Quotes & Sayings About Independent Thinkers

But that so many scholars are barbarians does not much matter so long as a few of them are ready to help with their specialized knowledge the few independent thinkers, that is to say the poets, who try to to keep civilization alive. — Robert Graves

The rigorous process of learning to develop and ask questions offers students the invaluable opportunity to become independent thinkers and self-directed learners. — Dan Rothstein

It is doubtful whether our present system of popular education does not retard independent or self thinking as much as it promotes it. All genuine education is self-education. It will incite the individual to think for himself, by rethinking what the race's great thinkers have already thought for him, thus enabling him to go ahead under his own mental steam. — Joseph Alexander Leighton

Throughout history, independent minds have carried mankind forward. Whether they identified how to make fire or manufacture tools, develop rational philosophy or create man-glorifying art, pioneer scientific knowledge or invent the electric light, independent thinkers have created the goods on which human life and prosperity depend. — Andrew Bernstein

Most people would like to think that they are independent thinkers and that they value freedom, but they actually want freedom from choice instead of freedom of choice. — Patrick King

We like to think that we're independent thinkers, that we're unique individuals. The truth is, however, that the need to fit in and belong is wired into our brains and our biology. — Susan M. Weinschenk

All people weary of an enumeration which would count all gifts bestowed in minute coins; independent thinkers feel offended when any one would dogmatically settle everything for them; and enlarged minds would rather have a wide margin left for them to write on, and prefer suggestive to exhaustive writers. — Anonymous

Shapers" are independent thinkers: curious, non-conforming, and rebellious. They practice brutal, nonhierarchical honesty. And they act in the face of risk, because their fear of not succeeding exceeds their fear of failing. — Adam M. Grant

Creative Individuals

1. Are Independent Thinkers
2. Great Listeners
3. Keen Observers
4. Risk Takers
5. Influential
6. Inborn Leaders
7.Dream Like There's No Tomorrow
8. Make Mistakes And Learn
9. Fall And Rise
10. Eager For Knowledge
11. Believe In Implementation Of Their Creativity
12. Self Confidence
13. Driven By Positivity
14. Self-Control — Euginia Herlihy

The world's greatest thinkers have often been amateurs; for high thinking is the outcome of fine and independent living, and for that a professional chair offers no special opportunities. — Havelock Ellis

Teenage girls today need strong, positive role models that can show them how to be independent thinkers and confident decision-makers. Dana is proud and self-confident, which is good, but she does not always make wise decisions. Rather than make her a super woman, I balanced her with difficult situations that could have been handled better. Her strength, however, shines through. This way, a young woman can read the book, discuss Dana's actions, and reflect on the decision-making in her own life. — Sharon M. Draper

Far from creating independent thinkers, schools have always, throughout history, played an institutional role in a system of control and coercion. And once you are well educated you have already been socialized in ways that support the power structure, which, in turn, rewards you immensely. — Noam Chomsky

What the masses don't realize is that they're looking for a shepherd. Those who don't think they can be influenced or call themselves 'independent thinkers' are usually the biggest conformists of all - and the easiest to turn. Why do you think cults prey on college students? Easy picking. — Richard Paul Evans

The Occupy Wall Street collective is confused about what it wants but it wants it now! Some of the loonier demands from its independent thinkers: Striking all existing public and private debt from the books across the "entire planet"; elimination of all international borders; free college education; a guaranteed "living wage" for all regardless of employment; an end to free trade; trillions in additional spending for infrastructure and ecological restoration; and ending the fossil fuel economy. — Mike Rosen

Seventy years of communism had destroyed the work ethic of an entire nation. Millions of Russians had been sent to the gulags for showing the slightest hint of personal initiative. The Soviets severely penalized independent thinkers, so the natural self-preservation reaction was to do as little as possible and hope that nobody would notice you. — Bill Browder

Greeks have always been very confident, very strong people. That is - that is our real, I guess, benefit, is that we are independent thinkers. We will always get up on our feet. We - we sometimes act the best when we are downtrodden. — Pavlos, Crown Prince Of Greece

Independent thinkers are usually deemed nuts until everyone realizes they were onto something all along — Janice Sims

What we take ourselves to be doing when we think about what is the case or how we should act is something that cannot be reconciled with a reductive naturalism, for reasons distinct from those that entail the irreducibility of consciousness. It is not merely the subjectivity of thought but its capacity to transcend subjectivity and to discover what is objectively the case that presents a problem ...
Thought and reasoning are correct or incorrect in virtue of something independent of the thinker's beliefs, and even independent of the community of thinkers to which he belongs. (p. 71) — Thomas Nagel

Tom DeLay fears independent thinkers and fighters. I am both. — Martin Frost

I'll co-host 'TODAY' from Los Angeles Saturday morning and then make my way up to Merced for that evening's graduation ceremony. I'm still touching up my remarks, but my challenge to the Class of 2010 will be to break through the deafening and too often negative echo chamber of the digital era and become critical and independent thinkers. — Lester Holt

The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers. — Edgar Fiedler

A society with too few independent thinkers is vulnerable to control by disturbed and opportunistic leaders. A society which wants to create and maintain a free and democratic social system must create responsible independence of thought among its young. — John Dewey

Independent thinkers are usually geniuses or idiots and at times it's hard to tell which. — James Cook

The problem in turning independent thinkers loose on a matter is, they tend to go beyond the theoretical and seize the chance for independent action. Thus, — Laurie R. King

Over time I've learned, surprisingly, that it's tremendously hard to get teams to be super ambitious. It turns out most people haven't been educated in this kind of moonshot thinking. They tend to assume that things are impossible, rather than starting from real-world physics and figuring out what's actually possible. It's why we've put so much energy into hiring independent thinkers at Google, and setting big goals. Because if you hire the right people and have big enough dreams, you'll usually get there. And even if you fail, you'll probably learn something important. It's also true that many companies get comfortable doing what they have always done, with a few incremental changes. This kind of incrementalism leads to irrelevance over time, especially in technology, because change tends to be revolutionary not evolutionary. So you need to force yourself to place big bets on the future. — Eric Schmidt