Thursday, March 26, 2009

Thoughts About Thinking

What I'm reading: Certain Prey by John Sandford

This came from a friend yesterday. I thought it was worth sharing. (Make sure you read the final entry--it's my favorite as well. Which one is yours?)

Quotes about thinking (and lack of), prompted by this Niels Bohr's quip: No, no, you're not thinking, you're just being logical.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use. ~Soren Kierkegaard

Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting. ~Edmund Burke

Some people get lost in thought because it's such unfamiliar territory. ~G. Behn

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once a week. ~George Bernard Shaw

Keep Reading...

Sometimes I think and other times I am. ~Paul Valéry

Men who borrow their opinions can never repay their debts. ~George Savile, Marquess de Halifax

Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. ~John F. Kennedy

"I don't mind your thinking slowly, I mind your publishing faster than you can think." Physicist Wolfgang Pauli.

How wonderful that we have met with a paradox. Now we have some hope of making progress. ~Niels Bohr

And, the grand finale:
Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again? ~Winnie the Pooh

And yes, since tomorrow's Friday, look for another story from Homicide - Hussey

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, from your list, the G. Behn one is the best. I also like:

Belief is when someone else does the thinking.
-Buckminster Fuller

and

I think- therefore I'm single.
-Lizz Winstead

It's interesting, if not slightly disturbing, that the cool quotes come from physicists...

Terry Odell said...

Thanks for the additional quotes.

queenofmean said...

My favorite:
Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting. ~Edmund Burke
I can never put down one book & immediately pick up another. I need a couple of days to review the first one in my mind.

Terry Odell said...

that's a good one too, queen