Free Thinking Quotes

“Does history record any case in which the majority was right?”
― Robert A. Heinlein

“Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty.”
― Henry David Thoreau

“As nature has uncovered from under this hard shell the seed for which she most tenderly cares - the propensity and vocation to free thinking - this gradually works back upon the character of the people, who thereby gradually become capable of managing freedom; finally, it affects the principles of government, which finds it to its advantage to treat men, who are now more than machines, in accordance with their dignity.”
― Immanuel Kant, An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?

“Propaganda is as powerful as heroin; it surreptitiously dissolves all capacity to think.”
― Gil Courtemanche, A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali

“SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO GO THROUGH WAR TO REALISE THE IMPORTANCE OF PEACE.”
― Mouloud Benzadi

“It's very important for institutions of concentrated power to keep people alone and isolated: that way they're ineffective, they can't defend themselves against indoctrination, they can't even figure out what they think.”
― Noam Chomsky, Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky

“Of necessity, indoctrination must legitimize itself by dressing itself in the garb of ‘education’ lest we discover that we are being robbed of our ability to think independently by being led to believe that we are thinking independently.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“When enough people possess the same belief, that belief automatically turns into an irrefutable truth in the eyes of the people, even if that belief happens to be the most atrocious lie of all times.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“I am not here to entertain you. I am here to make you think.”
― Abhijit Naskar

“All our current media concerns have in French the suffix '-aire': identitaire (issues of identity), sanitaire (health concerns), securitaire ('law and order'), humanitaire (humanitarianism). The whole lot being publicitaire (promotional). There is in this suffix something which quite aptly characterizes our culture as funerarium of received ideas and single-track thinking.”
― Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories IV, 1995-2000

“Fight for the alive future, not for a dead past.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Hurricane Humans: Give me accountability, I'll give you peace

“Fall of reason is fall of civilization.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkanjali: The Sufi Sermon

“Ye had not yet sought yourselves; then did ye find me. So do all believers; therefore all belief is of so little account.
Now do I bid you lose me and find yourselves; and only when ye have all denied me, will I return unto you.
Verily, with other eyes, my brethren, shall I then seek my lost ones; with another love shall I then love you.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra

“His first plan of attack was to plant the words in as many areas of his homeland as possible.
He planted them day and night, and cultivated them.
He watched them grow, until eventually, great forests of words had risen throughout Germany.... it was a nation of farmed thoughts.”
― Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

“Highly educated = Highly indoctrinated”
― Mishelle Boniface

“The prophylactic for culturally transmitted diseases is free thinking”
― Dean Cavanagh, The Secret Life Of The Novel

“Reincarnation is an ancient myth, nothing more - it is the fairytale of the adults. And as long as it alleviates people's anxiety, it is an acceptable myth, but the moment it becomes an impediment to life, it turns deadly for the individual as well as the society.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Every Generation Needs Caretakers: The Gospel of Patriotism

“Holiness that starts and ends in books, is no holiness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Aşkanjali: The Sufi Sermon

“We are conscientious practical human beings whose initiatives should be dictated by the demands of the circumstances and not by ideologies and schools of thought.”
― Abhijit Naskar, When Call The People: My World My Responsibility

“Sometimes my mind travels so far ahead that my body can barely keep up.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Ain't Enough to Look Human

“Hike your own hike.”
― Ben Crawford, 2,000 Miles Together: The Story of the Largest Family to Hike the Appalachian Trail

“Men and women have minds, and have a right to think and a right to live as they wish so long as they do not interfere with the welfare of society.”
― Rev SNL Ford, All Soul's, Hampstead, [1936]

“La locura de mi alma
no puede reclinarse,
vive en lo inquieto,
en lo desordenado,
en el desequilibrio
de las cosas dinámicas,
en el silencio
del libre pensador, que vive solo,
en callado destierro.

The madness of my soul
cannot repose,
it lives in the restlessness
in the disorder
in the imbalance
of things dynamic,
in the silence
of the free thinker, who lives alone,
in quiet exile.

(From Mi Alma / My Soul)”
― Julia de Burgos

“Ciò che oggi chiamiamo libero pensiero è apprezzato non perché sia libero, ma perché è libertà dal pensiero: è libera mancanza di pensiero.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Catholic Church and Conversion

“The best teachers I’ve met are the ones who use life experiences and explorative practices in order to expand minds. Without free-thinking, unconventional educators, I would never have been able to succeed.”
― Jessica Marie Baumgartner, Homeschooling on a Budget

“You cannot conform your way to freedom, freedom demands that you freely think, freely live and freely love.”
― Chidi Ejeagba

“The pace of today's life, so quick, and so constantly pressured, makes people think only according to how somebody wants them to. A person is never alone; even when he is sent to a sanatorium or rest home for a rest, there is always a definite rhythm and program to follow, everything is decided for you. People are fed, informed, and taught what someone else has decided they need. Huge numbers of people are gathered together, but they are separated by the daily battle for life.

All this has affected even believers, brought them closer to the 'norm', made them indifferent. A prescribed way of thinking makes it difficult for a person to become a believer and makes it difficult for the believer to preserve his faith. But do remember, Christ's Church will live eternally even under these circumstances. Preserve your faith, fight for individuality of thought, pray more, read the Scriptures, and God will preserve you. He will not let you lose the clarity of your thoughts. He will not let you think like the faceless mass of indifferent and cold people.”
― Father Arseny

“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

“Cup of Coffee (The Sonnet)

A cup is just crockery
till there is coffee in it.
A head is just a skull
till there's a mind in it.

Clothes are just fabric
till there's a character in 'em.
Shoes are just footwear
till there's a journey in 'em.

Chest is just a bunch of bones
till there's a heart in it.
A body is just a bag of flesh
till there's a being in it.”
― Abhijit Naskar, World War Human: 100 New Earthling Sonnets

“It was the dawning feeling that she — the independent, free-thinking, and free-speaking part of herself — would have to die, if she was to stay alive.”
― H.C. Roberts, Harp and the Lyre: Exchange