It's important to be smart, but it's also important to be active with your intelligence. The more you sit around over-thinking things, the more trouble you get into. — Alisa Valdes
A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. — Albert Einstein
True genius, in strategy or anywhere, lies in self-control, self-mastery, presence of mind, fluidity of thought. — Robert Greene
No matter how smart you are, you're smarter if you take the easy ways when they are available. — Daniel Dennett
I believe the ability to think is blessed. If you can think about a situation, you can deal with it. The big struggle is to keep your head clear enough to think. — Richard Pryor
The idiot was not a lot of thinking, which is an important move on. Smart people mostly think, consequently never stepped — Bob Sadino
Smart people think. Brave people talk. Great people act. — Ziad K. Abdelnour
The key to success in life is using the good thoughts of wise people. — Leo Tolstoy
Wisdom lies in thinking. The spear-head of thinking is rationalism. — Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
I'm good at thinking outside the box, so much that you realise it's not a box to begin with. — will.i.am
What we think or what we know or what we believe is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do — John Ruskin
I think it's about being really smart about hitting the right consumer product spaces at the right time. — Jake Paul
If you think you can't, you're right. — Carol Bartz
People who try to look smart by pointing out obvious exceptions actually signal the opposite. — Naval Ravikant
Work hard. Work smart. Perseverance is everything. It allows you to create and do things you wouldn’t otherwise think you could achieve. — Micky Watkins
One of the reasons that really smart people often have trouble being negotiators—they’re so smart they think they don’t have anything to discover. — Chris Voss
Johnny Rotten. He's a big fan of mine. I used to see him out in the audience in England and he'd stand up and holler. He's funny. Smart too, and a nice guy. Don't think he's a jerk because he isn't. — Don Van Vliet
In Europe they call geeks 'smart people,' and frankly I think we live in a culture that doesn't value intelligence enough; so I am very proud in saying that I am a geek. — James Marsters
I like to think I'm pretty smart with what I was able to do academically, but whenever I get on the field I turn into the Incredible Hulk and I am unstoppable. — Robert Griffin III
Smart Thinking Image Quotes
Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinkng. They want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation.
Get Smart Quotes
When you go into court you are putting your fate into the hands of twelve people who weren't smart enough to get out of jury duty. — Norm Crosby
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese — Steven Wright
Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced. — James A. Baldwin
Promise me you'll always remember: you're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.
Men are basically smart or dumb and lazy or ambitious. The dumb and ambitious ones are dangerous and I get rid of them. The dumb and lazy ones I give mundane duties. The smart ambitious ones I put on my staff. The smart and lazy ones I make my commanders. — Erwin Rommel
If there are no stupid questions, then what kind of questions do stupid people ask? Do they get smart just in time to ask questions? — Scott Adams
You're braver than you believe, and stronger that you seem, and smarter than you think.
If your emotional abilities aren't in hand, if you don't have self-awareness, if you are not able to manage your distressing emotions, if you can't have empathy and have effective relationships, then no matter how smart you are, you are not going to get very far. — Daniel Goleman
If you’re a gazelle, you don’t have a very complex emotional life, despite being a social species. But primates are just smart enough that they can think their bodies into working differently. It’s not until you get to primates that you get things that look like depression. — Robert M. Sapolsky
Understanding is the first step to acceptance, and only with acceptance can there be recovery. — J. K. Rowling
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines. — Steven Wright
Smart Quotes
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough to correct them. — John C. Maxwell
When someone isn’t smart enough to express their frustration, they use dirty words. Those are words that describe a lack of intelligence. Smart people don’t use those kind of dirty words, because they find it an insult to their intelligence. — Nouman Ali Khan
A lot of people like to fool you and say that you're not smart if you
never went to college, but common sense rules over everything. That's
what I learned from selling crack. — Snoop Dogg
Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.
The thing about smart people is that they seem like crazy people to dumb people. — Stephen Hawking
All the smart money got they bets on me / And all the real niggas wish the best for me — Nipsey Hussle
If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Yes, I'm a feminist, because I see all women as smart, gifted and tough. — Zaha Hadid
It takes a smart brunette to play a dumb blonde. — Marilyn Monroe
The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence. — Charles Bukowski
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. — Albert Einstein
Quick Thinking Quotes
There are some of us who think to ourselves, 'If I had only been there! How quick I would have been to help the Baby. I would have washed His linen. How happy I would have been to go with the shepherds to see the Lord lying in the manger!' Why don't we do it now? We have Christ in our neighbor. — Martin Luther
If you think and act like a typical manager around creative people—with rules, policies, data on customer preferences, and so forth—you will quickly kill their talent. — Bernard Arnault
What destroys a man more quickly than to work, think and feel without inner necessity, without any deep personal desire, without pleasure - as a mere automaton of duty? — Friedrich Nietzsche
I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts. — John Steinbeck
As a matter of fact, I am an uncle. I have nine nephews and nieces. I'm not sure if they think I'm all that quick with a quip. But I'm quick with a spank. — Dean Norris
We can’t get in the cage thinking that we’ll win quickly, that we’ll get the knockout. — Amanda Nunes
A guy like Malcolm who makes that type of quick, instinctive plays, that's one of his strong suits. I don't think it surprised any of us players because that's what his skill set is. — Tom Brady
Set your mind on a definite goal and observe how quickly the world stands aside to let you pass. — Napoleon Hill
I often think about how, if we were all placed in an apocalyptic situation, you'd realize quickly how stupid, petty things just don't matter anymore. Who you love is who you love, and it doesn't matter. Survival is your primary focus. — Alycia Debnam Carey
I can think of no faster way to unite the American people behind George W. Bush than a terrorist attack on an American target overseas. And I believe George W. Bush will quickly unite the American people through his foreign policy. — Henry A. Kissinger
Strategic Thinking Quotes
Now North Korea certainly is located in a different place geographically, but I think it faces the same type of strategic decision. Does it want a different future for its people? — Mitchell Reiss
There's a path for everyone — as long as you have self-awareness and the willingness to think five moves ahead. — Patrick Bet-David
Strategic planning is not strategic thinking. Indeed, strategic planning often spoils strategic thinking, causing managers to confuse real vision with the manipulation of numbers. — Henry Mintzberg
They wanted war as part of their strategic grand plan to destroy any country such as Russia that resists American imperial expansion. They only pretend to think it was unprovoked. They are lying to us, manufacturing consent for war. — Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Don’t get wrapped around tactical competition. Think strategic all the time. — Jocko Willink
...there is no more strategic issue for a company, or any organization, than its ultimate purpose. For those who think business exists to make a profit, I suggest they think again. Business makes a profit to exist. Surely it must exist for some higher, nobler purpose than that. — Ray Anderson
Analysis Is the Critical Starting Point of Strategic Thinking — Kenichi Ohmae
Strategic management is not a box of tricks or a bundle of techniques. It is analytical thinking and commitment of resources to action. But quantification alone is not planning. Some of the most important issues in strategic management cannot be quantified at all. — Peter Drucker
Let's allow Poland and the Czech Republic to have that missile shield that they were entitled to by joining NATO. I think that's the right strategic response to Russian aggression. — Mike Pence
To be strategic in life is like any skill whether it's basketball or learning a language, it takes effort and practice and I think most people don't think that it's something that they could just do, you know, naturally. — Robert Greene
Deep Thinking Quotes
If you think down, you will go down. If you think up, you will go up. You’ll always travel in the direction of your thinking. — T. D. Jakes
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives. — Henry David Thoreau
Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth. — Fyodor Dostoevsky
I not only think but also look and study things carefully. When I travel around, I look at things carefully, make comparisons of what I see. I don't accept things at face value, you cannot trust what you hear or see. Don't jump to conclusions without thinking. — Mahathir Mohamad
Some of the best people with whom you can have a relationship are the people who challenge your thinking. — T. D. Jakes
Kind words do not cost much. They never blister the tongue or lips. They make other people good-natured. They also produce their own image on men's souls, and a beautiful image it is. — Blaise Pascal
I think everybody's weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it. — Johnny Depp
The enemy is fear. We think it is hate; but, it is fear. — Mahatma Gandhi
The indoctrination is so deep that educated people think they’re being objective. — Noam Chomsky
Future Thinking Quotes
Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it. — Kahlil Gibran
Give up identification with this mass of flesh as well as with what thinks it a mass. Both are intellectual imaginations. Recognise your true self as undifferentiated awareness, unaffected by time, past, present or future, and enter Peace. — Adi Shankara
Don't let failure or disappointment cut you off from God or make you think that the future is hopeless. When God closes one door, He often opens another door - if we seek it. — Billy Graham
Living in the moment, thinking about the future, and staying connected to the past: That's what makes me feel whole. — Hugh Hefner
A statesman is he who thinks in the future generations, and a politician is he who thinks in the upcoming elections. — Abraham Lincoln
I have always been very confident and very upbeat about the future potential of India. I think it is a great country with great potential. — Ratan Tata
I think that sometimes almost the bigger tragedy in a weird way is all of the future imagined creative projects that could have happened that didn't. I feel the same way about lots of brilliant people who die young, kind of senselessly especially. — Chris Cornell
I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. — Albert Einstein
Learn to enjoy every minute of your life. Be happy now. Don't wait for something outside of yourself to make you happy in the future. Think how really precious is the time you have to spend, whether it's at work or with your family. Every minute should be enjoyed and savored. — Earl Nightingale
Only mothers can think of the future - because they give birth to it in their children. — Maxim Gorky
Creative Thinking Quotes
The Toyota style is not to create results by working hard. It is a system that says there is no limit to people's creativity. People don't go to Toyota to 'work' they go there to 'think'. — Taiichi Ohno
I have great belief in the fact that whenever there is chaos, it creates wonderful thinking. I consider chaos a gift. — Septima Poinsette Clark
Let go of your attachment to being right, and suddenly your mind is more open. You're able to benefit from the unique viewpoints of others, without being crippled by your own judgment. — Ralph Marston
Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learned. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and, where appropriate, profits. — Edward De Bono
I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking — Albert Einstein
The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential. — Steve Ballmer
Positivity opens us. The first core truth about positive emotions is that they open our hearts and our minds, making us more receptive and more creative. — Barbara Fredrickson
If you think of negotiation as a creative challenge, you can see it as an opportunity. — William Ury
When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. — Steve Jobs
If you deeply appreciate and love what creative people do and how they think, then you can start to understand them. — Bernard Arnault
Logical Thinking Quotes
Live simply and without thinking too much, like a child with his father. Faith without too much thinking works wonders. The logical mind hinders the Grace of God and miracles. Practice patience without judging with the logical mind. — Elder Paisios of Mount Athos
In Architecture there is a part that is the result of Logical Reasoning and a part that is created through the Senses. There is always a point where they Clash. I don't think Architecture can be created without that Collision. — Tadao Ando
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. — Niels Bohr
When it comes to thought, you should be in full control. Your brain’s job is to produce logic for you to consider. — Mo Gawdat
We are living in an interminable succession of absurdities imposed by the myopic logic of short-term thinking. — Jacques Yves Cousteau
You cannot approach people who think differently with reason and logic if they don't know what that means. First, you have to appeal to their values to start with. If you attack them, you lose them. — Jacque Fresco
Stop making sense. Logic is predictable. Think differently. — Paul Smith
Address to Albert Einstein: You are not thinking. You are merely being logical. — Niels Bohr
Pure logical thinking cannot yield us any knowledge of the empirical world. All knowledge of reality starts from experience and ends in it. — Albert Einstein
Clear Thinking Quotes
I think it's the responsibility of every human being, not just those who wear the identity of poet, activist, voter, religious person... it's the responsibility of every person. Our responsibility is to use our intelligence as clearly and coherently as we possibly can. — John Trudell
A well organized education should not be one which prepares students for a good remuneration alone. It should be one that can help and guide them towards acquiring clear thinking, a fruitful mind, and an elevated spirit. — Haile Selassie
To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far. — Cecil Rhodes
The total subject of mathematics is clearly too broad for any of us. I do not think that any mathematician since Gauss has covered it uniformly and fully; even Hilbert did not and all of us are of considerably lesser width quite apart from the question of depth than Hilbert. — John Von Neumann
'The best thing about hunting and fishing,' the Old Man said, 'is that you don't have to actually do it to enjoy it. You can go to bed every night thinking about how much fun you had twenty years ago, and it all comes back clear as moonlight.' — Robert Ruark
Four things to learn in life: To think clearly without hurry or confusion; To love everybody sincerely; To act in everything with the highest motives; To trust God unhesitatingly. — Helen Keller
For those who may ask what they can do to honor Neil, we have a simple request. Honor his example of service, accomplishment and modesty, and the next time you walk outside on a clear night and see the moon smiling down at you, think of Neil Armstrong and give him a wink. — Neil Armstrong
The clear thinking comes from having time to reflect and to pursue your genuine intellectual curiosity. — Naval Ravikant
If the origin of life is the origin of evolution & nothing comes before life then we are indeed stuck. I don’t think we need to be. Let’s shed the dogma, ego, & closed minds & ask the question clearly. How do we detect the onset of evolution BEFORE biology? — Lee Cronin
I think 'vegan' is a beautiful word. It is more than just a description for our diet. I see it as a visible template for an ethical, healthy, responsible, and rational life. Because it describes our character, it says we do not take the life of another living being to satisfy our wants. — Philip Wollen
Emotions are one of the main things that derail communication. Once people get upset at one another, rational thinking goes out of the window. — Chris Voss
Thinking rationally is often different from "positive thinking," in that it is a realistic assessment of the situation, with a view towards rectifying the problem if possible. — Albert Ellis
I think I got off on the wrong planet. Beam me up Scotty, there's no rational life here. — Robert Anton Wilson
If you attach your mind to any ideology, you're going to be on a road, and that road may or may not lead you in a good direction. But you're gonna stay on that road because you are attached to an ideology. It could be a terrible road, but you stick with it regardless of rational thinking. — Joe Rogan
In daily life, reality gives us material incentives to restrain our irrationality. But what incentive do we have to think rationally about politics? — Bryan Caplan
Not to be absolutely certain is, I think, one of the essential things in rationality. — Bertrand Russell
I think a smart guy can learn. Some guys learn - it's just like all of us - some guys can learn electronics, some of us can't. Some people can learn something else, some of us can't. I mean, we're all wired differently. — Bill Belichick
There are very few new things in this world, very few. That's why people that are young, if they're smart, try to profit from the experience of an older guy so they won't have to go through all the pain and suffering. But a certain amount of pain and suffer is good, because it makes a person think they've learned. — Cus D'Amato
Truth is relative. Truth is what you can make the voter believe is the truth. If you're smart enough, truth is what you make the voter think it is. That's why I'm a Democrat. I can make the Democratic voters think whatever I want them to. — James Carville
All in all, I think that out of all musical genres, the world of metal is the most escapist one. Metal is also music for people who think for themselves. I think metalheads are smart people who possess a healthy dose of self-irony and a good sense of humor, and that appeals to me. I felt a strong affinity with the scene from the first moment on. — Tuomas Holopainen
The really smart thinkers are clear thinkers. They understand the basics at a very, very fundamental level. I would rather understand the basics really well than memorize all kinds of complicated concepts I can’t stitch together and can’t rederive from the basics. — Naval Ravikant
I think there ought to be some serious discussion by smart people, really smart people, about whether or not proliferation of things like The Smoking Gun and TMZ and YouTube and the whole celebrity culture is healthy. — Stephen King
Obscenities... I think a lot of dumb people do it because they can't think of what they want to say and they're frustrated. A lot of smart people do it to pretend they aren't very smart - want to be just one of the boys. — Andy Rooney
I think people are sexy when they have a sense of humor, when they are smart, when they have some sense of style, when they are kind, when they express their own opinions, when they are creative, when they have character. — Suzanne Vega
I think unleashing 3,000 smart bombs against the city of Baghdad in the first several days of the war... to me, if those were unleashed against the San Francisco Bay Area, I would call that an act of extreme terrorism. — Pete Stark
Paradoxically, the best way for a group to be smart is for each person in it to think and act as independently as possible. — James Surowiecki
And then the decentralized pieces of crypto, which Coinbase also plays in that space, those are the ones that are going to actually, I think, provide consumer protections and things using something even better, even more powerful, which is open-source code, self-custody. Anybody can go in there and audit these smart contracts to see if they're doing what they claim to be doing. So there's even a better system we can create in the future. — Brian Armstrong
You should pursue your passion. If you're passionate about something and you work hard, then I think you will be successful. — Pierre Omidyar
I just think you Westerners should take over this country if you are so smart. — Pierre Trudeau
It was a very cool thing to be a smart girl, as opposed to some other, different kind. And I think that made a great deal of difference to me growing up and in my life afterward. — Elena Kagan
It is wonderful to work in an environment with a lot of smart people. It challenges you to think and work on a different level. If you play with better players, you learn a lot: perspectives, intellectual arguments, new ways of thinking about things. — Marissa Mayer
A woman who is careful with her words is a gift to all who know her. — Lysa TerKeurst
A brain is a society of very small, simple modules that cannot be said to be thinking, that are not smart in themselves. But when you have a network of them together, out of that arises a kind of smartness. — Kevin Kelly
Some guys are football smart and they're not smart in other ways. Other guys get 1500 on their SATs and can't get a double-team block right. No, that definitely, in my experience, sometimes it correlates, sometimes it doesn't. I don't think you just take it for granted. — Bill Belichick
American stuntmen are smart - they think about safety. When they do a jump in a car, they calculate everything: the speed, the distance... But in Hong Kong, we don't know how to count. Everything we do is a guess. If you've got the guts, you do it. All of my stuntmen have gotten hurt. — Jackie Chan
By the way, intelligence to me isn't just being book-smart or having a college degree; it's trusting your gut instincts, being intuitive, thinking outside the box, and sometimes just realizing that things need to change and being smart enough to change it. — Tabatha Coffey
For those who say you're thinking too big... be smart enough not to listen. For those who say the odds are too small ... be dumb enough to give it a shot. And for those who ask, how can you do that?... look them in the eyes and say, I'll figure it out. — Eric Schmidt
Most beautiful dumb girls think they are smart and get away with it, because other people, on the whole, aren't much smarter. — Louise Brooks
The world is a big place. There are lots of smart people in it. Entrepreneurs are kidding themselves if they think they have any kind of monopoly on knowledge. And, sure as I'm a Macintosh user, on the same day that an entrepreneur tells this lie, the venture capitalist will have met with another company that's doing the same thing. — Guy Kawasaki
Governments don't want a population capable of critical thinking, they want obedient workers, people just smart enough to run the machines and just dumb enough to passively accept their situation. — George Carlin
"More fun than a barrel of monkeys." Has anyone ever stopped to think how cranky, if not downright vicious, a barrelful of monkeys would be, especially once released from the barrel? — Tom Shales
Being in politics is like being a football coach. You have to be smart enough to understand the game, and dumb enough to think it's important. — Eugene McCarthy
I think my strength is to do a take all the way through. I am definitely not someone who can do a sprint. Maybe I am not that smart, but it takes me a while to find the moment, and I like to be pushed toward it. — Jake Gyllenhaal
I think my parents were really smart parents. I think they were, actually, pretty progressive for the time. The one thing that they really wanted me to know is what makes me tick, what I am about, how I approach life. And I think what my parents really wanted for me was for me to be who I am. — Rich Mullins
For a crowd to be smart, the people in it need to be not only diverse in their perspectives but also, relatively speaking, independent of each other. In other words, you need people to be thinking for themselves, rather than following the lead of those around them. — James Surowiecki
Smart people are a dime a dozen. What matters is the ability to think different... to think out of the box. — Walter Isaacson
In Conclusion
Which quotation resonated with you best? Did you enjoy our collection of smart thinking quotes? Or may be you have a slogan about smart thinking to suggest. Let us know using our contact form.
Citation
Feel free to cite and use any of the quotes in this collection of smart thinking quotations. For popular citation styles(APA, Chicago, MLA), please use this citation page.
