Now, 75 years [after ], in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.[Open Letter,, July 2006]
reading computers people society communication letter empty minds critical-thinking superficiality modern-life books phones
If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.
faith religion reason critical-thinking
History can come in handy. If you were born yesterday, with no knowledge of the past, you might easily accept whatever the government tells you. But knowing a bit of history--while it would not absolutely prove the government was lying in a given instance--might make you skeptical, lead you to ask questions, make it more likely that you would find out the truth.
proof government history questions critical-thinking
Orthodoxy is a relaxation of the mind accompanied by a stiffening of the heart.
mind heart independent-thought orthodoxy critical-thinking dogma
Philosophy ought to question the basic assumptions of the age. Thinking through, critically and carefully, what most of us take for granted is, I believe, the chief task of philosophy, and the task that makes philosophy a worthwhile activity.
philosophy critical-thinking
Forget the politicians. The politicians are put there to give you the idea you have freedom of choice. You don't. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land, they own and control the corporations that've long since bought and paid for, the senate, the congress, the state houses, the city halls, they got the judges in their back pocket, and they own all the big media companies so they control just about all of the news and the information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else. But I'll tell you what they don't want. They don't want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don't want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They're not interested in that. That doesn't help them.
politics corruption critical-thinking
There are few things more dangerous than inbred religious certainty.
fanaticism religion fundamentalism critical-thinking dogma
Religion has the capacity to silence critical thinking and create blindness in entire groups of people. It can infect the minds of followers so completely as to allow the most egregious sexual acts against children and others to go unchallenged for centuries.
religion critical-thinking sexual-abuse
For me, I think the greatest achievements of science is to allow humanity to realize that our world is comprehensible. Through science, rational thinking, we can understand how the universe works.
science critical-thinking
If you don't understand how the world works, then everything is a mystery to you. If everything is magical and mysterious, then you really don't work on logic anymore. Then, everything is all about belief.
A mode of thought does not become 'critical' simply by attributing that label to itself, but by virtue of its content.
skepticism science critical-thinking
Most people do not actually know how to think for themselves, and unfortunately that prevents them from even knowing it.
science knowledge ignorance critical-thinking
There exists in society a very special class of persons that I have always referred to as the Believers. These are folks who have chosen to accept a certain religion, philosophy, theory, idea or notion and cling to that belief regardless of any evidence that might, for anyone else, bring it into doubt. They are the ones who encourage and support the fanatics and the frauds of any given age. No amount of evidence, no matter how strong, will bring them any enlightenment. They are the sheep who beg to be fleeced and butchered, and who will battle fiercely to preserve their right to be victimized patent offices handle an endless succession of inventors who still produce perpetual-motion machines that don't work, but no number of idle flywheels will convince these zealots of their folly; dozens of these patent applications flow in every year. In ashrams all over the world, hopping devotees of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi will never abandon their goal of blissful levitation of their bodies by mind power, despite bruises and sprains aplenty suffered as they bounce about on gym mats like demented (though smiling) frogs, trying to get airborne. Absolutely nothing will discourage them.
Nothing is more conductive to peace of mind than not having any opinions at all.
strength character opinions peace-of-mind critical-thinking
Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.(Closing statement of the debate with William Dembski at Prestonwood Baptist Church, Plano, Texas, November 18, 2010)
life wisdom truth independent-thought critical-thinking
Believe what you like, but don't believe you read without questioning it.
belief believe critical-thinking questioning
The secret to discovery is to never believe existing facts.
reason believe discovery critical-thinking
One of the most important things one can do in life is to brutally question every single thing you are taught.
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There is a magnificent, beautiful, wonderful painting in front of you! It is intricate, detailed, a painstaking labor of devotion and love! The colors are like no other, they swim and leap, they trickle and embellish! And yet you choose to fixate your eyes on the small fly which has landed on it! Why do you do such a thing?
people self-knowledge self-acceptance positivity inspirational-attitude inspirational-life self-love inspirational-quotes positive-attitude wisdom-quotes negativity envy critical-thinking
The opinions that are held with passion are always those for which no good ground exists; indeed the passion is the measure of the holders lack of rational conviction. Opinions in politics and religion are almost always held passionately.
skepticism passion opinions opinion critical-thinking superficiality rationalism extremism
Creating consent (hegemony) is never a simple act. It is rather the result of the social structures and the cultural patterns that dictates for each group its behavior and for each institutions its practices.
power critical-thinking ideology
The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.
skepticism opinions independent-thought thinking critical-thinking
Critical voices have to care about history. We have to care about the way in which things get controlled in the past because that's when the damage gets done and if we don't keep that historical memory, we will allow them to do it again next time.
critics censorship criticism critical-thinking
Cynicism, like gullibility, is a symptom of underdeveloped critical faculties.
cynicism logic critical-thinking
It is important for this country to make its people so obsessed with their own liberal individualism that they do not have time to think about a world larger than self.
individualism critical-thinking liberalism
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