Here are examples of quotes with critical thinking questions.  
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"Life is an exciting adventure, or it is nothing."

-Hellen Keller

1. What parts of life do you consider an exciting adventure, and which parts do you not?
2. Can you change this? What aspects of life are hard to consider exciting?
3. Do you know people who think almost all of their life is an exciting adventure, or people who think none of it is? Are they right or wrong?
4. What difference does/would this attitude make in your life? Would it most affect you or people around you?
5. What does Keller mean when she says the unexciting-unadventurous life is nothing?

"Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known."   

-Leonardo da Vinci
  1. Have you ever loved or hated someone before you knew them?
  2. When you made up your mind if you loved or hated them, did it make sense, or was your mind changed?
  3. Knowing only the first impression of anything, can you love or hate it, them?
  4. Do you know of any exceptions to this quote?
  5. Do you agree with this quote?
  6. Do people often mistake Hate for mere Fear?
  7. Is it possible to hate someone who you know very well?
As you walk down the fairway of life you must smell the roses, for you only get to play one round.
  1. What is the fairway of life?
  2. What does it mean to smell the roses?
  3. Why do you only get to play one round?
  4. What do you think this means?
  5. How can you apply this to your life?
  6. Have you ever sliced your ball on purpose just to allow you to go for a walk in the woods while others play through?
"We're not athletes, we're baseball players."

--John Kruk

John Kruk said this when someone commented on some players' size and health.

  1. What makes someone an athlete?
  2. Is a golfer an athlete?
  3. Does one have to be in good physical heath to be an athlete?
  4. Do you guys believe this quote to be true that baseball players aren't athletes?
  5. Are billiads players and bowlers athletes?  Why or why not?

LIFE

Life isn’t about keeping score.
It’s not about how many friends you have,
or how accepted you are.
Not about if you have plans this weekend or if you’re
alone.
It isn’t about who you’ve kissed.
It’s not about sex.
It isn’t about who your family is or how much money
they have,
or what kind of car you drive,
or where you are sent to school.
It’s not about how beautiful or ugly you are,
or what clothes you wear, what shoes you have on, or
what kind of music you listen to.
It’s not about if your hair is blonde, red, black, or brown
or if your skin is too light or too dark.
Not about what grades you get, how smart you are, how
smart everybody else thinks you are, or how smart
standardized tests say you are.
It’s not about what clubs you’re in or how good you are
at "your" sport.
It’s not about representing your whole being on a piece
of paper and seeing who will "accept the written you."
****LIFE JUST ISN’T****

 But, life is about who you love and who you hurt.
It’s about who you make happy or unhappy purposefully.
It’s about keeping or betraying trust.
It’s about friendship, used as a sanctity or a weapon.
It’s about what you say and mean, maybe hurtful, maybe
heartening.
About starting rumors and contributing to petty gossip.
It’s about what judgements you pass and why.
And who your judgements are spread to.
It’s about who you’ve ignored with full control and
intention.
It’s about jealousy, fear, ignorance, and revenge.
It’s about carrying inner hate and love, letting it
grow, and spreading it.
But most of all, it’s about using your life to touch or
poison other people’s hearts in such a way that could
have never occurred alone.

Only you choose the way those hearts are affected, and
those choices are what life is all about.

  1. Who do you know who's life has influenced you?
  2. What are some of the things that you like abou the way you live your life?
  3. What are some of the things that you need to change about the way you live your life?
  4. What are some of the things that you do in your life that influence others?
  5. What do you think life is about?

"Far better is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory nor defeat."
-Theodore Rosevelt

1. Are you afraid of failure? How does fear of failure affect your decisions and risks?
2. Are you afraid of success? Can you explain why some people are or give examples?
3. Do you know any examples of great successes that took lots of failure to get there?
4. What do you want to do that may require many failures before you succeed?
5. Is it ever best to give up on something you want? How do you know when to quit and when to not?

"Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common that unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not,the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent."

-Calvin Coolidge

1. What are you persistent at? What are you not?
2. Why? What makes the difference? (Desire, confidence?)
3. What have you accomplished through persistence?
4. What do you want to accomplish that will take persistence?
5. Are you afraid of persistence? Do you want everything to be easy? How does your way of thinking affect your life?

Three Rules for Success:
1. Start Now.
2. Do it Flamboyantly.
3. No Exceptions.

--William James (modified)
  1. Do these rules always guarantee success?  What percentage of success would you give them?
  2. Which rule is most important?
  3. Can you omit any of the three rules without losing the effect?
  4. Do you do things this way? When or why or why not?
  5. What things in your life are important enough that you want to avoid any chance of failing?  Will you apply these rules to those things?

The real voyage of discovery is not in the landscape, but in having new eyes.
  1. What things do you "discover" in life?
  2. Can you discover something that someone else has already discovered?  Does this lessen the value for the second or subsequent discoverers?
  3. Why do so many people get all excited about "discovering" things?
  4. What's more important: discovering ideas or having material possessions?
  5. How do you have "new eyes"?  Can you learn this?  Is it easy?
"Don't let things that are good interfere with those that are essential."

-Richard G. Scott
  1. What things are essential in your life?
  2. What things are good but not essential?
  3. Are conflicts between the two lists frequent?  Are they significant?
  4. Is it easy to mistake the good for the essential or vice versa?
  5. What things to you think your peers mistake as either good or essential?
"Imagination is more important that knowledge."

-Albert Einstien
  1. Would this quote have less credibility if someone else said it?  Why or why not?
  2. How would you define imagination?
  3. How would you define knowledge?
  4. Why did Einstien think imagination is more important that knowledge?
  5. Does your education exercise your imagination?  Whose responsibility is this?
  6. How can you use your imagination more? 
  7. How can imagination be useful or harmful?
  8. How can knowledge be useful or harmful?
"You must learn to walk to the edge of the light, then a few steps into the darkness, then the light will appear."

-Spencer W. Kimball
  1. What are some examples of "taking a few steps into the darkness"?
  2. When is stepping into the darkness good?  When is it bad?
  3. Does the light always appear after you step into the darkness?  When does it or doesn't it?
  4. What makes a light appear after you take a risk?
  5. Are you afraid of "the dark" (the unknown)?
Critical Thinkers regard problems...as exciting challenges."

-Vincent Ryan Ruggiero
  1. How would you define "problems"?
  2. How do you define "challenges"?
  3. What's the difference?  Is it all in your head?
  4. How do critical thinking skills make you see problems as exciting challenges?
  5. Can you learn to see problems this way?  Is it easy? 
  6. Would you like to view problems as exciting challenges?  Why or why not?

"Look before you leap, but by all means--Leap!"

-Shaun Roundy
  1. Is it more important to be cautious or to risk?
  2. Are risk and caution mutually exclusive?
  3. Are you more cautious or more of a risk taker?
  4. Do you admire risk takers or cautious people more?  Which kind of friend would you rather have?  Which kind of significant other?  Which kind of child?  Which kind of boss?  Which kind of taxi driver?
  5. What are some areas in your life where you should be more cautious or take more risks?
We all do two things in life--learn and teach.
  1. What do you learn from others that they didn't intend to teach you?
  2. Are intentional or unintentional lessons more effective?
  3. What do you teach unintentionally?
  4. What lessons have you learned wrong from life?  Have you unlearned or relearned them?
  5. Do you enjoy learning or teaching more?  In what ways?
  6. Are you a good teacher?  What does it take to be a good teacher?
  7. Are you a good student of life? What does it take to be a good student?