The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and…

The man who does not do his own thinking is a slave, and is a traitor to himself and to his fellow-men.

— Anonymous

“[M]an is not permitted without censure to follow his own thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out…

— John Locke

Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action-Into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.

— Rabindranath Tagore

It's strange that in an age when we pride ourselves on our independence of thought we meekly submit without further question to the declaration…

— George Pattison

“Crimes against women won’t stop! As women gain more independence (both in thought and in spirit), castration anxiety will act out and will always…

— Mallika Nawal

“Freedom of speech is unnecessary if the people to whom it is granted do not think for themselves.”

— Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Since I reached the conclusion that the essence of the creative person is being in love with what one is doing, I have had…

— Ellis Paul Torrance

A society with too few independent thinkers is vulnerable to control by disturbed and opportunistic leaders. A society which wants to create and maintain…

— John Dewey

“If they give you lined paper, write the other way.”

— William Carlos Williams

“I promise to question everything my leaders tell me. I promise to use my critical faculties. I promise to develop my independence of thought.…

— Carl Sagan

In the long run [censorship] will create a generation incapable of appreciating the difference between independence of thought and subservience.

— Henry Steele Commager

“Think for yourself and let others enjoy the privilege of doing so too.”

— Voltaire

A free man is he who does not fear to go to the end of his thought.

— Leon Blum

My only supporter and comrade-in-arms was Georg Helm, who had endeavored to formulate an energetic conception of science before me and had presented his…

— Wilhelm Ostwald

Among the droves of men with political ambitions in the United States, I found very few with that virile candor, that manly independence of…

— Alexis de Tocqueville