Smart people focus on the right things.
The effective thinker treats arrogance as the major sin of thinking.
Successful people spend 10% of their time focused on the problems and 90% of the rest, focused on the solution.
The Goal of Education is to Help People Use Their Minds Better
Some tools of thought are so blunt that they are almost useless; others are so sharp that they are dangerous. But the wise man will have the use of both kinds.
From any vocabulary of ideas we can build other ideas by formal combinations of signs. But not any set of ideas will be instructive. One must have the right ideas.
Focus 90% of your time on solutions and only 10% of your time on problems.
Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking...asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking.
One can think effectively only when one is willing to endure suspense and to undergo the trouble of searching.
Speaking is what most people work on. They forget the thinking and the breathing and instead try to occupy space with sound.
When every physical and mental resources is focused, one's power to solve a problem multiplies tremendously.
A successful person isn't necessarily better than her less successful peers at solving problems; her pattern-recognition facilities have just learned what problems are worth solving.
By relieving the brain of all unnecessary work, a good notation sets it free to concentrate on more advanced problems, and in effect increases the mental power of the race.
As nothing is more easy than to think, so nothing is more difficult than to think well.
Thinking clearly and effectively is the greatest asset of any human being.
Enlightenment means rising above thought, not falling back to a level below thought, the level of an animal or a plant. In the enlightened state, you still use your thinking mind when needed, but in a much more focused and effective way than before.
It is better to have a fair intellect that is well used than a powerful one that is idle.
For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it.
The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive.
Small though it is, the human brain can be quite effective when used properly.
It is worth a lot of bother to be able to think properly.
The test of real and vigorous thinking, the thinking which ascertains truths instead of dreaming dreams, is successful application to practice.
We are using all of our brain, all of the time; all of it is in use. However, you could probably argue that we don't use it effectively. Some of us are not trained to use our brains to their full potential. But definitely, all of it is there.
