Theodor W. Adorno Quotes

Strictly speaking, you don't think: Thinking happens to you.

Since Socrates and Plato first speculated on the nature of the human mind, serious thinkers through the ages - from Aristotle to Descartes, from Aeschylus to Strindberg and Ingmar Bergman - have thought it wise to understand oneself and one's behavior.

Our thoughts are certainly part of us; they come from us, but we are not our thoughts. Have you ever woken up in the morning and said to yourself, 'I am not going to think today; I am too tired'? No, of course not. Just as breathing happens and is constant, thoughts happen, and they are also constant.

As a person... I'm a little more doubtful, introspective and analytical.

Maybe I think too much.

Thinking is a wonderful tool if it's applied. Thinking, however, can not become the master. Thinking is a very bad master. If you're dominated by thinking then your life becomes very restricted.

What is important is that one utilizes one's intellect and not to be 100 percent sure about one's convictions. One should always leave room for doubt.

I always thought it better to allow myself to doubt before I decided, than to expose myself to the misery, after I had decided, of doubting whether I had decided rightly and justly.

The thought is not something that observes an inner event, but, rather it is this inner event itself. We do not reflect on something, but, rather, something thinks itself in us.

First Sight means you can see what really is there, and Second Thoughts mean thinking about what you are thinking. And in Tiffany's case, there were sometimes Third Thoughts and Fourth Thoughts although these...sometimes led her to walk into doors.

There is thought, and then there is thinking about thoughts, and they don't feel the same.

Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.

I think and that is all that I am.

I try not to be overly analytical.

Doubt must be no more than vigilance, otherwise it can become dangerous.

The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.

The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other people's.

How do you know, right now, that you are aware of being aware, or conscious?

If I am fool, it is, at least, a doubting one; and I envy no one the certainty of his self-approved wisdom.

I have written too much history to have faith in it; and if anyone thinks I'm wrong, I am inclined to agree with him.

I have no inner monologue.

I love to doubt as well as know.

The relationship between commitment and doubt is by no means an antagonistic one. Commitment is healthiest when it's not without doubt but in spite of doubt.

People with lots of doubts sometimes find life more oppressive and exhausting than others, but they're more energetic - they aren't robots.

To have doubted one's own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.