It is dangerous to be right in matters on which the established authorities are wrong.

Voltaire, The Age of Louis XIV

The most common sort of lie is that by which a man deceives himself; the deception of others is a relatively rare offense.

Friedrich Nietzsche, The Anti-Christ

Facts are threatening to those invested in fraud.

DaShanne Stokes

Hitler's psychological artillery was composed primarily of the weapon of fear. He had, for example, a network of fifth columnists whose main job was to sow rumors and suspicions among the citizens of the countries against which he eventually planned to fight. Instead of facing the real threat of German invasion, instead of preparing for it, all of Europe shuddered at spy stories, discussed irrelevant problems, argued endlessly about scapegoats and minorities.

Joost A.M. Meerloo, The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing

Until you realize how easy it is for your mind to be manipulated, you remain the puppet of someone else's game.

Evita Ochel

If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down, then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Thought can organize the world so well that you are no longer able to see it.

Anthony de Mello, One Minute Wisdom

Those who cannot attack the thought, instead attack the thinker.

Paul Valéry

Everywhere man blames nature and fate yet his fate is mostly but the echo of his character and passion, his mistakes and his weaknesses.

Democritus

Intelligence is noticing things that are relevant (detecting patterns); in a complex world, intelligence also consists of ignoring things that are irrelevant (avoiding false patterns).

Nassim Nicholas Taleb

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

Søren Kierkegaard

A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep.

Saul Bellow

Man cannot survive except through his mind. He comes on earth unarmed. His brain is his only weapon. Animals obtain food by force. man had no claws, no fangs, no horns, no great strength of muscle. He must plant his food or hunt it. To plant, he needs a process of thought. To hunt, he needs weapons, and to make weapons - a process of thought. From this simplest necessity to the highest religious abstraction, from the wheel to the skyscraper, everything we are and we have comes from a single attribute of man -the function of his reasoning mind.

Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid ... Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man.

Bertrand Russell, Why Men Fight

Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations, that they are individualists, that they have arrived at their opinions as the result of their own thinking—and that it just happens that their ideas are the same as those of the majority. The consensus of all serves as proof of the correctness of 'their' idea.

Erich Fromm, The Art of Loving

Never judge someone's character based on the words of another. Instead, study the motives behind the words of the person casting the bad judgment. An honest woman can sell tangerines all day and remain a good person until she dies, but there will always be naysayers who will try to convince you otherwise. Perhaps this woman did not give them something for free, or at a discount. Perhaps too, that she refused to stand with them when they were wrong — or just stood up for something she felt was right. And also, it could be that some bitter women are envious of her, or that she rejected the advances of some very proud men.

Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun

The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widely spread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible.

Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals