John Dewey Quotes

The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained.

It is not the least service which a college or university may render to those under its instruction, to habituate them to looking not only patiently but methodically on both sides, before adopting any conclusion upon controverted issues.

Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.

The educated do not share a common body of information, but a common state of mind.

Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve.

Think your own thoughts.

I don't know that my schooling was conducive to wild ideas and creativity, but it gave me discipline, drive. They taught me how to think. I really know how to think.

I've always felt that a person's intelligence is directly reflected by the number of conflicting points of view he can entertain simultaneously on the same topic.

Well, the fact is that one imagination is critically important, and if you have had your imagination stimulated by what is basically a variety of subjects, you are much more amenable to accepting, to understanding and interacting with the realities of the world.

Intellectuals are people who believe that ideas are of more importance than values. That is to say, their own ideas and other people's values.

My brain is open.

I only surround myself with people who are intellectually stimulating.

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

My mother cared more about how you reasoned than about the conclusions you reached.

I'm a huge believer in learning anything from multiple points of view.

Nothing has such power to broaden the mind as the ability to investigate systematically and truly all that comes under thy observation in life.

To be intellectual does not require one to be alienated and oppositional.

Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

It is important that students bring a certain …, irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.

It is a very great thing to be able to think as you like; but, after all, an important question remains: what you think.

It only takes a day to change someone from an anti-intellectual to an intellectual by persuading him that he might be one!

I prefer my partner to have profound, deep intellect, a profound education, but where their education comes from is no preference of my own.

Always make the choice to learn. What Princeton taught me was whatever mess you are studying, pull a thread with great persistence 'til you have clarity of thought. Princeton taught me how to solve a problem. How to think - that's what we pull out of this place.

When I was at school, one of my teachers had two statements hanging from the board all year: 'Be observant' and 'Be empathetic.'