Best 183 quotes in «critical thinking quotes» category

Both [P. T.] Barnum and H. L. Mencken are said to have made the depressing observation that no one ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the American public. The remark has worldwide application. But the lack is not in intelligence, which is in plentiful supply; rather, the scarce commodity is systematic training in critical thinking.

Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the handmaiden of truth. Doubt is the key to the door of knowledge; it is the servant of discovery. A belief which may not be questioned binds us to error, for there is incompleteness and imperfection in every belief. Doubt is the touchstone of truth; it is an acid which eats away the false. Let no man fear for the truth, that doubt may consume it; for doubt is a testing of belief. The truth stands boldly and unafraid; it is not shaken by the testing; For truth, if it be truth, arises from each testing stronger, more secure. He that would silence doubt is filled with fear; the house of his spirit is built on shifting sands. But he that fears no doubt, and knows its use, is founded on a rock. He shall walk in the light of growing knowledge; the work of his hands shall endure. Therefore let us not fear doubt, but let us rejoice in its help: It is to the wise as a staff to the blind; doubt is the handmaiden of truth.

But in introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method.

Calling a book "Young Adult" is just a fancy way of saying the book is censored. People used to say they like to read books about romance, true crime, comedy, horror or science fiction. But these days people simply say they like to read "Young Adult" books. As if that were a topic. But that's the thing: Young Adult is not a topic, it's a level of censorship. Saying "I like Young Adult books" is just another way of saying "I like books that have been dumbed down for children. I like books with no big words and no difficult abstract concepts. Nothing that will strain my brain." People like to brag that they used to start reading at an early age, as if that were a badge of honor, a sign of intelligence. Nobody brags about when they started to watch TV. But books are being dumbed down so much these days, it's really not a sign of great intelligence when you're a grown up and you struggle your way through Green Eggs and Ham.

Certainly we can say that the pace of modern life, increased and supported by our technology in general and our personal electronics in particular, has resulted in a short attention span and an addiction to the influx of information. A mind so conditioned has little opportunity to think critically, and even less chance to experience life deeply by being in the present moment. A complex life with complicated activities, relationships and commitments implies a reflexive busy-ness that supplants true thinking and feeling with knee-jerk reactions. It is a life high in stress and light on substance, at least in the spiritually meaningful dimensions of being.

Chester, listen to me!” Uncle Jeff said, holding his face. “It’s a sacrifice, for God.” “This is so wrong!” Chester fought back. “Chester! Be quiet!” he heard his mother’s voice from the living room. “Believe me, Chester. The animal doesn’t feel a thing.” Uncle Jeff tried to calm him down. “Its soul departs for heaven even before the blade touches its skin.” he explained. “Nice way to rationalize murder,” said Chester, walking towards the stairs.

Children are rarely taught critical thinking anymore, and society has become so antirational that basic reason and evidence are the new counterculture: thought is the new punk.

Critical voices have to care about history. We have to care about the way in which things get controlled in the past because that's when the damage gets done and if we don't keep that historical memory, we will allow them to do it again next time.

Complex thinkers attempt to extend to others the same self-forgiving bias that they offer themselves.

Creating consent (hegemony) is never a simple act. It is rather the result of the social structures and the cultural patterns that dictates for each group its behavior and for each institutions its practices.

Critical thinking doesn’t mean we disparage everything; it means that we try to distinguish between claims with evidence and those without.

Critical Thinking is also called structured thinking.

Critical Thinking narrows and creative thinking expands, but they must work in tandem for problem solving and decision making.

Critical Thinking has the potential to be a deeply creative process.

Critical Thinking is not automatic thinking. It takes extra effort to think critically.

Critics are not creators. They rarely write great novels, invent new technologies, or come up with a great business idea.

Critical Thinking brings insight into the situation.

Critical thinking is thinking about your thinking while you're thinking in order to make your thinking better.

Digital board directors with the right dose of “doubt” are real critical thinkers who can ask deep questions.

Don't complain if the issue is complicated if it weren't complicated it would not be an issue.

For the most part, people strenuously resist any redefinition of morality, because it shakes them to the very core of their being to think that in pursuing virtue they may have been feeding vice, or in fighting vice they may have in fact been fighting virtue.

Emigrare è un diritto, fuggire in massa dalle bombe e dalla miseria una neccessità.

Even a book that is made up of only untruths can greatly improve us intellectually.

Every genuinely new technology has a genuinely new way of breaking – and every now and then, those malfunctions open a new door to the adjacent possible. Sometimes the way a new technology breaks is almost as interesting as the way it works.

Eye-rolling is not exactly the pinnacle of socratic investigation.

For those of you who really want to give critical thought to your unique leadership style and foster genuine followership, learn from what’s out there and weave it into something meaningful and authentic.

Do what is right, not what is easy. Think about the future your action will help create.

Even if a poem is beautiful and memorable, it’s not like an advertising jingle or propaganda, which attempt to convince and control. Poems seek to confuse, disabuse, enlarge understanding, and make people ask questions and think for themselves.

Experience cannot beat logic, and interpretations of observational evidence which are not in line with the laws of logical reasoning are no refutation of these but the sign of a muddled mind (or would one accept someone’s observational report that he had seen a bird that was red and non-red all over at the same time as a refutation of the law of contradiction rather than the pronouncement of an idiot?).

Hippasus’ proof—or at least Nico’s retelling of it—was really so simple that when he finished sketching it out, I wasn’t even aware that we had actually proven anything. Nico paused for a few minutes to let us mull it over. It was Peter who broke the silence, “I’m not sure I understand what we have done.” Nico seemed to be expecting such a response. “Step back and examine the proof; in fact, you should try and do this with every proof you see or have to work out for yourself. ..." He again waited for his words to sink in, and it began to make sense for me. All my mathematics teachers (other than Bauji and Nico) always seemed to evade this part of their responsibility. They had been content to merely write out a proof on the blackboard and carry on, seemingly without concern for what the proof meant and what it told us. “But you should not stop here. Even when you have understood a proof, and I hope you have indeed understood this proof, ask yourself the next question, the obvious one, but as critical: So what? Or, why are we proving this? What is the point? What is the context? How does it relate to us? To answer these questions we have to step back a little. Let me show you—it’s really quite delightful.” Now there was excitement in Nico’s voice.

Holistic Thinking is a combination of analysis, Systems Thinking, and Critical Thinking

How can I have a critical mind if I don't dare question everything? If I question myself, what makes you and your truth any holier? - On the Right to Question Everything

I believe that we are henceforth incapable of returning to an order of moral life which would take the form of a simple submission to commandments or to an alien or supreme will, even if this will were represented as divine. We must accept as a positive good the critique of ethics and religion that has been undertaken by the school of suspicion. From it we have learned to understand that the commandment that gives death, not life, is a product and projection of our own weakness.

If one harbors anywhere in one's mind a nationalistic loyalty or hatred, certain facts, though in a sense known to be true, are inadmissable.

If there's something you really want to believe, that's what you should question the most.

If 'truth' is an 'unveiled reality,' then my truth may not be your truth yet!

If we had to earn our age by thinking for ourselves at least once a year, only a handful of people would reach adulthood.

If we seek solace in the prisons of the distant past Security in human systems we're told will always always last Emotions are the sail and blind faith is the mast Without the breath of real freedom we're getting nowhere fast." (History Will Teach Us Nothing)

If you don’t remember the past, you don’t deserve to be remembered by the future.

I'm afraid of; that one day, I will only see more and more vanities in the world.

I'm sorry if Fox news hasn't told you this.... that doesn't mean it's not true.

In a world where critical thinking skills are almost wholly absent, repetition effectively leapfrogs the cognitive portion of the brain. It helps something get processed as truth. We used to call it unsubstantiated buy-in. Belief without evidence. It only works in a society where thinking for one's self is discouraged. That's how we lost our country.

In college, books assigned for class were read as competitive sport - the more critically, the better.

In light of religious diversity down through the ages and across continents, almost any behavior or belief might be defended or sanctioned if one leans on an isolated phrase, sentence, or story from sacred texts, or an obscure religious document. Therefore, when assessing the importance of religious assertions, it is important to determine whether or not the basis for a given assertion is found in primary or secondary texts, whether the teachings are credited to an individual who carries little or much weight within the religious tradition, and whether or not the assertion is an anomaly in a tradition that overwhelmingly supports an opposing point of view. It is also important to scrutinize translations when assessing critical passages.

Instead of complaining, discover ways, tactics and tricks on how to reach out to people

I thought they’d fact-check it, and it’d make them look worse. I mean that’s how this always works: Someone posts something I write, then they find out it’s false, then they look like idiots. But Trump supporters — they just keep running with it! They never fact-check anything! Now he’s in the White House. Looking back, instead of hurting the campaign, I think I helped it. And that feels [bad].

Good art is always dangerous, always open-ended. Once you put it out in the world you lose control of it; people will fit it into their minds in all sorts of different ways.

Having healthy debating enforces critical thinking principles - increased perspective, less prejudgment, and looking at things from different angles.

He who thinks a great deal is not suited to be a party man: he thinks his way through the party and out the other side too soon.

Honestly, people are definitely dumber. They just keep passing stuff around. Nobody fact-checks anything anymore — I mean, that’s how Trump got elected. He just said whatever he wanted, and people believed everything, and when the things he said turned out not to be true, people didn’t care because they’d already accepted it. It’s real scary. I’ve never seen anything like it.