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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.
Aristotle
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
Eric Hoffer
“You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you.”
Voltaire
“Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
– Voltaire
Carl Jung
“…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
Andrei Sakharov
“Do not trust governments more than governments trust their own people.”
August Wilhelm von Hofmann
“I will listen to any hypothesis but on one condition — that you show me a method by which it can be tested.”
General James Mattis
“Engage your brain before you engage your weapon.”
Jose Marti
“The first duty of a man is to think for himself.”
Rod Serling
“We’re developing a new citizenry. One that will be very selective about cereals and automobiles, but won’t be able to think.”
Unknown
“Even a broken clock is right twice a day.”
– Unknown
“Life is fraught with opportunities to keep your mouth shut.”
– Unknown, often misattributed to Winston Churchill
Arthur Schopenhauer
“The majority of men… are not capable of thinking, but only of believing, and… are not accessible to reason, but only to authority.”
Winston Churchill
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened.”
Thomas Paine
“It is the duty of everyman, so far as his ability allows, to detect and expose delusion and error.”
Niccolo Machiavelli
“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.”
Albert Camus
“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.”
Jim Rohn
“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
Joseph de Maistre
“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.”
“Anybody who doesn’t change their mind a lot is dramatically underestimating the complexity of the world we live in.”
– Jeff Bezos
Albert Einstein
“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.”
– Albert Einstein
Bertrand Russell
“Most people would rather die than think and many of them do!”
– Bertrand Russell
Charlie Munger
“There is hardly anything more important than being rational and objective.”
– Charlie Munger
John Kenneth Galbraith
“The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.”
– John Kenneth Galbraith