Quotes about thinking
page 98

Rich Mullins photo
Van Morrison photo
Andy Warhol photo
Frances Kellor photo
Adyashanti photo

“You can't get rid of thoughts, and you can't get rid of thinking. To battle your mind is one of the most deceptive ways that the mind keeps you in its own domain.”

Adyashanti (1962) Spiritual teacher

The Basic Teachings - Part 1: Principles of the Teaching (2009)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky photo
Richard Dawkins photo
Madonna photo
Arlo Guthrie photo
Syd Barrett photo
Peter Sloterdijk photo
Werner Erhard photo
G. E. M. Anscombe photo
Robert A. Taft photo
Michael Moorcock photo
Nâzım Hikmet photo

“At eighteen you don't think about memories,
you tell them.”

Nâzım Hikmet (1902–1963) Turkish poet

From Human Landscapes from My Country, Book Two, Section VII

Alastair Reynolds photo
George Eliot photo
Alessandro Piccolomini photo

“I always used to think that the falling in love of a young man gave a savour to all his virtues, and that, even if he were a perfect sink of iniquity, Love would suffice in an instant to raise him to the stars.”

Alessandro Piccolomini (1508–1579) Italian writer and philosopher

Act I., Scene I. — (Fabritio).
Translation reported in Harbottle's Dictionary of quotations French and Italian (1904), p. 328.
L’Alessandro (1544)

Hillary Clinton photo

“I think there are a lot of great ideas out in America, and I want you to have a say in your government. And that means we have to get unaccountable money out of our politics, overturn Citizens United, and expand voting rights, not restrict them.”

Hillary Clinton (1947) American politician, senator, Secretary of State, First Lady

Presidential campaign (April 12, 2015 – 2016), Speech in Warren, Michigan (August 11, 2016)

Hermann Ebbinghaus photo
Ernest Hemingway photo
Gore Vidal photo
Paul Gauguin photo

“A time will come when people will think I am a myth, or rather something the newspapers have made up.”

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) French Post-Impressionist artist

Source: 1890s - 1910s, The Writings of a Savage (1996), p. 125: letter to Georges-Daniel de Monfreid (Tahiti, October 1897)

Julius Malema photo

“I am not for reconciliation, I am for justice. There is no reconciliation without justice and justice is the return of land. […] AfriForum is a boeremag. It’s a group of Afrikaners who still wish for apartheid. They will never see it. Afrikaner boys, die poppe sal dans. The EFF is coming for you boys. Afrikaner boys, the ANC has made you to think this thing is still Orange Free State. This thing is not Orange Free State. This is Free State. When we take over power, Afrikaner males, you will know your place. Just pray, pray to [your] ancestors, pray to Malan, pray to Verwoerd, pray and ask them for EFF not to come into power. Because [if] we come into power, Afrikaner men, this side! This is where you belong, this is how you are going to behave. They must know, these Afrikaner males, they must know, we are not scared of them ideologically, politically and otherwise. We can take each other toe to toe.”

Julius Malema (1981) South African political activist

To EFF supporters after appearing in the Bloemfontein Magistrate's Court for allegedly contravening the Riotous Assemblies Act, 14 November 2016, Watch: “When we take over power, Afrikaner males, you will know your place.” Malema [video http://www.thesouthafrican.com/watch-when-we-take-over-power-afrikaner-males-you-will-know-your-place-malema-video/], Ezra Claymore, The South African, 14 November 2016. See also: http://citizen.co.za/news/news-national/1344722/afrikaner-boys-die-poppe-sal-dans-malema/, http://sandtonchronicle.co.za/lnn/226059/afrikaner-boys-die-poppe-sal-dans-malema, http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/de-klerk-must-suffer-malema-20161114

William S. Burroughs photo
Tom Lehrer photo
Anni-Frid Lyngstad photo

“They don't respect you. It's almost as they think they have the right to your life just because you're a celebrity. I don't accept that.”

Anni-Frid Lyngstad (1945) Swedish female singer

Speaking about the two Swedish magazines, translated to English from Swedish, Lyngstad's appearance on Gäst hos Hagge, SVT (1983)

William H. Rehnquist photo

“It has been said that Sweden's loss has been America's gain, and I think this is true. Swedish immigrants and their descendants have contributed a great deal to America and it is worthwhile to remember our Swedish heritage.”

William H. Rehnquist (1924–2005) Chief Justice of the United States

Address at a Swedish Colonial Society luncheon in Philadelphia (9 April 2001).
Books, articles, and speeches

Bram van Velde photo

“Life and mind are continuously in conflict with each other. I want happiness, security. I won’t reach that by considerations of my mind; on the contrary they will lead to a certain despair of the inner person. Not what he thinks engages the artist, but what he feels.”

Bram van Velde (1895–1981) Dutch painter

Letter to H.P. Bremmer, 17-11-1930, City Archive The Hague, as quoted in Bram van Velde, A Tribute, Municipal Museum De Lakenhal Leiden, Municipal Museum Schiedam, Museum de Wieger, Deurne 1994 (English translation: Charlotte Burgmans)
1930's

Julian of Norwich photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Yevgeny Yevtushenko photo

“So on and on
we walked without thinking of rest
passing craters, passing fire,
under the rocking sky of '41
tottering crazy on its smoking columns.”

Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1932–2017) Russian poet, film director, teacher

"The Companion" (1954), line 45; Robin Milner-Gulland and Peter Levi (trans.) Selected Poems (London: Penguin, 2008) p. 58.

Jacques Ellul photo
Hans Frank photo
Dante Gabriel Rossetti photo

“Still we say as we go,—
"Strange to think by the way
Whatever there is to know,
That shall we know one day."”

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) English poet, illustrator, painter and translator

The Cloud Confines, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

Russell Brand photo
Richard Rodríguez photo
Kate Chopin photo
M. K. Hobson photo

“I don’t think that’s the answer he was looking for. It’s not the answer I was looking for. But maybe it’s the right one.”

M. K. Hobson (1969) American writer

Source: The Hidden Goddess (2011), Chapter 19, “The Ruined Woman” (p. 291)

Julien Offray de La Mettrie photo
George Eliot photo
Ed Miliband photo

“I may be new to this game, but I think I ask the questions.”

Ed Miliband (1969) British politician

At his first Prime Minister's Questions as Leader of the Opposition. http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2010/10/14/ed-miliband-shines-at-prime-minister-s-questions-61634-27467793/ 14 Oct 2010
2010

Theodore Dalrymple photo
John Bright photo
Stephen King photo
John Updike photo
Anthony Watts photo
Jonah Lehrer photo

“Neuroscience has contributed so much in just a few decades to how we think about human nature and how we know ourselves.”

Jonah Lehrer (1981) American science writer

Chimeras of Experience: A Conversation with Jonah Lehrer (2009)

Neil Simon photo
Gregory of Nyssa photo
Stephen Fry photo
John Adams photo
Mark Hertling photo
Pat Sajak photo

“I would be surprised… if someone at CBS wasn't thinking that eventually Johnny's gonna retire and if we have somebody in place, we'll be in good shape.”

Pat Sajak (1946) American television host

1980s-1990s
Source: Newsweek, Vol. 113 (1989), p. 138: Article states that "It's in the network's interest to get some kind of talk show going."

Calvin Coolidge photo
Susan Sontag photo
Amir Taheri photo
Justin Trudeau photo

“We have to realize that the way of thinking that got us to this place no longer holds. We have to rethink elements as basic as space and time, to go all science fictiony [sic] on you in this sense.”

Justin Trudeau (1971) 23rd Prime Minister of Canada; eldest son of Pierre Trudeau

Source: Speaking to university students in September 2014. http://www.torontosun.com/2014/09/21/justin-is-beyond-infinity

“When I first made a grid I happened to be thinking of the innocence of trees and then this grid came into my mind and I thought it represented innocence, and I still do, and so I painted it and then I was satisfied. I thought, this is my vision.”

Agnes Martin (1912–2004) American artist

interview by Suzan Campbell, May 15, 1989; transcript in 'Archives of American Art', The Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
One of her first grid paintings she made in New York in 1964, it was [ https://www.moma.org/collection/works/78361 titled 'The Tree']. Martin often described this painting as her first grid. In fact, she had been making them since at least the beginning of 1960's
1980 - 2000

Jane Roberts photo
Rupert Brooke photo

“If I should die think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is for ever England.”

Rupert Brooke (1887–1915) British poet

"The Soldier" (1914)

Pauline Kael photo

“Moviemaking is so male-dominated now that they think they’re being pro-feminine when they have women punching each other out.”

Pauline Kael (1919–2001) American film critic

Interview with Susan Goodman, Modern Maturity (March/April 1998).
Interviews

Adolph Freiherr Knigge photo

“In cities people think that it is good manners not even to know who lives in the same building.”

Adolph Freiherr Knigge (1752–1796) German writer and Freemason

In Städten glaubt man, es gehöre zum guten Tone, nicht einmal zu wissen, wer in demselben Hause wohnt.
Quoted in Der kleine Rechthaber: Wem gehört die Parklücke und andere juristische Überraschungen (2008) by Claus Murken, p. 79.

John Green photo
Elie Wiesel photo
Homi J. Bhabha photo

“My success will not depend on what A or B thinks of me. My success will be what I make of my work.”

Homi J. Bhabha (1909–1966) 1909-1966, Indian nuclear physicist

Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians, Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology http://resourcecentre.daiict.ac.in/eresources/iresources/quotations.html,

Reggie Fils-Aimé photo
Fred W. Friendly photo

“I have a motto: My job is not to make up anybody's mind but to make the agony of decision making so intense that you can escape only by thinking.”

Fred W. Friendly (1915–1998) President of CBS News

Open Mind Interview http://www.archive.org/details/openmind_ep497

“Because of the limited keyboard. This is a very strange thing. When I play the piano, I get clear down to the left edge of the piano. Now, unlike Art Tatum, I don't take runs that go up, that always end up on the extreme high "C". But I really do like the low end. Even as an organist, it has bothered me that the keyboards are five octaves and stop at "C". I've always wished that my pedal board went down to "F". My harmonic thinking gets involved clear down to that "F" and to be cut off at the "C". I can't explain it. It's as if somebody were standing right next to you while you were playing and you just kept having the feeling like: "I can't go there; I can't go there."”

Clare Fischer (1928–2012) American keyboardist, composer, arranger, and bandleader

It does something to me. Whereby [sic] having the full keyboard just opens up a world of things to me.
On his preference for Yamaha's 88-key PF-15 piano over the then prevalent DX7; radio interview, circa 1985, by Ben Sidran, as quoted in Talking Jazz With Ben Sidran, Volume 1: The Rhythm Section https://books.google.com/books?id=O3hZDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT457&dq=%22because+of+the+limited+keyboard%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOhaCoxMXRAhXB5iYKHcvbBykQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q&f=false (1992, 2006, 2014)

Bono photo
W. Brian Arthur photo
David Mitchell photo
John Updike photo
Dave Allen photo

“I've stopped smoking… I think the cost was a lot of it, and not being able to breathe. I first gave up smoking when I was eight.”

Dave Allen (1936–2005) Irish comedian and satirist

Compilation by the BBC 11 March, 2005 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/4340205.stm

S. I. Hayakawa photo
José Martí photo
Béla H. Bánáthy photo

“Systems inquiry has demonstrated its capability in dealing effectively with highly complex and large-scale problem situations. It has orchestrated the efforts of various disciplines within the framework of systems thinking. It has introduced systems approaches and methods to the analysis, design, development, evaluation, and management of systems of all kinds”

Béla H. Bánáthy (1919–2003) Hungarian linguist and systems scientist

Source: Systems Design of Education (1991), p. 31 as cited in: K.C Laszlo (1998) Dimensions of Systems Thinking http://archive.syntonyquest.org/elcTree/resourcesPDFs/Systems_Thinking.pdf. Working paper on syntonyquest.org

Fenella Fielding photo

“I think my parents had visions of me being found in the Thames with six illicit foetuses in my womb and needle marks up my arm.”

Fenella Fielding (1927–2018) English actress

Why her parents did not want her to be an actress.
Interview: Independent, Sunday 24 February 2008 http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-lady-vanishes-what-ever-happened-to-fenella-fielding-785265.html

Peter F. Drucker photo
John Scalzi photo

“There is really nothing that can be done except by an individual. Only individuals can learn. Only individuals can think creatively. Only individuals can cooperate. Only individuals can combat statism.”

Leonard E. Read (1898–1983) American academic

Essays on Liberty (1954), Essays on Liberty https://books.google.com/books?id=SugpAQAAMAAJ&dq=There+is+really+nothing+that+can+be+done+except+by+an+individual.+Only+individuals+can+learn.+Only+individuals+can+think+creatively.+Only+individuals+can+cooperate.+Only+individuals+can+combat+statism.&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22There+is+really+nothing+that+can+be+done+except+by+an+individual.+Only+individuals+can+learn.+Only+individuals+can+think+creatively.+Only+individuals+can+cooperate.+Only+individuals+can+combat+statism.%22

William Julius Mickle photo
Bill Maher photo

“If I thought the Lord was speaking to me I'd check myself into Bellevue, and I think you should too.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Larry King Live, 11 August 2005; in response to a called-in question if he would become a believer if the Lord spoke to him