Independence Of Thought Quotes

• Better remain silent, better not even think, if you are not prepared to act.

  Annie Besant

  Inspiring, Thinking, Silent

  Annie Besant (1917). “The Birth of New India: A Collection of Writings and Speeches on Indian Affairs”

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• Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

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• The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought.

  Emma Goldman

  Independent, Independence, Sin

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism: Top Crime Collections”, p.40, 谷月社

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• For some days, people thought that India was shaking. But there are always tremors when a great tree falls.

  Rajiv Gandhi

  Powerful, Fall, People

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• Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high, where knowledge is free. Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls. Where words come out from the depth of truth, where tireless striving stretches its arms toward perfection. Where the clear stream of reason has not lost it's way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit. Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever widening thought and action. In to that heaven of freedom, my father, LET MY COUNTRY AWAKE!

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Country, Wall, Father

  Rabindranath Tagore (2014). “Gitanjali: Collection of Tagore Poems”, p.39, editionNEXT.com

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• Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Country, Father, Heaven

  Rabindranath Tagore, Mohit Kumar Ray (2007). “Poems”, p.22, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet.

  Susan B. Anthony

  Inspiring, Girl, Strong Women

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• A free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.

  Leon Blum

  Freedom, Men, Liberty

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• It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Inspirational, Graduation, Philosophy

  'Essays' (1841) 'Self-Reliance'

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• 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

  Leader, Independence, Promise

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark”, p.546, Ballantine Books

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• A society with too few independent thinkers is vulnerable to control by disturbed and opportunistic leaders. A society which wants to create and maintain a free and democratic social system must create responsible independence of thought among its young.

  John Dewey

  Independent, Leader, Independence

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• Now and then women should do for themselves what men have already done—occasionally what men have not done—thereby establishing themselves as persons, and perhaps encouraging other women toward greater independence of thought and action.

  Amelia Earhart

  Men, Independence, Done

  Amelia Earhart (2009). “Last Flight”, p.50, Crown

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• In the long run [censorship] will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.

  Henry Steele Commager

  Running, Differences, Long

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• When I think of the most able students I have encountered in my teaching - I mean those who have distinguished themselves not only by skill but by independence of thought - then I must confess that all have had a lively interest in epistemology.

  Albert Einstein

  Teaching, Mean, Thinking

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• Among the droves of men with political ambitions in the United States, I found very few with that virile candor, that manly independence of thought, that often distinguished Americans in earlier times and that is invariably the preeminent trait of great characters wherever it exists.

  Alexis de Tocqueville

  Character, Ambition, Men

  Alexis de Tocqueville, Arthur Goldhammer (2004). “Democracy in America”, p.297, Library of America

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• Since I reached the conclusion that the essence of the creative person is being in love with what one is doing, I have had a growing awareness that this characteristic makes possible all the other personality characteristics of the creative person: independence of thought and judgment, honesty, perseverance, curiosity, willingness to take risks and the like.

  Ellis Paul Torrance

  Perseverance, Honesty, Being In Love

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• Independence of thought is a most valuable quality in a chess-player, both at the board and when preparing for a game.

  David Bronstein

  Success, Player, Games

  David Bronstein (1991). “200 Open Games”, p.113, Courier Corporation

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• My only supporter and comrade-in-arms was Georg Helm, who had endeavored to formulate an energetic conception of science before me and had presented his results in a treatise [Die Lehre von der Energie] exhibiting great independence of thought. But we were separated by his aversion to a realistic conception of energy. Consequently, each of us considered the other only a half ally, toward whom an attitude of caution was necessary.

  Wilhelm Ostwald

  Attitude, Independence, Allies

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• Human existence may be simpler than we thought. There is no predestination, no unfathomed mystery of life. Demons and gods do not vie for our allegiance. Instead, we are self-made, independent, alone, and fragile, a biological species adapted to live in a biological world. What counts for long-term survival is intelligent self-understanding, based upon a greater independence of thought than that tolerated today even in our most advanced democratic societies.

  E. O. Wilson

  Independent, Intelligent, Self

  "The Meaning of Human Existence" by Keith Hess, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 25, 2016.

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• The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought.

  Walter Gilbert

  Independence, Virtue, Skepticism

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• . . . besides love, independence of thought is the greatest gift an adult can give a child.

  Bryce Courtenay

  Love, Children, Giving

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• It's strange that in an age when we pride ourselves on our independence of thought we meekly submit without further question to the declaration of a clearly unbalanced nineteenth century philosopher that God is dead! That's cheeky, of course - and one rarely comes away from reading Nietzsche without learning something new and significant. He's certainly FAR more unsettling for faith than any contemporary atheist I know of.

  George Pattison

  Atheist, Reading, Pride

  "Towards hope". Interview with Richard Marshall, www.3ammagazine.com. July 18, 2014.

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