100+ Critical Thinking Quotes to Sharpen Your Mind

“The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” – Albert Einstein

“I have no special talent. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

“Curiosity is the wick in the candle of learning.” – William Arthur Ward

“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.” – Socrates

“The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Dorothy Parker

“Ask questions. Seek answers. Challenge assumptions.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

“He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask remains a fool forever.” – Chinese Proverb

“Wonder is the beginning of wisdom.” – Socrates

“Be skeptical, but open-minded. Question everything, including your own beliefs.” – Carl Sagan

“The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.” – W.B. Yeats

“Don’t take anything for granted. Investigate it. Question it. Understand it.” – Richard Feynman

“Every question you ask shapes the mind that asks it.” – Warren Berger

“Doubt is the origin of wisdom.” – René Descartes

“It is the hallmark of a truly educated mind to rest satisfied with the degree of precision which the nature of the subject admits.” – Aristotle

“Never regard as certain what can be doubted.” – René Descartes

“Skepticism is the agent of truth.” – Paul Horner

“Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, unless it agrees with your own reason.” – Buddha

“The wise man questions the accuracy of his beliefs.” – Edward de Bono

“When we give up our right to doubt, we give up our right to think.” – Jacob Bronowski

“Question everything. Learn something. Answer nothing.” – Euripides

“It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” – Joseph Joubert

“Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” – Voltaire

“A skeptic is one who habitually questions accepted beliefs.” – Richard Dawkins

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” – Stephen Hawking

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein

“All knowledge is based on logic and consistent reasoning.” – Aristotle

“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.” – David Hume

“The ability to think straight, some measure of intelligence and honesty, is the only thing needed.” – Bertrand Russell

“Man is a rational animal who always loses his temper when called upon to act in accordance with the dictates of reason.” – Oscar Wilde

“Good sense is the most fairly distributed thing in the world, for everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it.” – René Descartes

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence.” – Thomas Sowell

“There is no greater impediment to the advancement of knowledge than the ambiguity of words.” – Thomas Reid

“Logical consequences are the scarecrows of fools and the beacons of wise men.” – Thomas Henry Huxley

“Reasoning is the soul of the understanding.” – John Locke

“If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things.” – René Descartes

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates

“We do not learn from experience... we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey

“Self-awareness is the first step in shaping your future.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” – Carl Jung

“To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” – Winston Churchill

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” – Henri Bergson

“Awareness brings choice. Choice brings change.” – Eckhart Tolle

“Introspection is the path to enlightenment.” – Unknown

“He who controls others may be powerful, but he who has mastered himself is mightier still.” – Lao Tzu

“Self-knowledge is the foundation of critical thinking.” – Daniel Kahneman

“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.” – Marcus Aurelius

“The mark of an intelligent person is the ability to consider an idea without accepting it.” – Aristotle

“Being open-minded means being willing to change your mind.” – Adam Grant

“Do not seek approval from those who refuse to see your point of view.” – Roy T. Bennett

“An open mind is like a fortress with its gates unbarred and unguarded.” – Arthur Schopenhauer

“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” – Joseph Campbell

“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw

“The capacity to be puzzled is the premise of all creation.” – Erich Fromm

“Don’t close the door on possibilities because they don’t fit your current blueprint.” – Roy T. Bennett

“Open-mindedness is the key to freedom of thought.” – Deepak Chopra

“Wise men learn by their mistakes; fools by those of others.” – Miguel de Cervantes

“If you want to be right more often, spend time thinking about how you might be wrong.” – Charlie Munger

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” – Aldous Huxley

“The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.” – James A. Garfield

“It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.” – Voltaire

“Truth arises from dialogue.” – Paulo Freire

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” – Galileo Galilei

“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Show me the evidence.” – Carl Sagan

“Truth is not determined by majority vote.” – Doug Banwart

“Belief in spite of evidence is not a virtue.” – Sam Harris

“The search for truth is more precious than its possession.” – Albert Einstein

“Evidence over emotion should guide our decisions.” – Neil deGrasse Tyson

“Truth never damages a cause that is just.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Think for yourself. Question authority.” – Timothy Leary

“The minority is rarely right, but when it is, it’s usually because they were thinking independently.” – Unknown

“Independent thinking is the essence of intellectual freedom.” – Noam Chomsky

“He who thinks great thoughts, often makes great errors.” – Martin Heidegger

“It is astonishing what a lot of trouble one can get into if one does not think.” – Sir Geoffrey Vickers

“The greatest danger to our society is apathy; the antidote is independent thought.” – Unknown

“Don’t believe everything you think.” – Sharon Salzberg

“Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few engage in it.” – Henry Ford

“Originality is simply a fresh pair of eyes.” – Woodrow Wilson

“To think is to question.” – Paul Ricoeur

“No person is a free thinker who does not accept facts as they are.” – Robert G. Ingersoll

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.” – Charles F. Kettering

“Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally about what to believe or do.” – Robert Ennis

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

“Decisions are made by those who show up.” – Linda Chavez

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.” – Abraham Lincoln

“The first step in solving any problem is recognizing that it does exist.” – Zig Ziglar

“Don’t just react—respond.” – Stephen R. Covey

“Good decisions come from good information, processed well.” – Edward Deming

“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge.” – Carl Jung

“The quality of your life is determined by the quality of decisions you make.” – Tony Robbins

“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, make sure you’re not surrounded by assholes.” – William Shakespeare (attributed)

“To solve problems effectively, you must separate symptoms from causes.” – Peter Drucker

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” – Mahatma Gandhi

“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” – William Butler Yeats

“The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don’t know.” – Albert Einstein

“Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence.” – Abigail Adams

“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty.” – Henry Ford

“The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” – B.B. King

“Knowledge is power.” – Francis Bacon

“Learning never exhausts the mind.” – Leonardo da Vinci

“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.” – Jim Rohn

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” – Steve Jobs

“Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.” – Chinese Proverb

“Courage is knowing what not to believe.” – Plato

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” – C.S. Lewis

“It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

“The courage of life is often a little different from the courage of battle.” – John F. Kennedy

“To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness.” – John Dewey

“Moral courage is the most valuable and usually the most absent characteristic in men.” – George Patton

“Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful.” – Samuel Johnson

“Speak your mind, even if your voice shakes.” – Maggie Kuhn

“It is not a disgrace to start over, it is a courage.” – J.K. Rowling

“Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

“The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.” – Hubert Humphrey

“Have the courage to say no. Have the courage to face the truth. Do the right thing because it is right.” – Peter F. Drucker