Steven Erikson Quotes

there are very few who can think, but every man wants to have an opinion; and what remains but to take it ready-made from others, instead of forming opinions for himself?

We may divide thinkers into those who think for themselves and those who think through others. The latter are the rule and the former the exception. The first are original thinkers in a double sense, and egotists in the noblest meaning of the word.

Determine to do some thinking for yourself. Don't live entirely upon the thoughts of others. Don't be an automaton.

The point of a philosophical spirit is to rely primarily upon one's own thinking.

The proper method for hastening the decay of error is by teaching every man to think for himself.

Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all.

The shortest and surest way of arriving at real knowledge is to unlearn the lessons we have been taught, to mount the first principles, and take nobody's word about them.

I think what's always important is not to be contrarian for its own sake but to really get at the truth.

By the worldly standards of public life, all scholars in their work are of course oddly virtuous. They do not make wild claims, they do not cheat. They do not try to persuade at any cost. They appeal neither to prejudice nor to authority ...

Everyone has to be their own critic.

Freethinkers are those who are willing to use their minds without prejudice and without fearing to understand things that clash with their own customs, privileges, or beliefs. This state of mind is not common, but it is essential for right thinking.

Close reading of tough-minded writing is still the best, cheapest, and quickest method known for learning to think for yourself... Reading, and rigorous discussion of that reading in a way that obliges you to formulate a position and support it against objections, is an operational definition of education... reading, analysis, and discussion is the way we develop reliable judgment, the principle way we come to penetrate covert movements behind the facade of public appearances.

Don't be misled by History, or any other unreliable source.

I don't believe anything unless I understand it inside out. And even if I understand something, it is not uncommon that I disagree with accepted view (even if it's a Nobel laureate).

Truth gains more even by the errors of one who, with due study and preparation, thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think.

Small is the number of them that see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.

When we can't think for ourselves, we can always quote

I always thought the idea of education was to learn to think for yourself.

It’s actually pretty easy to be contrarian. It’s hard to be contrarian and right.

If you really want to know what's happening here and now, you've got to use your own eyes and your own judgment.

Guard against the prestige of great names; see that your judgments are your own; and do not shrink from disagreement; no trusting without testing

Stay at home in your mind. Don't recite other people's opinions.

...I'm no longer prepared to accept what people say and what's written in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to find my own answer.

Never accept an expert's opinion if it violates your own because the experts can change their minds.

There is a wide difference between the original thinker and the merely learned man.