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There is arguably nothing more important to the world than critical thought. It is critical thought that causes us to pause before doing what we are told. Without critical thinking, we are mere pawns of our lower passions and the commands of authority. With critical thinking, we become our own masters.
What’s more, it is a lack of critical thinking that is responsible for a number of atrocities, both big and small. Few things in the world are more dangerous than a mass of men who have decided not to think for themselves. While we cannot control the actions of others, we can begin making the world a better place simply by thinking for ourselves and encouraging others to do the same.
This is why the powerful always seek to censor freedom of speech. Free access to free ideas is kryptonite to those who would be tyrants. It is important that we are confronted with ideas that make us uncomfortable, if only because it serves to make our own convictions more deeply held, more nuanced and more adaptable to new information.
An attack on freedom of speech is an attack on our facilities of critical thinking itself.
These are some of our favorite quotes on critical thinking and free speech from some of the greatest minds in history.
The Value of Critical Thinking
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“The first duty of a man is to think for himself.”
“I think, therefore I am.”
“Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
“Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
– Jim Rohn
“I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do.”
“Faced with the choice between changing one’s mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everybody gets busy on the proof.”
“Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.”
“An unexamined life is not worth living.”
– Socrates
“In all affairs, it’s a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”
“The vulgar crowd always is taken by appearances, and the world consists chiefly of the vulgar.”
“The first step in the evolution of ethics is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.”
“Science is organized knowledge. Wisdom is organized life.”
The Importance of Free Speech
“Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.”
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
“Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech.”
“The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants.”
“To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason is like administering medicine to the dead.”
“I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
“The worth of a state in the long run is the worth of the individuals composing it.”
“Do not trust governments more than governments trust their own people.”
“To suppress free speech is a double wrong. It violates the rights of the hearer as well as those of the speaker.”
Challenges to Truth and Independent Thought
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
– Voltaire
“False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.”
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
“We’re developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think.”
“…the relatively unconscious man driven by his natural impulses because, imprisoned in his familiar world, he clings to the commonplace, the obvious, the probable, the collectively valid, using for his motto: ‘Thinking is difficult. Therefore, let the herd pronounce judgement.'”
– Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion: West and East
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.”
“Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.”
– Unknown, often misattributed to Winston Churchill
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
– Unknown
“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.”
“People who are right most of the time are people who change their minds often.”
“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”
“Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum.”
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
“Do not trust governments more than governments trust their own people.”
“I will listen to any hypothesis but on one condition — that you show me a method by which it can be tested.”
“The majority of men… are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and… are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.”
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
“It is the duty of everyman, so far as his ability allows, to detect and expose delusion and error.”
“There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is the most excellent, the second is good, and the third is useless.”
“The evil that is in the world almost always comes of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”
“We need to teach our children how to debate the major life issues. Debate strengthens their beliefs and enables them to defend themselves against ideologies that are going to come their way.”
– Jim Rohn, The Treasury of Quotes
“One of the great liberal documents of the world is the Declaration of Independence. One of the great conservative documents of the world is the Constitution of the United States. We need both documents to build a country. One to get it started – liberal. And the other to help maintain the structure over the years – conservative.”
– Jim Rohn
“We bombard people with sensation. That substitutes for thinking.”
– Ray Bradbury
History and critical thinking go hand in hand. Check out our collection of quotes on the lessons of history and their relevance today.