thinking

Learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience.

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not common.

The test of a first-rate intellect is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in your head at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.

Johnny von Neumann enjoyed thinking. I have come to suspect that to most people, thinking is painful.

The task is, not so much to see what no one has seen yet; but to think what nobody has thought yet, about that which everybody sees.

Clear writing gives poor thinking nowhere to hide.

Many people assume they are bad at writing because it is hard. This is like assuming you are bad at weightlifting because the weight is heavy.

Writing is useful because it is hard. It's the effort that goes into writing a clear sentence that leads to better thinking.

Remember, always, that everything you know, and everything everyone knows, is only a model. Get your model out there where it can be viewed. Invite others to challenge your assumptions and add their own.

The trouble is that most people want to be right. The very best people, however, want to know if they're right.

I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.