Francis Bacon·1625Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.
Hypatia·415 AD·AlexandriaReserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.
Henry Ford·1928Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few engage in it.
Marcus Aurelius·180 ADUnderstand however that every man is worth just so much as the things are worth about which he busies himself.
Henry David Thoreau·1863The finest manners in the world are awkwardness and fatuity, when contrasted with a finer intelligence.
Søren Kierkegaard·1843People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.
Seneca·65 ADIf you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man. Study cannot be helpful unless you take pains to live simply; and living simply is voluntary poverty.
Richard Feynman·1965Hell, if I could explain it to the average person, it wouldn't have been worth the Nobel prize.
Charlie Munger·2005You must know the big ideas in the big disciplines and use them routinely — all of them, not just a few.
William Strunk Jr.·1918·Ithaca, New York, United StatesInstead of announcing that what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.
Ellison S. Onizuka·1980·Speech at Morton Elementary School, HawaiiEvery generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds… to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.