Each piece of the wide array of knowledge our species has collected, originated at some point from someone who had spent some time thinking about some particular topic long enough to make a discovery. The success of our civilization is built upon the thoughts of such people. It is the act of in-depth thought that allows our species to survive. In order for us to continue to survive and progress we must consider the thoughts of previous thinkers, and adopt the knowledge they acquired through that very process.
     In this article I have made a list of some great quotes that offer us a glimpse into the thinking process of others. Consider the possible thoughts behind each quote. The quotes I have listed generally pertain to a mind-set of reason, rational thought, and logical perspectives. These mind-sets are what appeal to me the most.

"The spread of civilization may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power." -(Nikola Tesla)

"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more." -(Nikola Tesla)

"It was of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbound admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it." -(Albert Einstein)

"I don't try to imagine a personal God, it suffices to stand in owe at the structure of the world, insofar as it allows our inadequate senses to appreciate it." -(Albert Einstein)

"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations... can never effect a reform." -(Susan B. Anthony)

"If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals" -(Susan B. Anthony)

"Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry." -(Susan B. Anthony)

"Truth, in matters of religion, is simply the opinion that has survived." -(Oscar Wilde)

"Human thoughts and emotions emerge from exceedingly complex interconnections of physical entities within the brain. An atheist in this sense of philosophical naturalist is somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the observable universe, no soul that outlasts the body and no miracles - except in the sense of natural phenomena that we don't yet understand." -(Richard Dawkins)

"The whole idea that what is not normal should be kept secret - that's really distasteful to me." -(Dan Farmer)

"One of the things that characterizes good intellectual work is a certain self-importance." -(Whitfield Diffie)

"The genie of religious fanaticism is rampant in present-day America, and the Founding Fathers would have been horrified." -(Richard Dawkins)

 The treaty of Tripoli 1796, under Washington and signed by John Adams 1791. -  'As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion: as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Musselmen; and as the said States never entered into any wars or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.'

"To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angles, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise ... without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence." -(Thomas Jefferson)

"Priests of the different religious sects...dread the advances of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live." -(Tomas Jefferson)

"The improvement of any medical technology confronts our species with a moral dilemma. If the technology can save lives, then not to develop it and use it is morally culpable, even if there are attendant risks. In the Stone Age, we had no option but to watch our relatives die of smallpox. After Jenner had perfected vaccination we were derelict in our duty if we did so. In the nineteenth century, we had no alternative to watching our parents succumb to tuberculosis. After Fleming found penicillin we were guilty of neglect if we failed to take a dying tubercular patient to the doctor." -(Matt Ridley, "Genome")

"Most scientists are bored by what they have already discovered. It is ignorance that drives them on." -(Matt Ridley)

"Self-respect permeates every aspect of your life." -(Joe Clark)

"The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one." -(George Bernard Shaw)

"Whoever wants to be a Christian should tear the eyes out of his reason" -(Martin Luther)

"And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." -(Friedrich Nietzsche)

"Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies" -(Friedrich Nietzsche)

I am going to end this post with with a quote from a person who is so commonly misquoted that it worries me...
"It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." -(Charles Darwin)

See: "Thoughts" for more quotes.