In some career paths blinding following instructions is what’s required for the job. The fast-food industry would be one example where following regimented cook times and cleaning processes without question is important. But if you hope to rise up through the ranks to become a people manager or want to operate a small business, you’ll need to develop critical thinking skills to achieve your goals.

But how can someone improve their thinking skills exactly? Fortunately, there are many ways you can enhance brain power that I share at the end of this blog post. I also share 103 quotes about that stress the importance of working out your mind on a daily basis.

Critical Thinking Quotes

  • “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we create them.” – Anonymous
  • “The value of a college education is not the learning of many facts, but the training of the mind to think.” – Anonymous
  • “If there was one life skill everyone on the planet needed, it was the ability to think with critical objectivity.” – Anonymous
  • “Much of today’s education focuses on obedience skills rather than critical thinking skills.”- Bryant McGill
  • “It is a mark of an intelligent mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.” – Anonymous
  • “The important thing is not to stop questioning.” – Anonymous
  • “The opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject.” – Anonymous
  • “Critical thinking and curiosity are the key to creativity.” – Anonymous

“The essence of the independent mind lies not in what it thinks, but in how it thinks.” –

  • “Critical thinking is what leads to the next breakthroughs in any area.” – Roberta Michnick Golinkoff
  • “It is better to debate a question without settling it than to settle a question without debating it.” – Joseph Joubert
  • “The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking.” – John Kenneth Galbraith
  • “Where there is no critical thinking, there is no progress. If the children are our future, then critical thinking must be their guide.” – Dale McGowan

Related Reading: 115+ Budgeting Quotes That Help You Save More Each Week 

  • “Believe what you like but don’t believe everything you read without questioning it.” – Pauline Baynes
  • “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.” – Anonymous
  • “How might we modify our beliefs in the light of additional information?” – Anonymous
  • “Time given to thought is the greatest time saver of all.” – Norman Cousins
  • “Children must be taught how to think not what to think.” – Margaret Mead
  • “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably why so few engage in it.” – Henry Ford

“Thinking is a skilled work. It is not true that we are naturally endowed with the ability to think clearly and logically – without learning how, or without practicing.” – A.E. Mander

  • “How much easier it is to be critical than to be correct.” – Benjamin Franklin
  • “Even a book that is made up for only untruths can greatly improve us intellectually.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
  • “The insecure leader will interpret critical thinking as criticism.” – Andy Stanely
  • “When your critical thinking doesn’t work, think emotionally and let your heart decide what’s right or wrong.” – Anonymous
  • “We are approaching a new age of synthesis. Knowledge cannot merely be a degree or skill, it demands a broader vision, capabilities in critical thinking and logical deduction without which we cannot have constructive progress.” – Li Ka Shing
  • “By allowing yourself to consider different perspectives, you might find yourself hitting upon solutions you hadn’t previously considered.” – Anonymous

It’s important to teach critical thinking early with kids.

Funny Critical Thinking Quotes

  • “Women spend more time thinking about men what men think than men actually spend thinking.” – Anonymous
  • “Someday, I will solve my problems with critical thinking, but today it will be with chocolate.” – Anonymous
  • “Common sense is a genius dressed in its working clothes.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.” – David Ogivly
  • “I don’t think inside the box and I don’t think outside the box. I don’t even know where the box is.” – Anonymous
  • “If everyone is thinking alike then somebody isn’t thinking.” – George S. Patton
  • “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the universe.” – Albert Einstein

Analytical Thinking Quotes

  • “I tend to have a very analytical mind, I’m constantly thinking about how things can be better or different.” – Andy Biersack
  • “Learn to be as analytical about things of which you are credulous as you are of those you criticize.” – Idries Shah
  • “AI will do analytical thinking, while humans will wrap that analysis in warmth and compassion.” – Kai-Fu Lee
  • “Languages are true analytical methods.” – Antoine Lavoisier
  • “A lack of analytical skills could keep you from making progress in your career.” – Deborah Murray

“You can over analyze anything. I constantly have to tell myself, ‘Sabrina, stop thinking’. There are people who are just analytical. It’s part of your gene makeup or too much caffeine.” – Sabrina Lloyd

  • “Even the most analytical thinkers are predictably irrational: the really smart ones acknowledge and address their irrationalities.” – Dan Ariely
  • “Systems thinking is contextual, which is the opposite of analytical thinking. Analysis means taking something apart in order to understand it; systems thinking means putting it into context of a larger whole.” – Fritjof Capra
  • “The advantage of an analytical approach is that it is widely applicable, and that it can provide a considerable amount of quantitative information even with a relatively poor resolving power.” – Christian de Duve
  • “From an analytical perspective you’re thinking ‘2 percent sucks’ but it’s like the pink elephant in the room. Everyone knows it’s there.” – Paul Kim

“To be successful, suspend your worries and your analytical thinking and just concentrate on reading the script as it is without any judgement.” – Robbins Blair

  • “My business is the analytical framework.” – Todd Gitlin
  • “Why is it that our young kids across America can solve the most complex problems in a video game involving executive decision making and analytical thinking, yet we accept the fact that they can’t add or read?” – Naveen Jain
  • “The need is not for the creation of new analytical techniques specially designed for the negotiation process, but rather for the creative use of analytical thinking that exploits existing techniques.” – Howard Raiffa
  • “Creative and analytical thinking are not mutually exclusive. We should work to make them mutually supportive to engage the whole brains of our students.” – Amy Benjamin
  • “They’re thinking. They’re getting more analytical of the game. It’s not whip the ball down field and chase after it. There’s a thought process to what they’re trying to do.” – Pam Edwards