Martin Luther King Jr. Quotes

Thought is a strenuous art - few practice it, and then only at rare times.

I'm asking people to think critically and not to be lazy in their thinking.

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason why so few engage in it.

No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.

Nothing requires a greater effort of thought than arguments to justify the rule of non-thought.

Less than fifteen per cent of the people do any original thinking on any subject. The greatest torture in the world for most people is to think.

Think until it hurts.

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

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

Men of genius are not quick judges of character. Deep thinking and high imagining blunt that trivial instinct by which you and I size people up.

The grinding of the intellect is for most people as painful as a dentist's drill.

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.

He has the lucidity which is the by-product of a fundamentally sterile mind.

The habit of analysis has a tendency to wear away the feelings.

Some people spend their time reasoning and thinking out everything, and so anything that cannot be fully understood, they will not accept. We call these people 'intellectuals.'

Thinking is the hardest work we can do, and among the most important

He who thinks with difficulty believes with alacrity.

My focus has always been on the work - that work being critical thinking and writing. I am always doing that. That's where I am, wherever I am. Critical thinking and writing as my heartbeat.

What is the hardest task in the world? To think.

Most of us seldom take the trouble to think. It is a troublesome and fatiguing process and often leads to uncomfortable conclusions. But crises and deadlocks when they occur have at least this advantage, that they force us to think.

Always it is thus with my new students, and especially with the human ones; the mind is the last muscle they train or use, and the one that they regard the least. Ask them about swordplay and they can list every blow from a duel a month old, but ask them to solve a problem or make a coherent statement and... well, I would be lucky to get more than a blank stare in return.

Some people read only because they are too lazy to think.

To be avoided at all costs is the solace of opinion without the pain of thought.

The mathematician who pursues his studies without clear views of this matter, must often have the uncomfortable feeling that his paper and pencil surpass him in intelligence.