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Thought quotes

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“What our age lacks, however, is not reflection but passion.” Søren Kierkegaard, “Fear and Trembling” - 1843

“Every now and then a man's mind is stretched by a new idea or sensation, and never shrinks back to its former dimensions.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” - 1858

“We think too much and feel too little.” Charlie Chaplin, “My Autobiography” - 1964

“The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.” Emma Goldman, “Anarchism and Other Essays” - 1910

“Be great in act, as you have been in thought;” William Shakespeare, “King John” - 1623

“Hadn’t I always thought that life was just one great risk?” Maya Angelou, “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” - 1969

“Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought.” Victor Hugo, “Les Misérables” - 1862

“The wise man thinks about his troubles only when there is some purpose in doing so; at other times he thinks about other things, or, if it is night, about nothing at all.” Bertrand Russell, “The Conquest of Happiness” - 1930

“You know, there are two good things in life, freedom of thought and freedom of action.” W. Somerset Maugham, “Of Human Bondage” - 1915

“I have always thought the actions of men the best interpreters of their thoughts.” John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” - 1689

“For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.” René Descartes, “Discourse on the Method” - 1637

“Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature; but he is a thinking reed.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.” Haruki Murakami, “Norwegian Wood” - 1987

“Not in his speech, not in his thoughts, I see his greatness, only in his actions, in his life.” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“The logical picture of the facts is the thought.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“Nothing was your own except the few cubic centimetres inside your skull.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“A man who does not think for himself does not think at all.” Oscar Wilde, “The Soul of Man under Socialism” - 1891

“We must keep our thought secret, and judge everything by it, while talking like the people.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“language . . . is the parent, and not the child, of thought.” Oscar Wilde, “Intentions” - 1891

“Do you not know I am a woman? When I think, I must speak.” William Shakespeare, “As You Like It” - 1623

“No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing so.” Arthur Conan Doyle, “A Study in Scarlet” - 1887

“I had chosen the dead rather than the living, the thing thought rather than the thing thinking!” George MacDonald, “Lilith” - 1895

“One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.” Henry Adams, “The Education of Henry Adams” - 1906

“Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind out of somebody or other.” Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., “The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table” - 1858

“Tarzan must act quickly or his prey would be gone; but Tarzan's life training left so little space between decision and action when an emergency confronted him that there was not even room for the shadow of a thought between.” Edgar Rice Burroughs, “Tarzan of the Apes” - 1912

“Thus any one reflecting upon the thought he has of the delight which any present or absent thing is apt to produce in him, has the idea we call LOVE.” John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” - 1689

“My third maxim was to endeavor always to conquer myself rather than fortune, and change my desires rather than the order of the world, and in general, accustom myself to the persuasion that, except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in...” René Descartes, “Discourse on the Method” - 1637

“But immediately upon this I observed that, whilst I thus wished to think that all was false, it was absolutely necessary that I, who thus thought, should be somewhat;” René Descartes, “Discourse on the Method” - 1637

“The day thought, which was no wish in itself but rather a worry, had in some way to find a connection with the infantile now unconscious and suppressed wish, which then allowed it, though already properly prepared, to “originate” for...” Sigmund Freud, “The Interpretation of Dreams” - 1899

“But a thought must directly, or indirectly, by means of certain signs, relate ultimately to intuitions; consequently, with us, to sensibility, because in no other way can an object be given to us.” Immanuel Kant, “Critique of Pure Reason” - 1791

“The first years of man must make provision for the last. He that never thinks, never can be wise.” Samuel Johnson, “The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia” - 1759

“He thought much but said little, unless it was to call loudly for men to bring him fire and food.” J. R. R. Tolkien, “The Hobbit” - 1937

“When a man says he does not want to speak of something he usually means he can think of nothing else.” John Steinbeck, “East of Eden” - 1952

“To attain the highth and depth of thy eternal ways all human thoughts come short, Supreme of things!” John Milton, “Paradise Lost” - 1667

“It has not come to you by means of teachings! And—thus is my thought, oh exalted one,—nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings!” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“When she had failed once or twice to respond to some conversational gambit or other, Bond also relapsed into silence and occupied himself with his own gloomy thoughts.” Ian Fleming, “Casino Royale” - 1953

“Philosophy should make clear and delimit sharply the thoughts which otherwise are, as it were, opaque and blurred.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly.” Ludwig Wittgenstein, “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - 1921

“I am. I am, I exist, I think, therefore I am; I am because I think, why do I think? I don’t want to think any more, I am because I think that I don’t want to be, I think that I... because... ugh!” Jean-Paul Sartre, “Nausea” - 1938

“You’re bound to get idears if you go thinkin’ about stuff.” John Steinbeck, “The Grapes of Wrath” - 1939

“What exactly do I think about when I’m running? I don’t have a clue.” Haruki Murakami, “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” - 2007

“People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of a mirror instead of a person. They didn’t see me, they saw their own lewd thoughts. Then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.” Marilyn Monroe, “My Story” - 1974

“His ear heard more than was said to him, and his slow speech had overtones not of thought, but of understanding beyond thought.” John Steinbeck, “Of Mice and Men” - 1937

“We thought we were the only thinking beings in the universe, until we met you, but never did we dream that thought could arise from the lonely animals who cannot dream each other’s dreams.” Orson Scott Card, “Ender's Game” - 1985

“Out of my thoughts! You are part of my existence, part of myself. You have been in every line I have ever read since I first came here, the rough common boy whose poor heart you wounded even then.” Charles Dickens, “Great Expectations” - 1861

“the ancestor of every action is a thought.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Spiritual Laws” - 1841

“A single gentle rain makes the grass many shades greener. So our prospects brighten on the influx of better thoughts.” Henry David Thoreau, “Walden” - 1854

Related topics

speech action life mind love wisdom freedom greatness depth clarity talking existence passion women death doubt food reason truth friendship

Related authors

René Descartes (3)
John Steinbeck (3)
Ludwig Wittgenstein (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
Oscar Wilde (2)
George Orwell (2)
Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (2)
John Locke (2)
Blaise Pascal (2)
Haruki Murakami (2)
Hermann Hesse (2)
Charles Dickens (1)
Henry David Thoreau (1)
Maya Angelou (1)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1)
Arthur Conan Doyle (1)
Victor Hugo (1)
Bertrand Russell (1)
George MacDonald (1)
Henry Adams (1)

Related sources

Discourse on the Method (3)
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (3)
1984 (2)
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (2)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (2)
Pensées (2)
Siddhartha (2)
As You Like It (1)
King John (1)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (1)
A Study in Scarlet (1)
Les Misérables (1)
The Conquest of Happiness (1)
Lilith (1)
The Education of Henry Adams (1)
Of Human Bondage (1)
Tarzan of the Apes (1)
The Interpretation of Dreams (1)
Critique of Pure Reason (1)
My Autobiography (1)