“I will make thee think thy swan a crow.”
William Shakespeare book Romeo and Juliet
Source: Romeo and Juliet
Quotes about thinking page 9
“The greatest of all mistakes is to do nothing because you think you can only do a little.”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
“I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say.”
Flannery O’Connor (1925–1964) American novelist, short story writer
“I think God, in creating man, somewhat overestimated his ability.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Variant: I think that God in creating Man somewhat overestimated his ability.
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
8 November 1943
Variant: If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl (1942 - 1944)
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Virginia Woolf book Mrs Dalloway
Mrs Dalloway (1925)
Source: Mrs. Dalloway
Context: But to go deeper, beneath what people said (and these judgements, how superficial, how fragmentary they are!) in her own mind now, what did it mean to her, this thing she called life? Oh, it was very queer. Here was So-and-so in South Kensington; some one up in Bayswater; and somebody else, say, in Mayfair. And she felt quiet continuously a sense of their existence and she felt what a waste; and she felt what a pity; and she felt if only they could be brought together; so she did it. And it was an offering; to combine, to create; but to whom?
An offering for the sake of offering, perhaps. Anyhow, it was her gift. Nothing else had she of the slightest importance; could not think, write, even play the piano. She muddled Armenians and Turks; loved success; hated discomfort; must be liked; talked oceans of nonsense: and to this day, ask her what the Equator was, and she did not know.
All the same, that one day should follow another; Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday; that one should wake up in the morning; see the sky; walk in the park; meet Hugh Whitbread; then suddenly in came Peter; then these roses; it was enough. After that, how unbelievable death was! — that it must end; and no one in the whole world would know how she had loved it all.
“We live in an age that reads too much to be wise, and that thinks too much to be beautiful.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays
“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
“Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.”
Daniel Kahneman book Thinking, Fast and Slow
Variant: Nothing in life is as important as you think it is when you are thinking about it.
Source: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011), Chapter 38, "Thinking about life", page 402 (ISBN 9780141033570).
“But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are restored and sorrows end.”
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English playwright and poet
“Let every woman, who has once begun to think, examine herself”
Margaret Fuller book Woman in the Nineteenth Century
Source: Woman in the Nineteenth Century
“She feels in italics and thinks in CAPITALS.”
Henry James (1843–1916) American novelist, short story author, and literary critic
“Some people care too much. I think it's called love.”
A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh
Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly
“He who thinks little, errs much.”
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
Chi poco pensa, molto erra.
The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883), XIX Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations.
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: Sceptical Essays
“!"
I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant 'Eat my pants!”
Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief
Source: The Lightning Thief
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
Ellen Schreiber (1967) American writer
Variant: Raven: So Alexander, now we know what we do all day. What do you do?
Alexander: I spend it thinking about you.
Source: Love Bites
“Don't go around thinking the world owes you a living. It was here first.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Misattributed <br class="br">Variant: Don’t believe the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first. <br class="br">Source: Often attributed to Twain, but sourced to Robert J. Burdette, Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/06/06/world-owes/
Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo
Source: Magic Strikes
“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
Source: As quoted in "My Philosophy of Industry" an interview of Ford by Fay Leone Faurote, The Forum, Vol. 79, No. 4 (April 1928), p. 481;
also in "Thinking Is Hardest Work, Therefore Few Engage in It", San Francisco Chronicle (13 April 1928), p. 25;
both articles are cited as the primary sources of other variants which later arose, in https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/05/so-few "Thinking Is the Hardest Work There Is, which Is the Probable Reason Why So Few Engage In It" in Quote Investigator (5 April 2016)
“What we like to think of ourselves and what we really are rarely have much in common….”
Stephen King book The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
Source: The Drawing of the Three
“Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.”
Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Source: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born
The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
Source: The Trouble with Being Born
Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist
A Declaration of Independence (12 March 1964) http://teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=1148 <br class="br">Variant: We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves. <br class="br">Context: There can be no black-white unity until there is first some black unity. There can be no workers' solidarity until there is first some racial solidarity. We cannot think of uniting with others, until after we have first united among ourselves. We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves. One can't unite bananas with scattered leaves.
“I think I need to face what I could have been in order to understand and accept what I am.”
Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie
Variant: I think I need to face
what I could have been in order to understand and accept what I am.
Source: Where Rainbows End
“Ordinary people merely think how they shall 'spend' their time; a man of talent tries to 'use' it.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Maya Angelou book Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
Source: Wouldn't Take Nothing for My Journey Now
“I think there's just one kind of folks. Folks.”
Harper Lee book To Kill a Mockingbird
Pt. 2, ch. 23
Jean Louise (Scout) Finch
Source: To Kill a Mockingbird (1962)
Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader
Day 19: Cultivating Community
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (2002)
Variant: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for?
Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Shadow of the Wind
Variant: Someone once said that the moment you stop to think about whether you love someone, you've already stopped loving that person forever.
Source: The Shadow of the Wind
Source: Forrest Gump
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Variant: When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see one who is unworthy, examine yourself.
“Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are.”
Muhammad Ali (1942–2016) African American boxer, philanthropist and activist
As quoted in Jet magazine Vol. 58, No. 1 (August 1992)
“But if I don’t think about love, I will be nothing.”
Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes
Source: Eleven Minutes
“I used to think it was mere homesickness, then I started getting it at home.”
John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter
“A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world.”
Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist
Frankfurt Book Fair speech (2003)
Context: A writer, I think, is someone who pays attention to the world. That means trying to understand, take in, connect with, what wickedness human beings are capable of; and not be corrupted — made cynical, superficial — by this understanding.