
“The most important thing is to be able to think what you want, not to say what you want.”
"What you can't say" http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html, January 2004
As quoted in "Oh, girl : A Talk with Julie Taymor" at Subtitles to Cinema (2 September 2008)
“The most important thing is to be able to think what you want, not to say what you want.”
"What you can't say" http://www.paulgraham.com/say.html, January 2004
1880s, 1880, Letter to Theo (Cuesmes, July 1880)
The Secret Way of Wonder
“It's important to know what you don't want, but it's vital to know what you DO want.”
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 152
"The Teacher"
Winesburg, Ohio (1919)
Context: "You will have to know life," she declared, and her voice trembled with earnestness. She took hold of George Willard’s shoulders and turned him about so that she could look into his eyes. A passer-by might have thought them about to embrace. "If you are to become a writer you’ll have to stop fooling with words," she explained. "It would be better to give up the notion of writing until you are better prepared. Now it’s time to be living. I don’t want to frighten you, but I would like to make you understand the import of what you think of attempting. You must not become a mere peddler of words. The thing to learn is to know what people are thinking about, not what they say."
Luck By Chance - My First Film 29 Oct 2018, at 9 Min 03 Sec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B2wChETV5g
From interview with Film Companion
[A Conversation with Distinguished Alumnus Charles T. Munger (CERT '44, CAVU), December 17, 2020, Caltech, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaDU1J91hY8] (quote at 18:20 of 58:41)