Critical Thinking Quotes

"He who knows only his own side of the case knows little of that." "Intelligence is what you use when you don't know what to do" "The principle goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done" "The power to question is the basis of all human progress" "Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another." "The aim of totalitarian education has never been to instill convictions but to destroy the capacity to form any." "There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous." "The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." "The curse of modernity is that we are increasingly populated by a class of people who are better at explaining than understanding" "A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers." "The purpose of education, finally, is to create in a person the ability to look at the world for himself, to make his own decisions" "It is very nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind" "The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated" "The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone's advice" "Ethical axioms are found and tested not very differently from the axioms of science. Truth is what stands the test of experience." "Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking." "It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." "Faith, as well intentioned as it may be, must be built on facts, not fiction--faith in fiction is a damnable false hope." "There is no expedient to which a man will not go to avoid the labor of thinking." "The smartest people are constantly revising their understanding, reconsidering a problem they thought they'd already solved. They're open to new points of view, new information, new ideas, contradictions, and challenges to their own way of thinking."