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Independent Thought Quotes

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Independent Thought Quotes

“Lesson number one in trying to develop the ability of independent thought: Understand that EVERYTHING the government says has the potential to be lies and deception. You can believe it's the truth only after you question, exhaust every avenue, and find that their story checks out. If you're a patriot, it's your duty to always question your government anyway, at every turn. A patriot is loyal to his country and his countrymen, not his government.”

IfsTryingBelieveCountryStoriesGovernmentLyingTurnsPoliticsAbilityNumbersDutyLessonsIndependentChecksDeceptionLoyalPatriotAvenuesCountrymenIndependent ThoughtEvery Avenue
Author:Derek R. Audette
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“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.”

InspirationTruthScienceReligionIndividualTechnologyAtheismThousandAuthorityScientistIndependentIndividualityHumblePhysicsAstronomyReasoningStatisticsSkepticismSkepticalSkepticBe HumbleModern ScienceMath And ScienceIndependent ThoughtScientific TruthGreat ScienceScience PhysicsQuestioning BeliefsScience LifeLife Changing Experience
Author:Galileo Galilei
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“Education is character development, harmonious completion of human personality. But what the state accomplishes in this field is dull drill, extinction of natural feeling, narrowing of the spiritual field of vision, destruction of all the deeper elements of character in man. The state can train subjects...but it can never develop free men who take their affairs into their own hands; for independent thought is the greatest danger that it has to fear.”

MenHumansStatesCharacterFeelingsHandsSpiritualNaturalVisionSubjectsDangerFieldsPersonalityDevelopmentElementsDestructionIndependentTrainAffairDeeperAccomplishDullExtinctionHarmoniousFree ManCompletionDrillsCharacter DevelopmentIndependent ThoughtHuman PersonalityNatural Feelings
Author:Rudolf Rocker
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“Information is Power. Think For Yourself. CAUTION: proper use of the brain is not endorsed by federal governments nor huge corporations involved in serious financial profit from a brainwashed and enslaved population. Mild discomfort may occur as confusing independent thought challenges popular views of the world.”

ThinkingWorldMayUseGovernmentChallengesViewsBrainInformationSeriousHugeInvolvedIndependentFinancialPopulationProfitCorporationsFederal GovernmentConfusingCautionDiscomfortBrainwashedIndependent ThoughtThink For YourselfInformation Is Power
Author:Timothy Leary
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“I had been really obsessed with Jonestown for a long time - many years - and had read everything there was to read about it, seen all the footage and the documentaries. I found it really chilling in a personal way - the question of people submitting all their personal power and agency and independent thought it the name of a group or ideology. I could not find a way to write about it directly that didn't feel too heavy.”

PeopleWritingLongIndependentIdeologyObsessedChillIndependent Thought
Author:Danzy Senna
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“Through much of its history, the US did not have high inequality as compared with Europe. Less so, in fact. That began to change in the industrial age, reaching a peak in 1928, after the forceful destruction of the labor movement and crushing of independent thought. Largely as a result of labor mobilization, inequality declined during the Great Depression, a tendency continuing through the great growth period of regulated capitalism in the early postwar decades.”

AgeGrowthCapitalismLaborDestructionIndependentInequalityCrushGreat DepressionIndependent Thought
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds!”

InspirationalMindSelfSongFreedomMusicMusicianIndependentSlaveryPositivitySelf RelianceOne LoveRelianceBad DayHippieFreedom Of ThoughtMusic LoveEmancipationNonconformityReggaeJamaicaIndependent ThoughtIndependent ThinkingThink For YourselfJamaicansBreaking FreeReggae MusicLove FreedomAtomic EnergyFreedom And PeaceConformity And IndividualityFree Your MindRastaAbolition Of SlaveryHippiMental SlaveryMind FreeJamaican MusicLove And FreedomSlavery FreedomMind Freedom
Author:Bob Marley
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“None but ourselves can free our minds.”

LifeInspirationalMindInspirationSongFreedomMusicCreativitySlaverySlaveOne LoveRelianceHippieFreedom Of ThoughtMusic LoveSinger SongwritersNonconformityPopular SongReggaePower Of MusicJamaicaIndependent ThoughtIndependent ThinkingMusic LifeThink For YourselfMusic And LifeJamaicansReggae MusicLive MusicLove FreedomAtomic EnergyFreedom And PeaceLive LoveConformity And IndividualityFree Your MindSweet MusicRastaAbolition Of SlaveryHippiMental SlaveryMind FreeMusic And LoveJamaican MusicMusic And HealingMusic HealingLove And FreedomLive Love LifeMind FreedomFree Music
Author:Bob Marley
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“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”

ThinkingMindEnoughWisdomWould BeReadingMy FavoriteSillyConformityConformBeing DifferentNonconformitySchooledConformistNon ConformityIndependent ThoughtBeing SillyEducation And LiteracyNonconformistUnanimityConventional Life
Book:The Haunted Bookshop
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“A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.”

MenWisdomDecisionOpinionWiseConfidenceIgnorantChineseDecision MakingPublic OpinionBeing WiseMaking DecisionsDecisions MadeIndependent ThoughtPopular OpinionWisest ManTough DecisionsWise DecisionProverbs WisdomChinese ProverbZen ProverbBeing IgnorantWise ChoicesWise ProverbsPersonal DecisionsWise ChineseIgnorant MassesQuick DecisionsFirm DecisionsCourageous DecisionsJapanese Proverbs
Author:Grantland Rice
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“Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking.”

ThinkingMindStatesUseReligionBeliefFearCommonHonestyWillingEssentialsPrejudiceIndependentPrivilegeCustomsState Of MindChanging Your LifeClashWisestFreethinkerIndependent ThoughtIndependent Thinking
Book:The Works of Leo Tolstoy ...: On life and essays on religion, tr. by Aylmer Maude
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“Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.”

InspirationalLooksPersonsBookSpiritualFashionPrejudiceIndependentNewspapersContemporaryDependentScornIndependent ThoughtEyeglasses
Book:Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century
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“You see these dictators on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police ... yet in their hearts there is unspoken fear. They are afraid of words and thoughts: words spoken abroad, thoughts stirring at home -- all the more powerful because forbidden -- terrify them. A little mouse of thought appears in the room, and even the mightiest potentates are thrown into panic.”

HeartLittlesHomeFearRoomsPowerfulPoliceIndependentSoldierThrownPanicDictatorshipDictatorMiceForbiddenStirringUnspokenPedestalIndependent ThoughtBayonets
Author:Winston Churchill
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“It is not difficult to deprive the great majority of independent thought. But the minority who will retain an inclination to criticize must also be silenced....Public criticism or even expressions of doubt must be suppressed because they tend to weaken pubic support....When the doubt or fear expressed concerns not the success of a particular enterprise but of the whole social plan, it must be treated even more as sabotage.”

WholeSocialDifficultSupportDoubtPlansParticularExpressionConcernCriticismIndependentMajorityTreatedEnterpriseMinoritiesCriticizeInclinationSabotageIndependent Thought
Author:Friedrich August von Hayek
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“When we consider that each of us has only one life to live, isn’t it rather tragic to find men and women, with brains capable of comprehending the stars and the planets, talking about the weather; men and women, with hands capable of creating works of art, using those hands only for routine tasks; men and women, capable of independent thought, using their minds as a bowling-alley for popular ideas; men and women, capable of greatness, wallowing in mediocrity; men and women, capable of self-expression, slowly dying a mental death while they babble the confused monotone of the mob?”

MenMindArtIdeasSelfHandsStarsBrainTalkingDyingGreatnessPlanetsExpressionCreatingCapableMen And WomenTasksIndependentWeatherConfusedTragicWorks Of ArtRoutineMediocritySelf ExpressionAlleysBowlingIndependent ThoughtComprehendingWallowingOne Life To LiveBowling Alleys
Author:Neil Gaiman
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“The Republican party is the party of nostalgia. It seeks to return America to a simpler, more innocent and moral past that never actually existed. The Democrats are utopians. They seek to create an America so fair and non-judgmental that life becomes an unbearable series of apologies. Together, the two parties function like giant down comforters, allowing a candidate to disappear into the enveloping softness, protecting them from exposure to the harsh weather of independent thought.”

TwoTogetherAmericaPastPartyMoralReturnRepublicanFairsFunctionIndependentSeriesDemocratDisappearNostalgiaInnocentWeatherGiantsCandidatesAllowingApologyHarshRepublican PartyExposureUnbearableJudgmentalSoftnessIndependent ThoughtComforterNon Judgmental
Author:Jon Stewart
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“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

ThinkingStillsChoicesStrongWomenFreedomInspiringCourageFashionStrengthDesignFemaleEmpowermentDignityBraveryIndependentIndependenceIndividualityEmpoweringCourageousWomen EmpowermentSelf DeterminationStrong WomenBad AssEmpoweredEmpowering WomenHave CouragePowerful WomenFashion DesignerBe CourageousEmpowered WomenWomen Empowering WomenInspirational WomenBoost Self EsteemSuccessful WomenInspirational Strong WomenGreat WomenFear And CourageIndependent ThoughtWomen PowerStrong FemaleBeing A Strong WomanInspire WomenStrong Women And LoveThink For YourselfBusiness WomanI Am WomanStrong InspirationalStrong Independent WomenIndependence And FreedomFashion DesignInspiring FashionBeing Independent WomanStrong Powerful WomenFashion InspirationalEmpowering LoveElegant WomanInspirational FeministFamous Women InspirationalGreat FemaleStrong IndependentStrong GirlFrench FashionFashion InspirationBetter WomanKickass WomenEmpower YourselfCourageous Women
Author:Coco Chanel
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“Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.”

MenMayCountryCoursesIntegrityLet MeConvictionLabelsPatriotismPatrioticWrongPatriotRight Way4th Of JulyBe A ManDisobedienceWrong ThingsTraitorCivil DisobedienceAmerican PatrioticIndependent ThoughtUnqualifiedAmerican PatriotismAmerican PatriotIntegrity And CharacterNonviolent ResistanceIntegrity CharacterPatriotism And NationalismMan Of IntegrityShirkAnti Patriotism
Author:Mark Twain
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“You don't have any other society where the educated classes are so effectively indoctrinated and controlled by a subtle propaganda system - a private system including media, intellectual opinion forming magazines and the participation of the most highly educated sections of the population. Such people ought to be referred to as "Commissars - for that is what their essential function is - to set up and maintain a system of doctrines and beliefs which will undermine independent thought and prevent a proper understanding and analysis of national and global institutions, issues, and policies".”

PeopleTruthBeliefUnderstandingOpinionClassIssuesMediaPolicyOughtEssentialsIntellectualFunctionIndependentInstitutionsIncludingPopulationDoctrineEducatedMagazinesPropagandaAnalysisSubtleControlledParticipationSectionsIndependent Thought
Author:Noam Chomsky
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“Persons grouped around a fire or candle for warmth or light are less able to pursue independent thoughts, or even tasks, than people supplied with electric light. In the same way, the social and educational patterns latent in automation are those of self-employment and artistic autonomy.”

PeopleWayPersonsWarSelfLightAbleSocialTechnologyFireTasksIndependentPatternsEducationalPursueEmploymentArtisticWarmthCandleElectricAutonomyLatentIndependent ThoughtAutomationElectric Light
Author:Marshall McLuhan
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“The right to criticize: the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood... Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own.”

ShouldSoulPoliticalBeliefReligiousRightsCitizensExerciseCostIndependentReputationProtestCriticizeLivelihoodAmerican CitizensIndependent Thought
Author:Margaret Chase Smith
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“How can it be that mathematics, being after all a product of human thought which is independent of experience, is so admirably appropriate to the objects of reality?”

HumansRealityScienceObjectsProductsMathematicsIndependentMathematicalAppropriateHuman ThoughtIndependent ThoughtMathematics And Science
Book:A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein
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“Passive acceptance of the teacher's wisdom is easy to most boys and girls. It involves no effort of independent thought, and seems rational because the teacher knows more than his pupils; it is moreover the way to win the favour of the teacher unless he is a very exceptional man. Yet the habit of passive acceptance is a disastrous one in later life. It causes man to seek and to accept a leader, and to accept as a leader whoever is established in that position.”

KnowsMenWaySeemsGirlWinningCausesEasyLeadershipEffortLeaderAcceptingBoysTechnologyLearningTeacherTeachingPositionAcceptanceHabitIndependentRationalPassiveFavourExceptionalPupilsBoy And GirlIndependent Thought
Book:Why Men Fight
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“Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism, are all too frequently those who . . . ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism-the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought.”

AmericaBeliefPrinciplesRightsCriticismIndependentProtestCriticizeFreedom Of SpeechDisobedienceShoutingFreedom Of ThoughtBasicsBasic PrinciplesIndependent ThoughtCriticiseAmericanism
Book:Declaration of conscience
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“Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

ThinkingLostEducationKnowledgeTeachLearningWiseTeachingEvolutionYogaLaborExcellenceParentingMathCleverTeaching And LearningIndependent ThoughtTeaching And EducationTeaching EducationConfucianismTeaching LearningIndependent ThinkingGood TeachingMath EducationStudent LearningChinese PhilosophyPhilosophy Of EducationConfucianImportance Of EducationTraining And EducationLearning Math
Book:Confucian Analects
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“Exercise free will and creative, independent thought not for the satisfactions they will bring you, but for the good they will do others, the rest of the 6.8 billion–and those who will follow them. And then you too will discover the great and curious truth of the human experience is that selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself. The sweetest joys of life, then, come only with the recognition that you’re not special. Because everyone is.”

HumansJoyCan DoCreativeSpecialExerciseIndependentSatisfactionBillionsCuriousRecognitionBest ThingsFree WillSelflessnessHuman ExperienceSweetestJoy Of LifeIndependent Thought
Author:David McCullough
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