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Flaubert and Nietzsche have emphasized the importance of standing up and walking in the process of thinking. The peripatetics were perhaps motivated by the same awareness. Yet purposeful walking - what we call marching - is an enemy of thought and is used as a powerful instrument for the suppression of independent thought and the inculcation of unquestioned obedience.

Eric Hoffer#150

FreedomThinkingCreativityMovement

About this quote

What does it mean?
Walking helps thinking, but marching suppresses independent thought. Physical movement can support or hinder mental freedom.
In plain terms
Walking aids thought, marching stops it.
What can you take from it?
Use walking to spark independent thought.

Where it applies

  • problem solving
  • creative work
  • daily walks

Putting it to work

  • walk while thinking
  • avoid rigid routines
  • seek solitude

Questions to consider

  • How do you think best?
  • Does movement help you?

Another view

Not everyone thinks better while moving.

More from Eric Hoffer

  1. How rare it is to come across a piece of writing that is unambiguous, unqualified, and also unblurred by understatements or subtleties, and yet at the same tim…

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  2. Total innovation is a flight from comparison and also from imitation. Those who discover things for themselves and express them in their own way are not overly…

    Permalink to quote #151
  3. I have never felt that I had a thought too profound for others to understand. On the contrary, it always seemed to me axiomatic that what was clear to me shoul…

    Permalink to quote #148

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