Quotessence
Home / Topics / Original Thought Quotes

Original Thought Quotes

Browse 56 quotes about Original Thought.

Related topics

OriginalityPeopleMen

Original Thought Quotes

“I treat my thoughts like an old person treats their valuables: I cannot for the life of me proceed to throwing them out.”

ThinkingLifeMindWisdomHumorFunnyDeathArtistBeliefBrainOpinionKnowledgeCreativityPsychologyHonestyIntellectualThoughtsTraditionLogicInstinctPositivityValuableIntuitionTreasureThoughtRationalConsiderationThinkerConfessionNegativityThinkIrrationalSentimentalStubbornHabitsCognitionFunny But TruePreciousRationalizationOld HabitsOriginal ThoughtCreedOld PersonDiscard
Book:Healology
Create image

“If we had to earn our age by thinking for ourselves at least once a year, only a handful of people would reach adulthood.”

ReasonPhilosophyHumorAgeFunnyIndividualGrowthSocietyCrazyChildhoodHumourHard WorkDevelopmentJokesAdultsLogicMadnessMadMajorityIndividualityPhilosopherCriticalInsaneInsanityMaturitySatireMatureConformityThinkerSanityChildOriginalitySheepAphorismSaneThinkConformJokeToilCritical ThinkingAphorismsGrowUnreasonableImmatureChildlikeCrazinessAdultNonconformityIllogicalImmaturityOriginalDevelopAphoristThinkersAphoristsIndependent ThinkingThink For YourselfHerd MentalityMinorityStandardOriginal ThoughtPhilosophersChildishEarnHerdSheepleThinking For YourselfIndependent ThinkersOriginal ThinkerAge Is Nothing But A NumberIndependent ThinkerMonkey BananaMr Follow FollowOriginal ThinkersReach AdulthoodSilver Plater
Author:Mokokoma Mokhonoana
Create image

“In the irrational universe of demanded spontaneity, the power of state reaches beyond the prohibition of acts contrary to society, assigning itself the task of prescribing the citizen's thoughts and convictions. To quote Revel's concise conclusion, 'C'est dans les sociétiés totalitaires que l'Etat se charge de 'donner un sens' à la vie des êtres' ['In totalitarian societies the state assumes the task of giving life a meaning']. Thus original thought becomes treason, and life becomes a hell of a particular kind.”

TreasonOriginal ThoughtDemanded Spontaneity
Book:Münchhausen's Pigtail, or Psychotherapy & "Reality"
Create image

“The discoveries of science, the works of art are explorations - more, are explosions, of a hidden likeness. The discoverer or artist presents in them two aspects of nature and fuses them into one. This is the act of creation, in which an original thought is born, and it is the same act in original science and original art.”

ArtTwoScienceArtistBornCreationDiscoveryAspectOriginalsWorks Of ArtExplorationExplosionsFuseOriginal ThoughtOriginal Art
Author:Jacob Bronowski
Create image

“I would rather be the author of one original thought than conqueror of a hundred battles. Yet moral excellence is so much superior to intellectual, that I ought to esteem one virtue more valuable than a hundred original thoughts.”

MoralVirtueOughtBattleIntellectualHundredOriginalsExcellenceValuableSuperiorsEsteemOriginalityConquerorOriginal ThoughtMoral Excellence
Book:Aphorisms and Reflections: A Miscellany of Thought and Opinion
Create image

“Once he could read and write he would have a mind fit to rule. So ran the democratic doctrine. But instead of a mind, universal literacy has given him rubber stamps, rubber stamps inked with advertising slogans, with editorials, with published scientific data, with the trivialities of the tabloids and the platitudes of history, but quite innocent of original thought.”

WritingMindGivenFitUniversalOriginalsDemocraticDoctrineInnocentAdvertisingDataRanLiteracyStampsSlogansRubberTabloidsEditorialsPlatitudesTrivialityOriginal Thought
Author:Edward Bernays
Create image

“Hardly any original thoughts on mental or social subjects ever make their way among mankind or assume their proper importance in the minds even of their inventors, until aptly selected words or phrases have as it were nailed them down and held them fast.”

WayMindSocialSubjectsMankindImportanceOriginalsDown AndAssumingPhrasesInventorSelectedOriginal Thought
Book:A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive: Being a Connected View of the Principles of Evidence and the Methods of Scientific Investigation
Create image

“I love hanging out with my friends and family. I really, really, really love articulating original thought. That's probably my core, my biggest buzz. Because then it makes me feel like I know why I was born. Reaching original thought, where I know that I'm perceiving something that only I have seen, and I need to incarnate that. That's it right there.”

KnowsNeedsFeelsBornMy FriendsOriginalsCoreReachingHanging OutFamily And FriendsBuzzOriginal ThoughtArticulating
Author:Caroline Myss
Create image

“Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.”

IfsMenTryingHas BeensArtTruthLiteratureCreativityTenOriginalsMereCaringNineBotherTelling The TruthOriginalityOriginal ThoughtBeing OriginalOriginal ArtLiterature And Art
Book:Virtue and Vice: A Dictionary of the Good Life
Create image

“Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.”

MenBookShowsReaderIntellectualOriginalsOriginalityReading BooksWorkoutBook ReadingBooks And ReadingNew RelationshipOld BooksBook ReadersOriginal ThoughtHelp BookInspirational ReadingInspiring BookReading InspirationalBeing Original
Book:The Wit & Wisdom of Abraham Lincoln: A Treasury of Quotations, Anecdotes, and Observations
Create image

“The most necessary task of civilization is to teach people how to think. It should be the primary purpose of our public schools. The mind of a child is naturally active, it develops through exercise. Give a child plenty of exercise, for body and brain. The trouble with our way of educating is that it does not give elasticity to the mind. It casts the brain into a mold. It insists that the child must accept. It does not encourage original thought or reasoning, and it lays more stress on memory than observation.”

PeopleThinkingWayGivingShouldMindChildrenDoeBodySchoolPurposeMemoriesBrainAcceptingTeachTroubleExerciseCivilizationTasksStressOriginalsLaysCastsActiveObservationPlentyPrimariesReasoningPublic SchoolMoldOriginal ThoughtElasticity
Author:Thomas A. Edison
Create image

“The average man never really thinks from end to end of his life. The mental activity of such people is only a mouthing of cliches. What they mistake for thought is simply a repetition of what they have heard. My guess is that well over 80 percent of the human race goes through life without having a single original thought.”

PeopleThinkingMenHumansWellsEndsRaceMistakeHeardActivityPercentOriginalsAveragePositive AtheismHuman RaceRepetitionClicheAverage ManOriginal Thought
Author:H. L. Mencken
Create image

“They have never affirm'd any thing, concerning the cause, till the trial was past: whereas, to do it before, is a most venomous thing in the making of Sciences: for whoever has fix'd on his Cause, before he has experimented; can hardly avoid fitting his Experiment, and his Observations, to his Own Cause, which he had before imagin'd; rather than the Cause to the Truth of the Experiment itself. Referring to experiments of the Aristotelian mode, whereby a preconceived truth would be illustrated merely to convince people of the validity of the original thought.”

PeopleWould BeTruthPastScienceCausesImaginationOriginalsTrialsExperimentsObservationConvinceFittingValidityReferringOriginal ThoughtVenomous
Author:Thomas Sprat
Create image

“There is a distinction between what may be called a problem and what may be considered an exercise. The latter serves to drill a student in some technique or procedure, and requires little if any, original thought... No exercise, then, can always be done with reasonbable dispatch and with a miniumum of creative thinking. In contrast to an exercise, a problem, if it is a good one for its level, should require though on the part of the student.”

IfsThinkingShouldMayLittlesDoneProblemLevelsCreativeTeachingStudentsExerciseOriginalsMathTechniqueDistinctionLatterContrastProceduresDrillsCreative ThinkingOriginal Thought
Author:Howard Whitley Eves
Create image

“War Is A Racket : I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service”

WarOrderLeftMilitaryHigherMembersOriginalsProfessionFacultyAntiwarTypicalAnimationSuspendedRacketMilitary ServiceOriginal Thought
Author:Smedley Butler
Create image

“There's one difference between me and them: I know I'm not qualified. In my opinion, Arnold Schwarzenegger wasn't qualified to be governor of California. Ronald Reagan wasn't qualified to be governor, let alone president. I was a vice president of the Screen Actors Guild when he was its president. My duties consisted of attending meetings and voting. The only thing I remember is that Ronnie never had an original thought and that we had to tell him what to say. That's no way to run a union, let along a state or a country.”

KnowsWayCountryStatesRunningRememberActorsPresidentDifferencesOpinionDutyOriginalsUnionsMeetingsVicesScreensCaliforniaVotingGovernorsQualifiedVice PresidentAttendingSchwarzeneggerGuildsOriginal Thought
Book:The Garner Files: A Memoir
Create image