“I owe a lot to the opportunities I have had. I think we have a great country, and the day that all people of all races have equal opportunity to be useful to their community, we're going to have a better country.”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

As quoted in "Tech, Pirates Share Man of Year Honors; Jaycees Cite Carnegie Chief Dr. Stever, Give Clemente Sports, Lawrence Awards" https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5L4bAAAAIBAJ&sjid=XU8EAAAAIBAJ&pg=7479%2C2960572 by Robert Johnson, in The Pittsburgh Press (Tuesday, January 24, 1967), p. 20
Other, <big><big>1960s</big></big>, <big>1967</big>

Daniel Drezner photo
Gerald of Wales photo

“Whatever else may come to pass, I do not think that on the Day of Direst Judgement any race other than the Welsh, or any other language, will give answer to the Supreme Judge of all for this small corner of the earth.”
Nec alia, ut arbitror, gens quam haec Kambrica, aliave lingua, in die districti examinis coram Judice supremo, quicquid de ampliori contingat, pro hoc terrarum angulo respondebit.

Gerald of Wales (1146) Medieval clergyman and historian

Book 2, chapter 10, p. 274.
Giraldus quotes these words from an unnamed Welshman.
Descriptio Cambriae (The Description of Wales) (1194)

Bai Juyi photo
Tanith Lee photo
Babe Ruth photo
Mukesh Ambani photo
Lin Yutang photo
J.B. Priestley photo
W. Edwards Deming photo
Tim Powers photo
Conrad Aiken photo

“I am the one who stood beside you and smiled,
Thinking your face so strangely young... '
'I am the one who loved you but did not dare.”

Conrad Aiken (1889–1973) American novelist and poet

The House of Dust (1916 - 1917)

Fred Astaire photo

“Life becomes the way it is lived; and man may live the way he wants to live when he learns to think what he wants to think.”

Christian D. Larson (1874–1962) Prolific author of metaphysical and New Thought books

Source: Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912), p. 107

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson photo
Miguel de Unamuno photo
Henry David Thoreau photo
Philip K. Dick photo

“Spinoza saw… that if a falling stone could reason, it would think, "I want to fall at the rate of thirty-two feet per second."”

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American author

"The Android and the Human" (1972), reprinted in The Dark-Haired Girl (1988) and in The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995), ed. Lawrence Sutin

Juan Cole photo
Carlo Rovelli photo
Raymond Carver photo
Adolf Hitler photo
Tim O'Reilly photo
George W. Bush photo
Bernard Cornwell photo
Kenneth Grahame photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“Tyrants hate original thinking.”

Michael Moorcock (1939) English writer, editor, critic

The Warlord of the Air (1971)
Source: Book 3, Chapter 3 “Chi’ng Che’eng Ta-Chia” (p. 106)

Théodore Rousseau photo
Glenn Beck photo

“Use your voice while you still have it. I tell you with everything in me, I think they are going to silence voices like mine, and Bill O'Reilly, and Rush, and everybody else. They will silence us. They cannot continue to let us speak out.”

Glenn Beck (1964) U.S. talk radio and television host

Glenn Beck
Television
Fox News
2009-05-06
Beck rants about "power grab," claims "they are going to silence voices like mine"
Media Matters for America
2009-05-06
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200905060038
2000s, 2009

Learned Hand photo

“Justice, I think, is the tolerable accomodation of the conflicting interests of society, and I don't believe there is any royal road to attain such accomodations concretely.”

Learned Hand (1872–1961) American legal scholar, Court of Appeals judge

From The Great Judge by Philip Hamburger (1946).
Extra-judicial writings

Jessica Lange photo
Ethan Hawke photo
Lewis F. Powell, Jr. photo

“I think I probably made a mistake in the Hardwick case… I do think it was inconsistent in a general way with Roe. When I had the opportunity to reread the opinions a few months later, I thought the dissent had the better of the arguments.”

Lewis F. Powell, Jr. (1907–1998) American judge

At NYU Law School, (18 October 1990); after retirement from the Court, reflecting on his vote in Bowers v. Hardwick to uphold laws making homosexual sex a crime for which people could be imprisoned. Reported in Nat Hentoff, " Infamous Sodomy Law Struck Down http://www.villagevoice.com/news/9850,213790,2210,6.html", The Village Voice, 22 December 1998.
1990s

Jacoba van Heemskerck photo

“It is a terrible, but also tremendous time. Personally I find it moreover so important for my art to live now... These times force you to think over a lot and work very hard, in Nature now a strong creative force is working.”

Jacoba van Heemskerck (1876–1923) Dutch painter

translation from German, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
(original version, written by Jacoba in German:)Es ist eine schreckliche, doch auch eine gewaltige Zeit, ich persönlich empfinde es auch für meine Kunst so wichtig, jetzt zu leben.. .In dieser Zeit muss man viel denken und viel arbeiten, in der Natur ist jetzt eine so grosse Schaffenskraft.
In a letter of Jacoba, late 1914; as cited by A. Behne, in 'der Krieg und die künstlerische Produktion', in 'Die Umschau', Jan / März 1915
Jacoba is partly referring to World War 1. The Netherlands kept itself out of this war, but many Belgium refugees entered the country
1910's

George Bernard Shaw photo
Jane Roberts photo
Willem Maris photo
Poul Anderson photo

“I think most human misery is due to well-meaning fanatics like him.”

Poul Anderson (1926–2001) American science fiction and fantasy writer

Time Patrol (p. 42)
Time Patrol

Fred Astaire photo
Ron Paul photo

“Given the inefficiencies of what DC laughingly calls the 'criminal justice system,' I think we can safely assume that 95 percent of the black males in that city are semi-criminal or entirely criminal…[W]e are constantly told that it is evil to be afraid of black men, [but] it is hardly irrational. Black men commit murders, rapes, robberies, muggings, and burglaries all out of proportion to their numbers.”

Ron Paul (1935) American politician and physician

1992, quoted in [1978-1996: Texas Representative Ron Paul’s Newsletters Contain a Host of Bigoted Claims and Observations, History Commons, http://www.historycommons.org/context.jsp?item=a7896paulnewsletter#a7896paulnewsletter]
Disputed, Newsletters, Ron Paul Political Report

William H. Gass photo
Chetan Bhagat photo

“People like him think that they are god's gift to the world. What's worse, they are.”

Chetan Bhagat (1974) Indian author, born 1974

Source: Five Point Someone - What not to do at IIT! (2004), P. 25

Will Cuppy photo