... he who has independent ideas is hated by the mass[es]. — Shang Yang
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. — Coco Chanel
A person of any mental quality has ideas of his own. This is common sense. — Franz Liszt
Don't pay attention to "authorities," think for yourself. — Richard P. Feynman
Everyone is susceptible to groupthink. Thinking independently is difficult, and lonely. — Lex Fridman
Learn to see, listen, and think for yourself. — Malcolm X
Originality is independence, not rebellion; it is sincerity, not antagonism. — George Henry Lewes
The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself. — Peter Thiel
Diversity: the art of thinking independently together. — Malcolm Stevenson Forbes
Independent Thought Image Quotes
When you do not seek or need approval, you are at your most powerful. — Caroline Myss
The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.
Feeling Independent Quotes
The basis of any independent government is a national language, and we can no longer continue aping our former colonizers ... those who feel they cannot do without English can as well pack up and go. — Jomo Kenyatta
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers. You can fill your life up with ideas and still go home lonely. All you really have that really matters are feelings. That's what music is to me.” – Janis Joplin — Janis Joplin
One cannot escape the feeling that these mathematical formulas have an independent existence and an intelligence of their own, that they are wiser than we are, wiser even than their discoverers. — Heinrich Hertz
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
The view that women are infantile and emotional creatures, and as such, incapable of responsibility and independence is the work of the masculine tendency to lower women's self-respect. — Karen Horney
I don't feel we need to be independent for me to feel confident in my Scottish identity. I think Scotland is pretty comfortable in its identity. We won't need independence to preserve it... if we don't become independent, it won't disappear; it isn't under existential threat. — Nicola Sturgeon
I feel ashamed that so many of us cannot imagine a better way to do things than locking children up all day in cells instead of letting them grow up knowing their families, mingling with the world, assuming real obligations, striving to be independent and self-reliant and free. — John Taylor Gatto
If you have a bad thought about yourself, tell it to go to hell because that is exactly where it came from.
I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence. — Abraham Lincoln
Make a choice: Continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. — Meghan Markle
There is a feeling of personal dignity and independence in grasping, literally, the power to back your refusal to be a target of a violent crime with lethal force. This is not a sense of power, it is now the experience of escaping from a sense of powerlessness. — John Longenecker
Teenagers crave independence. The more self-suf-ficient we make them feel, the less hostile they are toward us. — Haim Ginott
Independence Of Thought Quotes
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
Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech. — Benjamin Franklin
It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority. — Benjamin Franklin
Your worst enemy cannot harm you as much as your own unguarded thoughts.
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
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
I'm a modern woman in the sense of I take care of myself, I'm fiercely independent, and I'm really ambitious. Yet I have these old-school thoughts in my mind. — Eva Mendes
One small positive thought in the morning can change you whole day.
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
We have learned that beneath the surface of an ordinary everyday normal casual conscious existence there lies a vast dynamic world of impulse and dream, a hinterland of energy which has an independent existence of its own and laws of its own: laws which motivate all our thoughts and our actions. — Robert Edmond Jones
Cubism is not a manner but an aesthetic, and even a state of mind; it is therefore inevitably connected with every manifestation of contemporary thought. It is possible to invent a technique or a manner independently, but one cannot invent the whole complexity of a state of mind. — Juan Gris
Persons grouped around a fire or candle for warmth or light are less able to pursue independent thoughts, or even tasks, than people supplied with electric light. In the same way, the social and educational patterns latent in automation are those of self-employment and artistic autonomy. — Marshall McLuhan
Independent Thinking Quotes
The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions. — Noam Chomsky
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
Think before you speak. Read before you think. — Fran Lebowitz
How amazing is it to find someone who wants to hear about all the things that go in your head.
Most men use their knowledge only under guidance from others because they lack the courage to think independently using their own reasoning abilities. It takes intellectual daring to discover the truth. — Immanuel Kant
People have only as much liberty as they have the intelligence to want and the courage to take. — Emma Goldman
A contrarian isn’t one who always objects — that’s a conformist of a different sort. A contrarian reasons independently, from the ground up, and resists pressure to conform. — Naval Ravikant
Empty Minds Make The Most Noise!
Education in Chess has to be an education in independent thinking and judging. Chess must not be memorized. — Emanuel Lasker
If you eat, invest, and think according to what the ‘news’ advocates, you’ll end nutritionally, financially, and morally bankrupt. — Naval Ravikant
A democratic education means that we educate people in a way that ensures they can think independently, that they can use information, knowledge, and technology, among other things, to draw their own conclusions. — Linda Darling-Hammond
If you eat, invest, and think according to what the ‘news’ advocates, you’ll end up bankrupt. — Naval Ravikant
Free Thought Quotes
Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, WE ARE ALWAYS FREE TO CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS! — Viktor E. Frankl
Those who are free of resentful thoughts surely find peace. — Buddha
True empathy is always free of any evaluative or diagnostic quality. This comes across to the recipient with some surprise. "If I am not being judged, perhaps I am not so evil or abnormal as I have thought". — Carl Rogers
Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise. You are the love and joy beneath the pain.
Fear of something is at the root of hate for others, and hate within will eventually destroy the hater. Keep your thoughts free from hate, and you need have no fear from those who hate you. — George Washington Carver
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it. — Evelyn Beatrice Hall
It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears. — Louis D. Brandeis
If you wouldn't say it to a friend, don't say it to yourself.
The mind is free and the slightest thought has great influence. It is therefore important that you think enlightened thoughts. — Moroccan Proverbs
If there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought, not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. — William O. Douglas
You are free to think thoughts of worry or joy, and whatever you choose will attract the same kind back to you. Worry attracts worry. Joy attracts joy. — Rhonda Byrne
Liberty is meaningless where the right to utter one's thoughts and opinions has ceased to exist. That, of all rights, is the dread of tyrants. It is the right which they first of all strike down. — Frederick Douglass
But a Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever. — John Adams
Integrity is choosing your thoughts and actions based on values rather than personal gain.
I had a right to my own political opinions. I am a Southern woman, born with Revolutionary blood in my veins. Freedom of speech and of thought were my birthright, guaranteed, signed and sealed by the blood of our fathers. — Rose O'Neal Greenhow
Some tourists think Amsterdam is a city of sin, but in truth it is a city of freedom. And in freedom, most people find sin. — John Green
Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. — John Adams
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.
Freedom of speech and thought matters, especially when it is speech and thought with which we disagree. The moment the majority decides to destroy people for engaging in thought it dislikes, thought crime becomes a reality. — Ben Shapiro
We are faced with the paradoxical fact that education has become one of the chief obstacles to intelligence and freedom of thought. — Bertrand Russell
Mindfulness gives you time. Time gives you choices. Choices, skillfully made, lead to freedom. You don't have to be swept away by your feeling. You can respond with wisdom and kindness rather than habit and reactivity. — Henepola Gunaratana
I understand you, and I shall not attempt to make you change your mind. I am too old to want to improve the world. I have told you what I think, and that is all. I shall remain your friend even if you act contrary to my convictions, and I shall help you even if I disagree with you. — Milan Kundera
Information is Power. Think For Yourself. CAUTION: proper use of the brain is not endorsed by federal governments nor huge corporations involved in serious financial profit from a brainwashed and enslaved population. Mild discomfort may occur as confusing independent thought challenges popular views of the world. — Timothy Leary
Lucifer represents life, though, progress, civilization, liberty, independence. Lucifer is the Logos, the Serpent, the Savior. — H. P. Blavatsky
To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
Clear thinkers appeal to their own authority. — Naval Ravikant
Those who are too lazy and comfortable to think for themselves and be their own judges obey the laws. Others sense their own laws within them. — Hermann Hesse
The time has come for people of reason to say: Enough is Enough! Religious faith discourages independent thought, it's divisive and it's dangerous. — Richard Dawkins
A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, sees not the flag, but the nation itself. — Henry Ward Beecher
At least once a day, allow yourself the freedom to think and dream for yourself. — Albert Einstein
I read only to please myself, and enjoy only what suits my taste. — Voltaire
Fools have a habit of believing that everything written by a famous author is admirable. For my part I read only to please myself and like only what suits my taste. — Voltaire
The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks. — Christopher Hitchens
People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion. — Anne Frank
The most unpardonable sin in society is independence of thought. — Emma Goldman
Success also requires the courage to risk disapproval. Most independent thought, new ideas, or endeavors beyond the common measure are greeted with disapproval, and ranging from skepticism and ridicule to violent outrage. To persevere in anything exceptional requires inner strength and the unshakable conviction that you are right. — Chin-Ning Chu
Let the views of others educate and inform you, but let your decisions be a product of your own conclusions. — Jim Rohn
In times of totalitarian or autocratic rule, music (indeed culture in general) is often the only avenue of independent thought. It is the only way people can meet as equals, and exchange ideas. Culture then becomes primarily the voice of the oppressed and it takes over from politics as a driving force for change. — Daniel Barenboim
The mind never need stop growing. Indeed, one of the few experiences which never pall is the experience of watching one's own mind and how it produces new interests, responds to new stimuli, and develops new thoughts, apparently without effort and almost independently of one's own conscious control. — Gilbert Highet
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
There are lots of great movies coming out of the U.S. but it's not something I've ever really been interested in. They're great films but I much prefer the smaller independent films, which are more thought provoking and experimental. — Billie Piper
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
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
I am not a politician. I have often been approached in this regard, but I have always declined these sorts of offers. I view myself as an independent, critical intellectual, as someone who tries to stimulate thought on the left and the right, to encourage intellectual evolution. — Tariq Ramadan
Nature never said to me: Do not be poor; still less did she say: Be rich; her cry to me was always: Be independent. — Nicolas Chamfort
A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to. — Banksy
The virtues of science are skepticism and independence of thought. — Walter Gilbert
I have always thought that Israel, as an independent and sovereign nation, had a right to defend itself. — Don Nickles
When the doors to television were opened to me, that was quite a surprise. It's been such a gift that there was so much TV and independent film happening in New York that I could be a part of. There was something to satiate my desire to be artistic and creative, especially when it wasn't in the way I originally thought it was going to be. — Aja Naomi King
TV's sameness has destroyed many things, such as the American urge toward independent thought. — Bennett Cerf
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
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
Surrealism, n. Pure psychic automatism, by which it is intended to express, whether verbally or in writing, or in any other way, the real process of thought. Thought's dictation, free from any control by the reason, independent of any aesthetic or moral preoccupation. — Andre Breton
In Conclusion
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