This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.
"Things are sullen, and will be as they are, whatever we think them or wish them to be." - Ralph Cudworth
"I think of dance as a constant transformation of life itself." - Merce Cunningham, born Mercier Philip Cunningham
"Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt." - Clarence Darrow, fully Clarence Seward Darrow
"To think is to differ." - Clarence Darrow, fully Clarence Seward Darrow
"The whole world is burdened with young fogies. Old men with ossified minds are easily dealt with. But men who look young and everlasting harp on the fact that they are young, but who nevertheless think and act with a degree of caution that would be excessive in their grandfathers, are the curses of the world." - Robertson Davies
"The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen men's apples and head their cabbages." - Cyrano De Bergerac, Savinien de
"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness. " - Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby, fully Edward George Geoffrey Smith-Stanley
"Mankind likes to think in terms of extreme opposites. It is given to formulating its beliefs in terms of Either-Ors, between which it recognizes no intermediate possibilities. When forced to recognize that the extremes cannot be acted upon, it is still inclined to hold that they are all right in theory but that when it comes to practical matters circumstances compel us to compromise." - John Dewey
"It is arrogance to think that the earthbound have any true grasp of the complex meaning, or meanings, of life; we have not yet gathered all the data. Our own significance, our ultimate potential and our ensemble of possible destinies will be understood only by finding and studying the other intelligent creatures of space. Thus, a prime task for us is to seek these other intelligent civilizations and join them in shared knowledge. We now have the means to do so, and if we are as noble as we think, we will proceed vigorously with this enterprise." - Frank Drake
"When you talk about your troubles, your ailments, your diseases, your hurts, you give longer life to what makes you unhappy. Talking about your grievances merely adds to those grievances. Give recognition only to what you desire. Think and talk only about the good things that add to your enjoyment of your work and life. If you don't talk about your grievances, you'll be delighted to find them disappearing quickly." - Thomas Dreier
"Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share their happiness with them." - Barry Duncan
"Never expect women to be sincere so long as they are educated to think that their first aim in life is to please." - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
"Think as well as read, and when you read. Yield not your minds to the passive impressions which others may make upon them. Hear what they have to say; but examine it, weight it, and judge for yourselves. This will enable you to make a right use of books - to use them as helpers, not as guides to your understanding; as counselors, not as dictators of what you are to think and believe." - Tyron Edwards
"I believe that whoever tries to think things through honestly will soon recognize how unworthy and even fatal is the traditional bias against Negroes. What can the man of good will do to combat this deeply rooted prejudice? He must have the courage to set an example by words and deed, and must watch lest his children become influenced by racial bias." - Albert Einstein
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough." - Albert Einstein
"It is in fact nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curious of inquiry. It is a very grave mistake to think that the enjoyment of seeing and searching can be promoted by means of coercion and a sense of duty." - Albert Einstein
"Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it." - George Eliot, pen name of Mary Ann or Marian Evans
"I could never think well of a man’s intellectual or moral character if he was habitually unfaithful to his appointments." - Nathaniel Emmons
"The body travels more easily than the mind, and until we have limbered up our imagination we continue to think as though we had stayed home. We have not really budged a step until we take up residence in someone else's point of view." - Thomas Erskine, Lord Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
"Every individual is a king in the castle of his own mind. As king of his thoughts he can think those thought which will make him an unhappy and fearful monarch, or he can make his reign joyous and harmonious by listening to the Father within himself before making decisions." - Lowell Fillmore
"A man who cannot think is not an educated man, however many college degrees he may have acquired." - Henry Ford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." - Henry Ford
"Nobody can think straight who does not work. Idleness warps the mind. Thinking without constructive action becomes a disease." - Henry Ford
"The cure for "Materialism" is to have enough for everybody and to spare. When people are sure of having what they need they cease to think about it." - Henry Ford
"How can I tell what I think till I see what I say." - E. M. Forster, fully Edward Morgan Forster
"But little is accomplished, because but little is vigorously attempted, because difficulties are magnified. A timorously cautious spirit, so far from acting with resolution, will never think itself in possession of the preliminaries for acting at all. Perhaps perseverance has been the radical principle of every truly great character." - James "Jim" L. Foster
"It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly." - Anatole France, pen name of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault
"It is part of human nature to think wise things and do ridiculous ones." - Anatole France, pen name of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault
"There are very honest people who do not think that they have had a bargain unless they have cheated a merchant." - Anatole France, pen name of Jacques Anatole Francois Thibault
"The advertising industry is one of our most basic forms of communication and, allegedly, of information. Yet, obviously, much of this ostensible information is not purveyed to inform but to manipulate and to achieve a result -- to make somebody think he needs something that very possibly he doesn't need, or to make him think one version of something is better than another version when the ground for such a belief really doesn't exist." - Marvin E. Frankel
"I develop the habit of expressing myself in terms of modest diffidence, never using, when I advanced anything that may possibly be disputed, the words certainly, undoubtedly, or any other that give the air of positiveness to an opinion, but rather say, I conceive or apprehend a thing to be so and so: It appear to me or should not think it, so or so, for such and such reasons; or I imagine it to be so, or it is so, if I am not mistaken. This habit I believe has been of great advantage to me when I have had occasion to inculcate my opinion and persuade men into measures that I have been, time to time, engaged in promoting." - Benjamin Franklin
"Boys and girls should be taught to think first of others in material things; they should be infected with the wisdom to know that in making smooth the way lies the road to their own health and happiness." - John Galsworthy
"For many children, the start of formal musical instruction marks the beginning of the end of musical development. The atomistic focus in most musical instruction - the individual pitch, its name, its notation -- and the measure-by-measure method of instruction and analysis run counter to the holistic way most children have come to think of, react to, and live with music." - Howard Gardner, fully Howard Earl Gardner
"The ability to think straight, some knowledge of the past, some vision of the future, some skill to do useful service some urge to fit that service into the well-being of the community - these are the most vital things education must try to produce." - Virginia Gildersleeve, fully Virginia Crocheron Gildersleeve
"Human faculties are common, but that which converges these faculties into my identity separates me from every other man. That other man cannot think my thoughts, he cannot speak my words, he cannot do my works. He cannot have my; sins, I cannot have his virtues." - Henry Giles
"Most of us think ourselves as standing wearily and helplessly at the center of a circle bristling with tasks, burdens, problems, annoyance, and responsibilities which are rushing in upon us. At every moment we have a dozen different things to do, a dozen problems to solve, a dozen strains to endure. We see ourselves as overdriven, overburdened, overtired. This is a common mental picture and it is totally false. No one of us, however crowded his life, has such an existence. What is the true picture of your life? Imagine that there is an hour glass on your desk. Connecting the bowl at the top with the bowl at the bottom is a tube so thin that only one grain of sand can pass through it at a time. That is the true picture of your life, even on a super busy day. The crowded hours come to you always one moment at a time. That is the only way they can come. The day may bring many tasks, many problems, strains, but invariably they come in single file. You want to gain emotional poise? Remember the hourglass, the grains of sand dropping one by one." - James Gordon Gilkey
"All truly wise thoughts have been thought already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"It is natural to man to regard himself as the object of the creation, and to think of all things in relation to himself, and the degree in which they can serve and be useful to him." - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"The opinions of men who think are always growing and changing, like living children." - Philip G. Hamerton, fully Philip Gilbert Hamerton
"I know the world is filled with troubles and many injustices. But reality is as beautiful as it is ugly. It think it is just as important to sing about beautiful mornings as it is to talk about slums. I just couldn't write anything without hope in it." - Oscar Hammerstein II, fully Oscar Greeley Clendenning Hamerstein II
"I have ever gained the most profit, and the most pleasure also, from the books which have made me think the most: and, when the difficulties have once been overcome, these are the books which have struck the deepest root, not only in my memory and understanding, but likewise in my affections." - Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) and his brother Augustus William Hare
"Men think highly of those who rise rapidly in the world, whereas nothing rises quicker than dust, straw, and feathers." - Julius Charles Hare (1795-1855) and his brother Augustus William Hare
"We can refuse to think certain thoughts." - Louise L. Hay
"Wise men think out their thoughts; fools proclaim them." - Heinrich Heine
"There are mighty few people who think what they think they think." - Robert Henri
"A father inquires whether his boy can construe Homer, or understand Horace; but how seldom does he ask, or examine, or think whether he can restrain his passions, whether he is grateful, generous, humane, compassionate, just and benevolent." - Lady Hervey, fully Lady Victoria Frederica Isabella Hervey
"One of the most valuable habits a parent can have is that of explaining. Many parents think their children are too young to understand explanations, yet it is surprising how much a child will absorb if he is given a chance. And even if he does not understand completely, he will at least sense that someone cares enough to explain" - Elizabeth R. Hogan