100 phrases to think and daydream
Life is not as simple as it may first appear. As much as in modern society we are bombarded with advertising slogans and phrases that appeal to action and with films in which the good guys are very bad and the bad guys are clearly bad and, in general, we see every day fictitious characters that represent stereotypical ways of living life, the truth is that reality , our relationships and even our personality are full of nuances and give rise to all kinds of phrases to think about .
Everything around us can lead to reflection, if we pay enough attention to it, and everything can make us wiser. The experiences that can drive us in our personal development are everywhere, we just have to be able to recognize them, to become sensitive to them.
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100 phrases to think about and make up your own criteria
This conclusion has been reached by many thinkers and intellectuals throughout centuries of history, and today they have left us a fantastic legacy in the form of phrases to think about.Taking these phrases as a first ingredient to forge one’s own criteria about things is a good way to train in the art of reflection.
Of course, it’s best not to just read them and be done with it. If they are phrases to think about, it is precisely because they open a window to the world that extends beyond conventions and common sense. It is worthwhile to spend at least a few seconds reflecting on them.
A space for reflection and critical spirit
So, if you’re interested in stopping taking many things for granted and building your own way of understanding reality, starting with these thoughtful phrases can be a good start. The phrases are numbered but do not occupy a place in the list according to a certain criterion.
1. The truth may be out there, but the lies are in your head, from Terry Pratchett.
2. Revolutions are the locomotives of history, by Karl Marx.
3. The secret of humor is surprise, by Aristotle.
4. Science is magic that works, by Kurt Vonnegut.
5. To love is to act, by Victor Hugo.
6. If you want something done right, do it yourself, by Napoleon Bonaparte.
7. There is nothing permanent, except change, from Heraclitus.
8. We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone, from Ronald Reagan.
9. All our knowledge starts from our experience, from Immanuel Kant.
10. Writing is good, thinking is better, by Herman Hesse.
11. Start with what is right rather than what is acceptable, from Franz Kafka.
12. A wise man never loses anything if he has himself, from Michel de Montaigne.
13. Miracles are born of difficulties, by Jean de la Bruyere.
14. In illness, the most important thing is not to lose the heart, of Vladimir Lenin.
15. We must distinguish between faith and expectations, from Ivan Illich.
16. The mind is the effect, not the cause, of Daniel Dennett.
17. Morality is the herd instinct of the individual, by Friedrich Nietzsche.
18. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, from Franklin D. Roosevelt.
19. All oppression creates a state of war, by Simone de Beauvoir.
20. Life is neither good nor bad, but a place for good and evil, by Marcus Aurelius.
21. Bad taste creates many more millionaires than good taste, by Charles Bukowski.
22. Freedom is something that dies if it is not used, by Hunter S. Thompson.
23. You can’t find peace by avoiding life, from Virginia Woolf.
24. Silence is a faithful friend who never betrays, of Confucius.
25. Lack of money is the root of all evil, by Mark Twain.
26. Fame is the thirst of youth, of Lord Byron.
27. Imagination decides everything, by Blaire Pascal.
28. The more you judge, the less you love, by Honoré de Balzac.
29. Men have become the tools of his tools, by Henry David Thoreau.
30. It takes a little bit of madness to do great things, from Henry Rollins.
31. Every act of creation is first an act of destruction, by Pablo Picasso.
32. The man is an intelligence in the service of his organs, by Aldous Huxley.
33. Only the poet can look beyond the details to see the full picture, of Helen Hayes.
34. Every man confuses the limits of his field of vision with the limits of the world, by Arthur Schopenhauer.
35. Perfect numbers, like perfect men, are very rare, by Rene Descartes.
36. Character is a set of habits maintained over a long period of time, from Plutarch.
37. Jump, and the net will appear, by John Burroughs.
38. Do not fear perfection, you will never reach it, from Salvador DalÃ.
39. A truth that is told with evil intent overcomes all lies that can be invented, by William Blake.
40. We live on the edge of the miraculous, of Henry Miller.
41. Honest disagreement is often a good sign of progress, from Mahatma Gandhi.
42. The art of living well and dying well are the same thing, by Epicurus.
43. Children are educated by what adults are, not by what adults say, by Carl Jung.
44. Sometimes, vices are only virtues carried to excess, by Charles Darwin.
45. It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere, from Voltaire.
46. Everything has its morals, if you can find them, from Lewis Carroll.
47. Sometimes even living is an act of courage, Seneca.
48. Friendship is a mind in two bodies, by Mencius.
49. There is no subject so old that nothing new can be said about it, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.
50. Measure what can be measured, and make measurable what is not, of Galileo Galilei.
51. A powerful idea communicates some of its strength to those who question it, from Marcel Proust.
52. The future belongs to those who prepare for it in the present, by Malcolm X.
53. Those who do not know history are condemned to repeat it, by Edmund Burke.
54. For good poets to exist, there must be good audiences, by Walt Whitman.
55. What you are will be revealed in what you do, by Thomas Edison.
56. To know life you must love many things, by Vincent Van Gogh.
57. Adults are obsolete children, by Dr. Seuss.
58. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, by Desmond Tutu.
59. Being funny isn’t anybody’s first choice, Woody Allen.
60. Creativity requires the price of letting go of certainties, by Erich Fromm.
61. A man full of courage is also someone full of faith, from Cicero.
62. Peace if possible, truth at any price, from Martin Luther.
63. There is no friend as faithful as a book, by Ernest Hemingway.
64. The truth is what works, by William James.
65. Patience is a minor form of despair, disguised as virtue, by Ambrose Bierce.
66. Life gives us mortals nothing without hard work, Horatio.
67. The only abnormality is Anais Nin’s inability to love.
68. Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge, from Plato.
69. What matters most is the effort, of Antoine de Saint-Exupery.
70. Thinking is not agreeing or disagreeing, that’s voting, by Robert Frost.
71. No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky, by Bob Dylan.
72. There is no force as democratic as the force of an ideal, of Calvin Coolidge.
73. The lower you fall, the higher you fly, from Chuck Palahniuk.
74. Curiosity is the wick in the candle of knowledge, by William Arthur Ward.
75. Nothing is stronger than Euripides’ extreme need.
76. People don’t mind being bad, but they never want to be ridiculous, Molière’s.
77. No one understands the pain or the joy of others, of Franz Schubert.
78. Man must strive to think much and know little, of Democritus.
78. Only the educated are free, from Epictetus.
79. The greatest evil is the physical pain of St. Augustine.
80. Hell is the rest, by Jean-Paul Sartre.
81. We forged the chains we wear in life, by Charles Dickens.
82. Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic, by Cesare Pavese.
83. All we see is a dream within a dream, by Edgar Allan Poe.
84. Peace begins with a smile, from Teresa of Calcutta.
85. The best revenge is Frank Sinatra’s overwhelming success.
86. Politics is not related to morality, to Machiavelli.
87. Nationalism is a way of oppressing others, by Noam Chomsky.
88. No one has justice, only good or bad luck, from Orson Welles.
89. There is no sin but stupidity, by Oscar Wilde.
90. It’s not living that matters, but living right, from Socrates.
91. If you don’t act on what you think, you’ll end up thinking on what you act, by Blaire Pascal.
92. Oblivion is the only revenge and the only forgiveness, by Jorge Luis Borges.
93. Whoever controls the media controls the mind, by Jim Morrison.
94. Pride is the most fatal of advisors, of Ramon Maria del Valle-Inclan.
95. Cowards die many times before reaching their death; the brave only taste death once, from William Shakespeare.
96. Everything is generated from the willpower of one’s self, of Ray Bradbury.
97. Life can only be understood backwards, but must be lived forwards, by Søren Kierkegaard.
98. The less you read, the more you hurt what you read, by Miguel de Unamuno.
99. A civilization is destroyed only when its gods are destroyed, by Émile Cioran.
100. Fiction is about what it means to be a human being, by David Foster Wallace.
Can you think of any more famous quotes to think about?
If you can think of more phrases to think of, don’t hesitate to put them in the comments section .