61 Quotes About Problem Solving and Thinking for Yourself

 

What is your biggest problem right now, at this moment?

Have you clearly defined the problem and brainstormed solutions? If so, you are halfway to devising a resolution.

Problem-solving requires thinking. Thinking requires effort. Effort requires commitment.

Commit yourself to solving your own problems and thinking for yourself. Only then will you truly be free.

In a world with so many problems, problem-solving is hard. In a time when thinking is easily supplanted by automaticity and ease, thinking creatively and uniquely is a challenge.

Are you ready to solve your problem? Are you brave enough to think for yourself?

While you ponder each question, enjoy these quotes about solving problems and thinking for oneself.

 

Quotes About Problem Solving and Thinking for Yourself

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. ~ Rudyard Kipling

There’s no use talking about the problem unless you talk about the solution. ~ Betty Williams

It’s not a problem that we have a problem. It’s a problem if we don’t deal with the problem. ~ Mary Kay Utech

Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Never try to solve all the problems at once — make them line up for you one-by-one. ~ Richard Sloma

If thy knowledge is real, employ it; wrestle with nature; test the strength of thy theories; see if they will support the trial; act! ~ Jean Baptiste Aloysius

All problems become smaller when you confront them instead of dodging them. ~ William F. Halsey

Be yourself and think for yourself, and while your conclusions may not be infallible they will be nearer right than the inclusions forced upon you by those who have a personal interest in keeping you in ignorance. ~ Elbert Hubbard

I went quickly from being a scientist to an advisor. Getting a rigorous Ph.D. in the hard sciences is about learning how to think, how to problem-solve and how to approach a circumstance... ~ Philippe Hartl

What keeps me up at night is if we continue down this path of becoming more and more dependent on science and technology, that less and less of the population is educated in science and math, or at least has an appreciation for how it affects life—and that will lead to decisions that are not optimal for the species or the country. ~ Philippe Hartl

You’re not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can’t face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it. ~ Malcolm X  

A sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on. ~ C. S. Lewis

To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable open-mindedness, chaotic, confused vulnerability to inform yourself. ~ Timothy Leary

Never associate with idiots on their own level, because, being an intelligent man, you’ll try to deal with them on their level – and on their level they’ll beat you every time. ~ Jean Cocteau

People say that you’re going the wrong way when it’s simply a way of your own. ~ Angelina Jolie

Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in public and private life, have been the consequences of action without thought. ~ Bernard Baruch

There’s no such thing as running away from the problem. They’re very patient and will wait a lifetime for you. ~ Darnell Lamont Walker

If you read, you can learn to think for yourself. ~ Doris Lessing

Too often we give our children answers to remember rather than problems to solve. ~ Roger Lewin

The best way to escape from a problem is to solve it. ~ Brendan Francis

Take responsibility for what you think and what you do. ~ Terence McKenna

Think for yourselves for a change. You’ve been pedlars: go and be merchants. You’ve been mercenaries: go and find something of your own to defend. ~ Dorothy Dunnett

To solve any problem, here are three questions to ask yourself: First, what could I do? Second, what could I read? And third, who could I ask? ~ Jim Rohn

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. ~ Mark Twain

Problems are only opportunities in work clothes. ~ Henri Kaiser

A problem well stated is a problem half solved. ~ Charles Kettering

It is a fact that before we begin to think we seem to know everything; while when we set about thinking in earnest, we seem to know nothing. ~ Horace Smith (aka Paul Chatfield)

He only sees well who sees the whole in the parts, and the parts in the whole. ~ Johann Caspar Lavater

I know but three classes of men: those who see the whole, those who see but a part, and those who see both together. ~ Johann Caspar Lavater

Learn to see, listen, and think for yourself. ~ Malcolm X

If you form the habit of going by what you hear others say about someone, or going by what others think about someone, instead of searching that thing out for yourself and seeing for yourself, you will be walking west when you think you’re going east, and you will be walking east when you think you’re going west. ~ Malcolm X

Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. ~ Marva Collins

There is a time in the life of every problem when it is big enough to see, yet small enough to solve. ~ Mike Leavitt

Don’t waste your time trying to control the uncontrollable, or trying to solve the unsolvable, or think about what could have been. ~ David Mahoney

...think about what you can control and solve the problem you can solve with the wisdom you have gained from both your victories and your defeats in the past. ~ David Mahoney

It is better to solve one problem five different ways, than to solve five problems one way. ~  George Pólya

Every problem is a gift—without problems we would not grow. ~ Tony Robbins

Learn to judge the thought independently of who says it or how. ~ Witold Gombrowicz

Running away from any problem only increases the distance from the solution. ~ Anonymous

When you place a high value on truth, you have to think for yourself. ~ Cornel West 

Start thinking for yourself, ask “why?” and even venture to say “why should I?” and pretty soon you will have half the world at your throat for being a “trouble maker.” ~ Christina Engela 

It is well known that “problem avoidance” is an important part of problem solving. Instead of solving the problem you go upstream and alter the system so that the problem does not occur in the first place. ~ Edward de Bono 

You can’t escape the madness of crowds by dogmatically rejecting them...The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself. ~ Peter Thiel

Today, take the limits off of yourself. You will never rise higher than your thinking. Get a bigger vision for your life. ~ Joel Osteen 

Don’t dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward toward finding the answer. ~ Denis Waitley 

You have to change your thinking if you desire to have a future different from your present. ~ Germany Kent 

It is wise to direct your anger towards problems—not people; to focus your energies on answers—not excuses. ~ William Arthur Ward 

The measure of success is not whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it is the same problem you had last year. ~ John Foster Dulles 

Again and again, the impossible decision is solved when we see that the problem is only a tough decision waiting to be made. ~ Robert Schuller 

The biggest problem in the world could have been solved when it was small. ~ Harold Witter Bynner 

The wise person devotes more time to structuring problems by considering potential consequences before acting. This leads to better judgments, better foresight, and to behavior that increases the probability of desired outcomes, or decreases the probability of undesired outcomes. ~ Moshe F. Rubinstein 

Problems do not go away. They must be worked through or else they remain, forever a barrier to the growth and development of the spirit. ~ M. Scott Peck 

If you choose to not deal with an issue, then you give up your right of control over the issue and it will select the path of least resistance. ~ Susan Del Gatto 

We always hope for the easy fix: the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke. But few things in life work this way. Instead, success requires making a hundred small steps go right – one after the other... ~ Atul Gawande 

When faced with a problem you do not understand, do any part of it you do understand and then look at it again. ~ Robert Heinlein 

...we have all, at some point, confused doing something—anything—with actually solving the problem. ~ Sherry Thomas  

When are you going to stop thinking about things that don’t matter and start thinking about what lies ahead for you? ~ Madeleine Brent 

Do not let yourself be contaminated by others’ ideas of what is best for you. Cast aside the shackles of destructive thinking. ~ Kai Greene 

Consistency is respecting the flames while aiming to extinguish problems at the base of the fire. ~ Dexter A. Daniels 

The problem is not the problem, it’s your attitude about the problem. ~ Ann Brashares 

You will only be remembered for two things: the problems you solve or the ones you create. ~ Mike Murdock 

 

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