Critical Thought Quotes

#1. And one of the worst effects was that by suppressing critical thought, it also suppressed critical thought in the field of economics and hampered the development of economics - and the country would fall back further and further in the economic competition with the West.

Stefan Heym

#2. Critical feedback shared in good faith is inherently a constructive dialogue. A "critique," a term that is both a noun and a verb, represents the systematical application of critical thought, a disciplined method of analysis, expressing of opinions, and rendering judgments.

Kilroy J. Oldster

#3. Schools need not preach political doctrine to defend democracy. If they shape men capable of critical thought and trained in social attitudes, that is all that is necessary.

Albert Einstein

#4. To have faith in the Word, Scripture must not grasp us in our critical thought, but in the life of the soul.

Abraham Kuyper

#5. Hater" and "hate" are used when no critical thought can be formed. We can definitely do better.

Darnell Lamont Walker

#6. What is so incredible and essential about an authentic cultural scene is it rejects a value system based on consumption and productivity and instead celebrates creation, critical thought, aesthetics and expression. That can't be mass marketed.

Claire Vaye Watkins

#7. A truly great university is a nucleus of artistic expression. It fosters creative, critical thought, and serves as a platform for civil discourse.

Gordon Gee

#8. I like to regard myself as someone who's capable of critical thought, that is to say, who can evaluate claims.

Bill Nye

#9. They don't want an educated populace capable of critical thought, sitting around the kitchen table realizing how badly they're getting fucked!

George Carlin

#10. I no longer agree to treat myself with disrespect. Every time a self-critical thought comes to mind, I will forgive the Judge and follow this comment with words of praise, self-acceptance, and love.

Miguel Ruiz

#11. Creative work and critical thought, which produces new knowledge, can't be conditioned; indeed, conditioning prevents these things from ever happening.

John Taylor Gatto

#12. A totalitarian regime thus has one political party, one educational system, one artistic creed, one centrally planned economy, one unified media, and one moral code. In a totalitarian state there are no independent schools, no private businesses, no grassroots organizations, and no critical thought.

Anne Applebaum

#13. High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought.' - John Cleese

Paul Arden

#14. For those of you who really want to give critical thought to your unique leadership style and foster genuine followership, learn from what's out there and weave it into something meaningful and authentic.

Stacy Feiner

#15. There's four main pillars to the bow tie - self-representation, service, collaboration and critical thought. You have to understand how to represent yourself and critically understand how to collaborate and serve others.

Dhani Jones

#16. A good education teaches you how to ask a question. It's knowing what you don't know; the skills of critical thought.

Ted Sizer

#17. But studies have found that particularly when it comes to analytic or critical thought, the effort of communicating to someone else forces you to think more precisely, make deeper connections, and learn more.

Clive Thompson

#18. With a bored pride; in their own hands a shallow mindless electronic device - it is without doubt - a damning indictment of modern society.

Kristian Goldmund Aumann

#19. The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.

Christopher Hitchens

#20. It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

Boris Yeltsin

#21. Education can and should do much influence social, moral and intellectual discovery by stimulating critical attitudes of thought in the young

George Bernard Shaw

#22. The notion of the measuring scale is critical in Hindu thought. The value of an object depends on the scale being followed. And since all scales are man-made, all values are artificial. Thus all opinions ultimately are delusions, based on man-made measuring scales.

Devdutt Pattanaik

#23. If the Mentalese story about the content of thought is true, then there couldn't be a private language argument. Good. That explains why there isn't one. (In Critical Condition, p. 68)

Jerry A. Fodor

#24. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness and the happiness of others.

Israelmore Ayivor

#25. The most critical are not the successful, nor the complete failures, but those who might have achieved something of worth, save for small but crucial faults within themselves, for they can seldom bear the thought of how close they came to greatness.

Anonymous

#26. The only way to end poverty, to make it history, is to build viable systems on the ground that deliver critical and affordable goods and services to the poor, in ways that are financially sustainable and scaleable. If we do that, we really can make poverty history.

Jacqueline Novogratz

#27. Whenever we hear an opinion and believe it, we make an agreement, and it becomes part of our belief system.

Miguel Ruiz

#28. I'm not an expert in stillness, but I have been trying to practice more peace in my life. As someone who wants it all, and tries to go after it, I once thought including quiet time in my routine was a good idea. Now I find it's more than that - it's critical to my success.

Michelle McCullough

#29. On the way from mythology to logistics thought has lost the element of self-reflection and today machinery disables men even as it nurtures them.

Theodor W. Adorno

#30. If chess has any relationship to film-making, it would be in the way it helps you develop patience and discipline in choosing between alternatives at a time when an impulsive decision seems very attractive.

Stanley Kubrick

#31. Critical (i.e., separating) methods apply only to the world-as-nature. It would be easier to break up a theme of Beethoven with dissecting knife or acid than to break up the soul by methods of abstract thought . Nature-knowledge and man-knowledge have neither ways nor aims in common.

Oswald Spengler

#32. Thought assists memory in enabling it to order the material it has assembled. So that in a systematically ordered memory every idea is individually followed by all conclusions it entails.

Jan Potocki

#33. The fate of a battle is the result of a moment, of a thought: the hostile forces advance with various combinations, they attack each other and fight for a certain time; the critical moment arrives, a mental flash decides, and the least reserve accomplishes the object.

Napoleon Bonaparte

#34. A mode of thought does not become 'critical' simply by attributing that label to itself, but by virtue of its content.

Alan Sokal

#35. People inspire people. That's the more reason why mentor-ship is a critical tool for dreams accomplishment.

Israelmore Ayivor

#36. Maybe to my own detriment, but I watched all of 'Fargo' probably more than once. And I tend to be a little critical of myself. But I can also let things go. So I can think, 'Well, that moment didn't read as well as I thought it would,' but it doesn't keep me up at night.

Allison Tolman

#37. Because he was so critical, so severe, so suspicious of her, she became secretive and lying. She would never say what she really thought. She was afraid of him.

Anais Nin

#38. Men educated in [the critical habit of thought]are slow to believe. They can hold things as possible or probable in all degrees, without certainty and without pain.

William Graham Sumner

#39. The spread of secondary and latterly of tertiary education has created a large population of people, often with well-developed literary and scholarly tastes, who have been educated far beyond their capacity to undertake analytical thought.

Peter Medawar

#40. The premise of Nossiter in 'Mondovino' would have been a lot more accurate when I started writing about wine in 1978 than when the movie was made in 2003. When I started, I was enormously critical of California wines, and I thought the entire wine industry was on a real slippery slope.

Robert M. Parker Jr.

#41. I became a photographer in order to be a war photographer, and a photographer involved in what I thought were critical social issues. From the very beginning this was my goal.

James Nachtwey

#42. Disease, and most specially opprobrious, suppressed, secret disease, creates a certain critical opposition to the world, to mediocre life, disposes a man to be obstinate and ironical toward civil order, so that he seeks refuge in free thought, in books, in study.

Thomas Mann

#43. Critical and radical thought will only bear fruit when it is blended with the most precious quality man is endowed with - the love of life

Erich Fromm

#44. Many of us saw religion as harmless nonsense. Beliefs might lack all supporting evidence but, we thought, if people needed a crutch for consolation, where's the harm? September 11th changed all that.

Richard Dawkins

#45. It was a miserable machine, an inefficient machine, she thought, the human apparatus for painting or for feeling; it always broke down at the critical moment; heroically, one must force it on.

Virginia Woolf

#46. I was reluctant to be critical of the United States because I thought the United States could do no wrong; that the government could not lie to its people.

Eric Kandel

#47. The idea that power was an end in itself, rather than a means to provide the security and opportunity necessary for the pursuit of happiness, seemed to him stupid and self-defeating." (about Senator Fulbright)

Bill Clinton

#48. For a scientist must indeed be freely imaginative and yet skeptical, creative and yet a critic. There is a sense in which he must be free, but another in which his thought must be very precisely regimented; there is poetry in science, but also a lot of bookkeeping.

Peter Medawar

#49. It seems to me that the binary opposition that is so much embedded in Western thought and language makes it nearly impossible to project a complex response.

Bell Hooks

#50. The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth.

Garry Kasparov

#51. Religions, themselves, are (intellectual) blasphemies.

Kedar Joshi

#52. I love Daredevil. I thought it was enjoyable. Okay? There were critical issues with it, and that's why I wear black, some people wear red - we are entitled to our opinions.

Avi Arad

#53. Orthodoxy is a relaxation of the mind accompanied by a stiffening of the heart.

Edward Abbey

#54. The role of social media is critical because it helps to spread cognitive dissonance by connecting thought leaders and activists to ordinary citizens rapidly expanding the network of people who become willing to take action.

Simon Mainwaring

#55. But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.

Carl Sagan

#56. In order for critical pedagogy, dialogue, and thought to have real effects, they must advocate the message that all citizens, old and young, are equally entitled, if not equally empowered, to shape the society in which they live.

Henry Giroux

#57. A culture of unaccountability is a culture without incentive, and a culture without incentive is the death of critical and creative thinking.

Michael R. LeGault

#58. I just mean it's very difficult for me to watch my work, in some ways, because I am critical of what I didn't get across or I thought I was making one point.

Tea Leoni

#59. If you're attracted to critical people, you may find relief in their clarity of thought and purity of vision. But you'll also find yourself guilt-ridden, compliant, and unable to make mistakes without tremendous anxiety. Irresponsibles

Henry Cloud

#60. I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought. I promise to educate myself so I can make my own judgments.

Carl Sagan

#61. Novels for me are how I find out what's going on in my own head. And so that's a really useful and indeed critical thing to do when you do as many of these other things as I do.

Cory Doctorow

#62. I lost one illusion last night. I thought I had no heart. I find I have, and a heart doesn't suit me, Windermere. Somehow it doesn't go with modern dress. It makes one look old. And it spoils one's career at critical moments.

Oscar Wilde

#63. We think in terms of fate even if we don't believe in it. Even something as trivial as missing the bus - we think: Well, it might be good for something. We always have that thought, no matter how critical we try to be. The idea that everything is always total chance - we're not made for that.

Daniel Kehlmann

#64. A destructive thought process exists within all of us, and we are plagued to varying degrees by an internal dialogue that is harmful, restrictive, and at its ultimate extreme, self-destructive.

Lisa Firestone

#65. I am not a politician. I have often been approached in this regard, but I have always declined these sorts of offers. I view myself as an independent, critical intellectual, as someone who tries to stimulate thought on the left and the right, to encourage intellectual evolution.

Tariq Ramadan