Independent Thinking Quotes

“Most people do not have a problem with you thinking for yourself, as long as your conclusions are the same as or at least compatible with their beliefs.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“When we step outside ourselves and stop being merely subjective witnesses, we can recognize how the relentless cut and thrust of our own self-righteousness vanishes and new ground is broken for a state of independent thinking, where ”others” do matter. ("Wheeling and dealing.")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Freedom of speech is unnecessary if the people to whom it is granted do not think for themselves.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Let us not be content with merely ‘formatting’ generations, but instead, focus on cultivating and enlightening them, ensuring independent thinking where acceptance is in pace with challenge and trust steers clear of gullibility. ("Skyward, over and above")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Most people believe most of the things they believe only because they believe that most people believe them.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Beliefs are conclusions reached by men who are lazy to think for themselves.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“I want to oppose the idea that the school has to teach directly that special knowledge and those accomplishments which one has to use later directly in life. The demands of life are much too manifold to let such a specialized training in school appear possible [...] The development of general ability for independent thinking and judgement should always be placed foremost.”
― Albert Einstein

“Thinking for yourself and making your own decisions can be frightening. Letting go of other people’s expectations can leave you feeling empty for a time. And yet seeing yourself as an independent adult who can stand up for your own choices frees you to accept yourself as you are.”
― Ellen Bass, The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse

“I am selfish — you have already said so— and as a selfish man I think not of what others would do in my situation, but of what I intend doing myself.

Alexandre Dumas. The Count of Monte Cristo (Kindle Locations 11677-11678).”
― Alexandre Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo

“A true survivor is someone who, after 12+ years of being schooled, remains independent in their thinking.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Daring to publicly express ideas independent from the dominant elite narrative indeed had serious consequences. Those who did faced isolation— and worse—if they failed to heed repeated warnings to remain silent.”
― Mohamad Jebara, The Life of the Qur'an: From Eternal Roots to Enduring Legacy

“Having someone do certain things for you is like getting someone to chew your food for you.

It might be easier to swallow but it loses all its flavor...

And you want the flavor!”
― Ze Frank

“Standing alone today demands even more courage and strength than it did in former cultures. From infancy, children have been programmed to perform. Rather than living from their own needs and feelings, they learn to assess situations in order to please others. Without an inner core of certainty grounded in their own musculature, they lack the inner resources to stand alone. Pummelled by mass media and peer group pressures, their identity may be utterly absorbed by collective stereotypes. In the absence of adequate rites of passage, ad-men become the high priests of an initiation into the addictions of consumerism.”
― Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation

“As only dead leaves allow the wind to blow them to and fro, never allow yourself to be swayed by popular opinion.”
― Matshona Dhliwayo

“Everyone can and should learn to be a better observer... Observing your world carefully, becoming aware of your own bias, of your own previously held beliefs and how they limit what you can see — it’s utterly necessary if you are to have independence of thought. And if you don’t have independence of thought, what do you have?”
― Heather E. Heying

“Many of those who are advised to think outside the box do not even think inside the box.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Our books can know and remember for us, but cannot think for us.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Avoid blind compliance. Ask questions.”
― Mimi Ikonn

“The human population would still be less than a million if intellectual maturity were a prerequisite for human fertility.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“She had tried when she turned sixteen to think of herself as a woman, like Jane Eyre or Elizabeth Bennet or the multitudes of heroines who lived in her books, but in her head she wasn't there. They were all older than her, and had all, even Jane, seen more of life. And yet she was too old to be Sara Crewe or Alice or Wendy Darling either. She was a liminal person, trapped between a world she'd grown out of and another that wouldn't let her in. It was one reason why she wanted to leave the island so badly--- the hope that leaving the place she'd grown up would help her leave her childhood behind. Not forever, not yet. But for a visit, to see what it was like.”
― H.G. Parry, The Magician’s Daughter

“A huge part of culture is the painting of a particular degree or kind of foolishness as wisdom, by at least the vast majority of a particular group of fools … or mostly fools.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“Most people would rather have their remarks be misunderstood than be disagreed with.”
― @Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“When I was 17, all the cultural ideas that I was sold were about the future. Being 17 now must be terrifying. You must look at the state of the economy and the world and you don’t know if there’s going to be a future. If I was 17 now and I was having to deal with the things that young people are expected to deal with — you need to be informed on racial issues, how economies work, all this stuff … When I was 17, I was getting stoned, and there was no one shouting at me on the internet that I wasn’t doing my part. It felt like the apocalypse anyway, because of some girl or a lack of weed or something like that. It wasn’t like trying to understand these huge ideas and being expected to have this pre-signed-off opinion on anything.”
― Matty Healy

“রাষ্ট্রে, ধর্মে, সমাজে, তাঁর জীবৎকালে যত আন্দোলন এ-দেশে জেগে উঠেছিলো, তার প্রায় প্রত্যেকটিতে সাড়া দিয়েছিলেন রবীন্দ্রনাথ, তাকে ফলিয়ে তুলেছিলেন সাহিত্যে, কখনো-কখনো প্রত্যক্ষভাবেও অংশ নিয়েছিলেন ; কিন্তু কদাচ কোনো সংঘভুক্ত হননি, কোনো পুরোহিতের আনুগত্য স্বীকার করেননি, তাঁকে বাঁধতে পারে এমন বাঁধন কারো হাতেই তৈরি হলো না।

("শিল্পীর স্বাধীনতা" প্রবন্ধের অংশ)”
― Buddhadeva Bose, সাহিত্যচর্চা

“A majority of people follow the herd because they find it difficult to veer into the lane that would require their mind to get to work.”
― John Joclebs Bassey, Night of a Thousand Thoughts

“Everybody goes where everybody goes.”
― Thomas Vato

“Fashion is a thing I care mighty little about, except when it happens to run just exactly according to my own notion...”
― David Crockett, A narrative of the life of David Crockett of the state Tennessee

“Autonomous people assert themselves against the status quo. They don't accept the prevailing opinion just because it's the one given to them. Nothing creative has ever come from taking things at face value.”
― Maria Brito, How Creativity Rules the World: The Art and Business of Turning Your Ideas into Gold

“In the beginning, it is possible to learn to think by using other minds. But, like time, other voices need to be silenced so that the inner voice can speak. Most thinkers today are just that – parrots endlessly repeating one another. Originality is dead.”
― Geverson Ampolini

“The people telling you to follow the rules are the same people who profit when you don’t question them.”
― Joseph C. Kunz Jr., Money's Dirty Little Secrets: How to Break the Rules, Get Filthy Rich, and Laugh All the Way to the Bank