Bruno Bettelheim Quotes

Children have their own mind.

I hope that the message I conveyed in 'Julie of the Wolves' is to tell young people to think things out. Think independently.

The efficient man is the man who thinks for himself.

Never take advice, including this.

One of the first things I think young people, especially nowadays, should learn is how to see for yourself and listen for yourself and think for yourself. Then you can come to an intelligent decision for yourself. If you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west when you think you're going east, and you will be walking east when you think you're going west.

I also believe that everyone needs to think independently and make their own decisions on what makes the most sense.

Think your own thoughts.

People do ask me for advice for some reason. And I'll just kind of pose it back to them and let them answer on their own. I never like to give my advice 'cause I don't want them to come back and 'You were wrong! You ruined my life!' so it's more about 'Hey, this is what you just told me. What does that sound like to you?'

When you are alone, you need to take many decisions, and you can make mistakes.

If you're just a follower, you never know why you are doing something. Then you can't know if something is good or not. How would you know that what you thought is right, if you didn't think it?

You must think for yourself, what you must do. If someone tells you, then you are not trying. -An-mei

No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.

Folks that has brought up children know that there's no hard and fast method in the world that'll suit every child. But them as never have think it's all as plain and easy as Rule of Three—just set your three terms down so fashion, and the sum'll work out correct.

I had always been scrupulously careful to avoid the smallest suggestion of infant indoctrination, which I think is ultimately responsible for much of the evil in the world. Others, less close to her, showed no such scruples, which upset me, as I very much wanted her, as I want all children, to make up her own mind freely when she became old enough to do so. I would encourage her to think, without telling her what to think.

Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.

Thinking for yourself - that's scarier than any devil image.

Seek other people's advice, but don't take orders. And don't take 100% of anyone's advice. Make sure every decision you make is a product of your own conclusion. Be a student, not a disciple.

I actually think leaving your children alone to fantasize, to write, to make projects on their own is good for them. Breathing down their necks is a form of control. Children should have their own space.

I am not apt to follow blindly the lead of other men

I intend to judge things for myself; to judge wrongly, I think, is more honorable than not to judge at all.

When you give your children knowledge, you are telling them what to think. When you give your children wisdom, you do not tell them what to know, or what is true, but rather, how to get to their own truth.

Best is the man who thinks for himself.

Think deeply about things. Don’t just go along because that’s the way things are or that’s what your friends say. Consider the effects, consider the alternatives, but most importantly, just think.

The first move of leadership is learning to think for yourself.

Let us use our energy and our initiative to solve our problems without relying on prayers and wishful thinking. When we have faith in ourselves, we will find we do not have to have faith in gods.