Fran Lebowitz Quotes

A wise man first thinks and then speaks and a fool speaks first and then thinks.

I'm raised to actually think, to use my brain.

Through writing, through that process, they realize that they become more intelligent, and more honest and more imaginative than they can be in any other part of their life.

We only half live when we only half think

The real question, therefore, is not whether students should be taught to think critically and self-reflectively, but instead what they should be thinking critically about.

As I matured, I became a smarter person, a more sensitive person, a more thinking person.

Because I've always been good at knowing what I thought and not reviewing prematurely and have gotten better at those things over the years, my flips are rarely that significant.

I am interested in evolution within my thinking. I am not interested in the evolution of my paint.

It wasn't until I got to college and had a lot of my ego beaten out of me... That's when I started to turn to literature as something deeper than a way to put up points.

When we learn to read, it's a real product of civilization and a civilized society. It affects your brain. It affects the way you think, and it gives you that capacity for self-reflection that you simply do not have without the agency of books.

The wise man thinks once before he speaks twice.

To think to be wise alone is a very great folly.

The value you receive from reflective thinking will depend on the kinds of questions you ask yourself.

To understand our own thinking is to understand all thinking.

"Thinking about thinking" has to be a principle ingredient of any empowering practice of education.

If you don't contradict yourself on a regular basis, then you're not thinking.

At the age of 18 I don't think that I thought very differently than I did at the age of 25. I think we instinctively have the knowledge and adapt the knowledge we need.

Thinking nurseth thinking.

Wise? No, I simply learned to think.

Get to know yourself. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all... Knowing yourself and knowing the facts, you can judge whether you can change the situation so it is more to your liking. If you cannot--or if you do not know how to improve on things--then discipline yourself to the adjustments that will be necessary.

Without the ability to think about yourself, to reflect on your life, there’s really no awareness, no consciousness. Consciousness doesn’t come automatically; it comes through being alive, awake, curious, and often furious.

The man who doesn’t make up his mind to cultivate the habit of thinking misses the greatest pleasure in life.

Life with Fools consists in Drinking; with the wise Man, living's Thinking.

Ultimately there is no power to narcissistic, self-indulgent thinking. Authentic thinking originates with an encounter with the world.

To develop thinking as a skill, it should be deliberate, focused, confident, and enjoyable.