Thomas Harris Quotes

Most persons who indulge in second thought don't do much thinking when the subject is presented for first thought.

Time given to thought is the greatest time saver of all.

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.

One sits down first; one thinks afterwards.

Whatever sentence will bear to be read twice, we may be sure was thought twice.

I like to sit on things and digest them and then I'll figure out my next move, but I never said I was right for doing anything.

Just because we increase the speed of information doesn't mean we can increase the speed of decisions. Pondering, reflecting and ruminating are undervalued skills in our culture.

We often repent of our first thoughts, and scarce ever of our second.

My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems and for a long time which I keep away for years and years and I never really let them go.

If there is time to reflect, slowing down is likely to be a good idea.

Whenever a question is of some importance, it should not be decided on the day when it is submitted to you. Whenever it is not an urgent one, I make it a rule not to let any question be forced upon my immediate decision; … And even when in my mind I am disposed to accede, still I always keep the papers with me some little time before I return them.

Sometimes you have to marinate instead of making a quick decision. I appreciate my instincts, but my instincts can be dead wrong. Circumspection can give you time.

To know, to think, to dream. That is everything.

Every thought is an afterthought.

I do not understand; I pause; I examine.

He had been (Thinking? Praying?) It was all the same thing.

My motto is, 'What's the hurry?' I'm trying to get it across to the modern world that we need to sit around and think a little bit more.

So she was considering in her own mind...whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up & picking the daisies.

I prefer thought to action, an idea to a transaction, contemplation to activity.

Action should be founded on contemplation, and those of us who act don't put enough time, don't give enough emphasis, to contemplation.

Consider once before you give, twice before you receive, and a thousand times before you ask.

Reflective thinking is like the crock pot of the mind. It encourages your thoughts to simmer until they're done.

Only the thinking man lives his life, the thoughtless man's life passes him by.

You might want to put this in the back of your craw and think about it.

All too often, when it comes to our own minds, we are surprisingly mindless. We sail on, blithely unaware of how much we are missing, of how little we grasp of our own thought process - and how much better we could be if only we'd taken the time to understand and to reflect.