Quotes About Thought

In its use of this method natural science has shown a curious mixture of rationalism and irrationalism. Its prevalent tone of thought has been ardently rationalistic within its own borders, and dogmatically irrational beyond those borders. In practice such an attitude tends to become a dog- matic denial that there are any factors in the world not fully expressible in terms of its own primary notions devoid of further generalization. Such a denial is the self-denial of thought.

Of course it was nonsense, but then it haunted him, and once an idea begins to do that it ceases to be nonsense. It has clothed itself in reality.

I have to have time to think. Why does time run on while a man thinks?

A fool's mind is at the mercy of his tongue and a wise man's tongue is under the control of his mind.

Recitation of the Qur'an without contemplation and thought is futile.

There is no knowledge and science like pondering and thought; and there is no prosperity and advancement like knowledge and science.

If we have any hope of maintaining freedom of thought and freedom of person in the near and distant future, we have to remember what the founding fathers knew: That freedom of thought and freedom of person must be erected together. That truth and justice cannot exist one without the other. That when one is threatened, the other is harmed. That justice, and thus morality, requires the empirical pursuit.

The editor was often called a Bolshevist—as who is not in these days? For language is given us not only to conceal thought, but often to prevent it, and every now and then when the problems of the world become too complex and too vital, some one stops all thought on a subject by inventing a tag, like "witch" in the seventeenth century, or "Bolshevist" in the twentieth. Ben

Sargy always had the capacities of a cormorant, so he is able to swallow her whole, not having to think about her as she is going down must make it easier

I'm afraid the way I think is an anthropological relic.

when a man rolls over and sighs

I thought I heard myself being looked for what is it I said what is it madam that you wish to imply

there is such a horrible trapped buzzing wherever we fly it's going to be impossible to think clearly now

We know not of the future, and cannot plan for it much. But we can hold our spirits and our bodies so pure and high, we may cherish such thoughts and such ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be whenever the hour strikes that calls us to noble action....No man becomes suddenly different from his habit and cherished thought. (Joshua L. Chamberlain

Love, Ada thought out on the lake that first spring afternoon, is largely a matter of paying attention and good timing.

she was certain was a feral cat who shared his or her hunting grounds with any number of birds of prey. The cat won on that score; Indiana had seen freshly scattered feathers and savaged carcasses more than once as she'd walked the grounds. She'd thought for years

When thinking one cannot avoid beginning with certain convictions, but one must be aware that these convictions can be questioned and need to be defended with argument. One must also be aware that one's attempts to defend these convictions may fail, so that one may have to abandon or revise one's convictions. Thinking in an open-ended way does not mean starting from nowhere, but it does mean being able to arrive wherever thought and argument lead.

All the terms discussed in Part Two are evidences of this abstractness, simulacra of thought and experience, hardly better than slogans, which take the place of reflection.

Reason transformed into prejudice is the worst form of prejudice, because reason is the only instrument for liberation from prejudice.

The essence of philosophy is the abandonment of all authority in favor of individual human reason.

When the liberal teaching became dominant, as is the case with most victorious causes, good arguments became less necessary; and the original good arguments, which were difficult, were replaced by plausible simplificationsor by nothing. The history of liberal thought since Locke and Smith has been one of almost unbroken decline in philosophic substance.

The history of liberal thought since Locke and Smith has been one almost unbroken decline in philosophic substance.

In the new order a Locke was freewith almost no danger of being interfered withto think his sublime thoughts, to seek the first causes of all things, to understand the nature of things. He could talk with his friends and teach the young. And there was money enough. The academies and universities satisfied Socrates demand to be fed in the prytaneum.

Quando se vê um fato que não se compreende, e quanto mais extraordinário ele é, mais suspeitas desperta e mais o pensamento se esforça para lhe dar uma causa vulgar; se ele, porém, for compreendido, é logo admitido por ter uma razão de ser, desaparecendo assim o maravilhoso e o sobrenatural