Independent Thought Quotes

• Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Being Yourself, Heart

  "The World As I See It (Letter to a Friend of Peace)". Book by Albert Einstein, 1949.

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• Those of us who shout the loudest about Americanism, are all too frequently those who . . . ignore some of the basic principles of Americanism-the right to criticize, the right to hold unpopular beliefs, the right to protest, the right of independent thought.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Independent, Rights, America

  Margaret Chase Smith (1972). “Declaration of conscience”

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• A wise man makes his own decisions, an ignorant man follows the public opinion.

  Grantland Rice

  Confidence, Wise, Wisdom

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• At least once a day, allow yourself the freedom to think and dream for yourself.

  Albert Einstein

  Dream, Thinking

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• Somebody who only reads newspapers and at best books of contemporary authors looks to me like an extremely near-sighted person who scorns eyeglasses. He is completely dependent on the prejudices and fashions of his times, since he never gets to see or hear anything else.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Fashion

  Albert Einstein (2015). “Bite-Size Einstein: Quotations on Just About Everything from the Greatest Mind of the Twentieth Century”, p.53, St. Martin's Press

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• Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Spiritual, Atheist

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• Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

  Christopher Morley

  Wisdom, Silly, Reading

  Christopher Morley (2013). “The Haunted Bookshop”, p.294, Melville House

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• The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

  Coco Chanel

  Strength, Inspiring, Courage

  "Believing in Ourselves" by Armand Eisen, (p. 39), 1992.

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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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• Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.

  Adrienne Rich

  Strong Women, Hard Work, Mean

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• Let the views of others educate and inform you, but let your decisions be a product of your own conclusions.

  Jim Rohn

  Thinking, Views, Decision

  FaceBook post by Jim Rohn from Jun 09, 2013

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• You must strive to become much less susceptible to influences outside of yourself and much more inclined to trust the instincts and feelings that lie within you.

  Bob Proctor

  Trust, Lying, Feelings

  FaceBook post by Bob Proctor from Mar 20, 2017

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• When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful.

  Caroline Myss

  Powerful, Needs, Approval

  Caroline Myss (2013). “Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential”, p.33, Harmony

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• Thinking is hard work, which is why you don't see many people doing it.

  Sue Grafton

  Hard Work, Independent, Thinking

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• Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your
  country, let men label you as they may.

  Mark Twain

  Country, Integrity, 4th Of July

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• When we consider that each of us has only one life to live, isn’t it rather tragic to find men and women, with brains capable of comprehending the stars and the planets, talking about the weather; men and women, with hands capable of creating works of art, using those hands only for routine tasks; men and women, capable of independent thought, using their minds as a bowling-alley for popular ideas; men and women, capable of greatness, wallowing in mediocrity; men and women, capable of self-expression, slowly dying a mental death while they babble the confused monotone of the mob?

  Neil Gaiman

  Art, Stars, Confused

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  People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take.

  Emma Goldman

  Independent, People, Independence

  Emma Goldman (1914). “The Social Significance of the Modern Drama”

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• None but ourselves can free our minds.

  Bob Marley

  Inspirational, Life, Music

  "Redemption Song" (song) (1980)

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• Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.

  Confucius

  Education, Wise, Clever

  Confucius (2014). “Confucian Analects”, p.9, Simon and Schuster

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• The right to criticize: the right to hold unpopular beliefs; the right to protest; the right of independent thought. The exercise of these rights should not cost one single American citizen his reputation or his right to a livelihood... Otherwise none of us could call our souls our own.

  Margaret Chase Smith

  Religious, Independent, Exercise

  Declaration of Conscience, delivered 1 June 1950

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• A Sannyasin cannot belong to any religion, for his is a life of independent thought, which draws from all religions; his is a life of realisation, not merely of theory or belief, much less of dogma.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Independent, Belief, Dogma

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2221, Manonmani Publishers

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• The Republican party is the party of nostalgia. It seeks to return America to a simpler, more innocent and moral past that never actually existed. The Democrats are utopians. They seek to create an America so fair and non-judgmental that life becomes an unbearable series of apologies. Together, the two parties function like giant down comforters, allowing a candidate to disappear into the enveloping softness, protecting them from exposure to the harsh weather of independent thought.

  Jon Stewart

  Party, Independent, Apology

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• Lesson number one in trying to develop the ability of independent thought: Understand that EVERYTHING the government says has the potential to be lies and deception. You can believe it's the truth only after you question, exhaust every avenue, and find that their story checks out. If you're a patriot, it's your duty to always question your government anyway, at every turn. A patriot is loyal to his country and his countrymen, not his government.

  Derek R. Audette

  Country, Lying, Believe

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• To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Independent, Punishment, Way

  "Crime and Punishment".

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• Education is character development, harmonious completion of human personality. But what the state accomplishes in this field is dull drill, extinction of natural feeling, narrowing of the spiritual field of vision, destruction of all the deeper elements of character in man. The state can train subjects...but it can never develop free men who take their affairs into their own hands; for independent thought is the greatest danger that it has to fear.

  Rudolf Rocker

  Spiritual, Character, Independent

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