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Set aside time to consciously think

• There is always hope for an individual who stops to do some serious thinking about life.   Katherine Logan
• Never be afraid to sit awhile and think. Lorraine Hansberry
• When there’s too much stress or too much worry, look inward!  Read more. Think. Trying to find the answer from outside yourself is nonsense! Think more.  Brent Kessel
• The best thinking has been done in solitude. The worst has been done in turmoil. Thomas Alva Edison
• Operations of thought are like cavalry charges in a battle—they are strictly limited in number, they require fresh horses, and must only be made at decisive moments.  Whitehead
• A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is visible labor and there is invisible labor.  Victor Hugo
• Take your mind out every now and then and dance on it. It is getting all caked up.  Mark Twain
• Never be afraid to sit awhile and think.   Lorraine Hansberry
• I can give you a six-word formula for success: ‘Think things through – then follow through.   Edward Rickenbacker
• There’s something within us that wants us to move to a higher level.  And to move to a higher level, it’s essential to think.  Bob Proctor
• Thinking,  Decision making,  Problem solving,  Reason

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Dedicated time given to thinking is precious…

• An hour of effective, precise, hard, disciplined, and integrated thinking can be worth a month of hard work. Thinking is the very essence of, and the most difficult thing to do in, business and life. Empire builders spend hour after hour on mental work…while others party. If you’re not consciously aware of putting forth the effort to exert self- guided integrated thinking, if you don’t act beyond your feelings and you take the path of least resistance, then you’re giving in to laziness and no longer control your life. David Kekich
• Thinking hard may sound a bit frightening, but isn’t it much better to do a little hard thinking, arrive at a much better result, and avoid a lot of hard doing? Richard Koch
• Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.  George Bernard Shaw
• Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? T. S. Eliot
• I insist on a lot of time being spent, almost every day, to just sit and think. That is very uncommon in American business. I read and think. So I do more reading and thinking, and make less impulse decisions than most people in business. I do it because I like this kind of life.  Warren Buffett
• Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth–more than ruin–more even than death… Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.  Bertrand Russell
• The mind has exactly the same power as the hands; not merely to grasp the world, but to change it.  Colin Wilson
• These people who are always briskly doing something and as busy as waltzing mice, they have little, sharp, staccato ideas, such as: “I see where I can make an annual cut of $3.47 in my meat budget.” But they have no slow, big ideas.  Brenda Ueland
• We must dare to think about ‘unthinkable things’ because when things become unthinkable, thinking stops and action becomes mindless.  James W. Fulbright
• Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought.   Bernard Baruch

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…but surprisingly rare

• Our minds are lazier than our bodies. Francois Duc de La Rochefoucauld
• There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking. Thomas Alva Edison
• Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it. Henry Ford
• Men can live without air a few minutes, without water for about two weeks, without food for about two months – and without a new thought for years on end. Kent Ruth
• All the problems of the world could be settled easily if men were only willing to think. The trouble is that men very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work.  Thomas J. Watson
• It is remarkable to what lengths people will go to avoid thought.  Thomas A. Edison
• The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.  Paul Fix
• Rarely do we find men who willingly to engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.  Martin L. King, Jr.
• Most people would rather die than think: many do.  Bertrand Russell
• We in America have everything we need except the most important thing of all-time to think and the habit of thought.  Norman Cousins
• Most of one’s life is one prolonged effort to prevent oneself thinking.  Aldous Huxley
• You have to think for yourself. It always amazes me how high IQ people mindlessly imitate. I never get good ideas talking to other people.   Warren Buffett

Always think for yourself

• Think wrongly if you please, but in all cases, think for yourself.  Charles Seymour
• People who are able to do their own thinking should not allow others to do it for them.  Elbert Hubbard

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Thinking creates wisdom and success

• Thinking is the essence of wisdom. Persian Proverb
• Wealth is the product of man’s capacity to think. Ayn Rand
• Men of lofty genius when they are doing the least work are most active. Leonardo da Vinci
• I like to think of thoughts as living blossoms borne by the human tree. James Douglas
• Reflective thinking turns experience into insight.  John Maxwell
• Those that think must govern those that toil.  Oliver Goldsmith
• Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.  David Hare
• Wisdom,  Success

Thinking saves time and effort

• Time given to thought is the greatest time saver of all. Norman Cousins
• Don’t be a workaholic, be a thinkaholic. P. J. Daniels
• Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest.
• The more you think, the more time you have.  Henry Ford
• Effort,  Time management

Thinking solves problems

• No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. Voltaire
• All the problems of the world could be settled if people were only willing to think. The trouble is that people very often resort to all sorts of devices in order not to think, because thinking is such hard work. Thomas J. Watson, Sr
• No problem can be solved by the same consciousness that created it. We need to see the world anew. Albert Einstein
• A problem well-stated is a problem half-solved.  John Dewey
• Any problem can be solved as long as it is stated properly.  Dr Edwin Land
• The mind, properly controlled, can do just about everything. You can think your way through adversity, you can think your way through problems. It is a superpowerful instrument which so few use to maximum. And if the mind thinks with a believing attitude one can do amazing things.  Norman Vincent Peale
• Problem solving

Thinking inspires action

• The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Action

Thinking exercises the brain

• The brain can be developed just the same as the muscles can be developed… it can be strengthened by proper exercise and proper use. By developing your thinking powers you expand the capacity of your brain and attain new abilities.  Thomas Edison
• Stay intellectually active. This should be (if you will pardon the pun) a no- brainer. When it comes to the dendrites and axons that connect one neuron to thousands of others, if you don’t use it, you will lose it. Andrew Newberg

Thinking, whether we are conscious of it or not, creates our future

• The empires of the future are the empires of the mind. Winston Churchill
• The thoughts we choose to think are the tools we use to paint the canvas of our lives. Louise Hay
• Every thought we think is creating our future. Louise L. Hay
• Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny. Tryon Edwards
• You and I are not what we eat; we are what we think. Walter Anderson
• Man’s greatness lies in his power of thought. Blaise Pascal
• What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind. Gautama Buddha
• The future

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Use writing and reflection to clarify your thoughts

• I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.  Anne Morrow Lindbergh
• It is proven that writing down our thoughts, intentions, desires, plans and goals helps clarify our thinking.  Tehmina Zama
• The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium. Norbet Platt
• When you write down your ideas you automatically focus your full attention on them. Few if any of us can write one thought and think another at the same time. Thus a pencil and paper make excellent concentration tools.  Michael Leboeuf
• Writing distills, crystallizes, and clarifies thought. Stephen Covey
• Writing has immense power. You don’t realize it until you use it. It brings about clarity, solidifies resolve, fortifies ideas, keeps you focused and, observed over a period, reveals deeper insights than mere thinking was capable of.   Rahul Singh
• Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint can manage to escape the madness, the melancholia, the panic fear which is inherent in a human situation.  Graham Greene  
• Writing is another powerful way to sharpen the mental saw. Keeping a journal of our thoughts, experiences, insights, and learnings promotes mental clarity, exactness, and context.  Stephen Covey
• Writing is thinking. To write well is to think clearly. That’s why it’s so hard.   David McCullough
• Writing,  Reflection

Always think and reflect after reading or watching a documentary

• Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.  Albert Einstein
• If I stopped reading, I’d stop thinking. It’s that simple.  Twyla Tharp
• Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting. Edmund Burke
• The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking. Christopher Morley
• Reading is sometimes an ingenious device for drugging thought. Sir Arthur Helps
• Read less and think more. Read about great things and think about great questions and issues.  Wallace D. Wattles
• You are not mentally developed by what you read, but by what you think about what you read.  Wallace D. Wattles
• Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Francis Bacon
• The reading habit is most valuable in life.  I mean by that practice of using a little time, say half an hour a day, in the systematic reading of worthwhile literature.  The mind is opened to precious fields of thought; the achievement of the ages becomes ours; even the future takes form. John A. Widstoe
• Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.  John Locke
• Reading,  Reflection

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Walking is a great way to think

• All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking. Friedrich Nietzsche
• If you are seeking creative ideas, go out walking. Angels whisper to a man when he goes for a walk. Raymond Inmon
• Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow. Henry David Thoreau
• To solve a problem, walk around. Gregory McNamee
• Thoughts come clearly while one walks. Thomas Mann
• Although I have a regular work schedule, I take time to go for long walks on the beach so that I can listen to what is going on inside my head.  Albert Einstein
• The most potent tool for contacting inner guidance and creativity is walking.  Julia Cameron
• Solvitur ambulando. It is all solved by walking. Latin Proverb
• The simple act of walking can be a tremendous boost to your focus, productivity, clarity of mind, not to mention your health and waistline. Leo Babauta
• The legs are the wheels of creativity.  Albert Einstein
• Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake.    Wallace Stevens 
• Walking

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Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

• You can learn how to separate thinking into six clear functions and roles. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic “thinking hat.” By mentally wearing and switching “hats,” you can easily focus or redirect your thinking.
• The White Hat focuses on the data and facts.
• The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition.
• The Black Hat is judgment — the devil’s advocate or why something may not work.
• The Yellow Hat symbolizes brightness and optimism.
• The Green Hat focuses on creativity: the possibilities, alternatives and new ideas.
• The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process.

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Remain open to new thoughts, insights and questions

• Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.  John F. Kennedy
• Where all think alike, no one thinks very much. Walter Lippmann
• Thinking is what a great many people think they are doing when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.  William James
• It is well for people who think to change their minds occasionally in order to keep them clean. Luther Burbank
• Begin challenging your own assumptions. Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in. Alan Alda
• The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein
• The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend. Henri Bergson
• To be a man of knowledge one needs to be light and fluid.  Yaqui mystic
• Often what we call ‘thinking’ is merely the recycling the opinions of others. Nathaniel Branden
• Men should strive to think much and know little. Democritus
• Where all men think alike, no one thinks very much.  Walter Lippmann
• Structures, how-to’s, dogma, principles…all disciplines and theories should be used to support your freedom and independent thinking. Curiosity is exponentially more powerful than playing by the rules.  Danielle LaPorte
• Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.  Anthony de Mello
• Explore new ideas and perspectives,  Insight,  Ideas,  Questions

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Thinking should be a pre-cursor to the actions we take

• Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Thought is action in rehearsal.
• Think like a man of action, act like a man of thought. Henri Bergson
• Action

Switch off from thinking to renew the mind

• When you allow your mind to take a break, it comes back stronger, sharper, more focused and creative. Richard Carlson
• The mind ought sometimes to be diverted, that it may return the better to thinking. Phaedrus
• Think and concentrate in short, relaxed, blocks of time. Don’t allow the mind to over steam. The mind is a muscle. Renew your mind.
• Whenever an answer, a solution, or a creative idea is needed, stop thinking for a moment by focusing attention on your inner energy field.  When you resume thinking, it will be fresh and creative. Eckhart Tolle
• Sometimes I think and other times I am. Paul Valéry
• The mind does most of its best thinking when we aren’t there. The answers are there in the morning.  Alain de Botton
• Rest and renewal

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• A conclusion is the place where you got tired thinking.  Martin H. Fischer
• Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence. Joseph Wood Krutch
• Brain: The apparatus with which we think we think.   Ambrose Bierce
• There are lots of people who cannot think seriously without injuring their minds.  John Jay Chapman
• I thought so hard I got a headache.  J.D. Cobb
• The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.  Paul Fix
• I’ve known countless people who were reservoirs of learning, yet never had a thought.  Wilson Mizner

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