Mary Wollstonecraft Quotes

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.

When a man can take a poll and tell what everybody is thinking, that means nobody is really thinking anymore.

All of us, whether we are ignorant of philosophy or professors of philosophy, find it easier to follow dogma than to think.

I'm asking people to think critically and not to be lazy in their thinking.

Freethinkers are generally those who never think at all.

He who in reasoning cites authority is making use of his memory rather than of his intellect.

The real world out there isn't nearly as nice as some people prefer it to be, so don't swallow everything your high-born teachers tell you without takinga long hard look at it yourselves.

Some people read only because they are too lazy to think.

When an old and distinguished person speaks to you, listen to him carefully and with respect — but do not believe him. Never put your trust into anything but your own intellect. Your elder, no matter whether he has gray hair or has lost his hair, no matter whether he is a Nobel laureate — may be wrong. The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical — always think for yourself.

Don't blindly follow any leader.

Communists must always go into the why's and wherefore's of anything, use their own heads and carefully think over whether or not it corresponds to reality and is really well founded; on no account should they follow blindly and encourage slavishness.

A contrarian approach is just as foolish as a follow-the-crowd strategy. What's required is thinking rather than polling.

When everybody thinks alike, nobody thinks.

My investment of time, as an educator, in my judgment, is best served teaching people how to think about the world around them. Teach them how to pose a question. How to judge whether one thing is true versus another.

It is always the task of the intellectual to "think otherwise." This is not just a perverse idiosyncrasy. It is an absolutely essential feature of a society.

You shouldn’t blindly accept a leader’s advice. You’ve got to question leaders on occasion.

Stupidity is no excuse of not thinking.

Learn to do your own thinking - don’t let other people do it for you!

Think for yourself. Know what you're doing. Question authority.

No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power.

Thinking. This book contains some. Whether you try it at home is up to you.

To be a textual critic requires aptitude for thinking and willingness to think; and though it also requires other things, those things are supplements and cannot be substitutes. Knowledge is good, method is good, but one thing beyond all others is necessary; and that is to have a head, not a pumpkin, on your shoulders and brains, not pudding, in your head.

We have a reading, a talking, and a writing public. When shall we have a thinking?