Quotes about thoughts-and-thinking

Thoughts are things; they have tremendous power. Thoughts of doubt and fear are pathways to failure. When you conquer negative attitudes of doubt and fear you conquer failure. Thoughts crystallize into habit and habit solidifies into circumstances.

— Bryan Adams

Thought means life, since those who do not think so do not live in any high or real sense. Thinking makes the man.

— Amos Bronson Alcott

A man is literally what he thinks

— James Allen

All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts.

— James Allen

Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.

— James Allen

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

— James Allen

Thought is a kind of opium; it can intoxicate us, while still broad awake; it can make transparent the mountains and everything that exists.

— Henri Frederic Amiel

It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature.

— Hans Christian Anderson

Thinking more than others about our own thoughts is not self-centeredness. It means that if asked what's on our mind, we are less likely to mention being aware of the world around us, and more likely to mention our inner reflections. But we are less likely to mention thinking about other people.

— Elaine N. Aron

You live with your thoughts -- so be careful what they are.

— Eva Arrington

Thoughts of themselves have no substance; let them arise and pass away unheeded. Thoughts will not take form of themselves, unless they are grasped by the attention; if they are ignored, there will be no appearing and no disappearing.

— Ashvaghosha

A man's life is what his thoughts make of it.

— Marcus Aurelius

Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.

— Marcus Aurelius

In thinking, if a person begins with certainties, they shall end in doubts, but if they can begin with doubts, they will end in certainties.

— Francis Bacon

No man should think himself a zero, and think he can do nothing about the state of the world.

— Bernard M. Baruch

If everybody thought before they spoke, the silence would be deafening.

— George Barzan

No matter how hard you work for success if your thought is saturated with the fear of failure, it will kill your efforts, neutralize your endeavors and make success impossible.

— Baudjuin

The surprises of thought are like those of love: they wear out. But here too you can carry on for a long time doing your conjugal duty.

— Jean Baudrillard

He who thinks and thinks for himself, will always have a claim to thanks; it is no matter whether it be right or wrong, so as it be explicit. If it is right, it will serve as a guide to direct; if wrong, as a beacon to warn.

— Jeremy Bentham

A thought which does not result in an action is nothing much, and an action which does not proceed from a thought is nothing at all.

— Georges Bernanos

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever, is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things. [Philippians 4:8]

— Bible

Think twice before you speak to a friend in need.

— Ambrose Bierce

One thought fills immensity.

— William Blake

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

— Niels Bohr

One must live the way one thinks or end up thinking the way one has lived.

— Paul Bourget

The busiest of living agents are certain dead men's thoughts.

— Christian Nevell Bovee

Learn to think like a winner. Think positive and visualize your strengths.

— Vic Braden

Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries and inventions, and of all achievement.

— Claude M. Bristol

Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography.

— Anita Brookner

Let the wise guard their thoughts, which are difficult to perceive, extremely subtle, and wander at will. Thought which is well guarded is the bearer of happiness.

— Buddha

We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them.

— Buddha

As the Fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts.

— Buddha

All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become.

— Buddha

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.

— Buddha

We are what we think. All that we are arises With our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world.

— Buddha

There is nothing so unthinkable as thought, unless it be the entire absence of thought.

— Samuel Butler

I am not what I think. I am thinking what I think.

— Eric Butterworth

For in itself a thought, a slumbering thought, is capable of years, and curdles a long life into one hour.

— Lord Byron

The power of thought, the magic of the mind.

— Lord Byron

Thought is the parent of the deed.

— Thomas Carlyle

Thought once awakened does not again slumber; unfolds itself into a System of Thought; grows, in man after man, generation after generation, --till its full stature is reached, and such System of Thought can grow no farther, but must give place to another.

— Thomas Carlyle

There are lots of people who cannot think seriously without injuring their minds.

— John Jay Chapman

Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own contemplation.

— John Jay Chapman

Man is what he believes.

— Anton Chekhov

How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win.

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

To think is to practice brain chemistry.

— Deepak Chopra

If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.

— Marcus T. Cicero

I thought so hard I got a headache.

— J.D. Cobb

He that thinks he is the happiest man, really is so. But he that thinks he is the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.

— Charles Caleb Colton

Learning without thought is labor lost. Thought without learning is perilous.

— Confucius

We in America have everything we need except the most important thing of all-time to think and the habit of thought.

— Norman Cousins

I roamed the countryside searching for answers to things I did not understand. Why thunder lasts longer than that which causes it, and why immediately on its creation the lightning becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone and why a bird sustains itself in the air. These questions and other strange phenomena engaged my thought throughout my life.

— Leonardo Da Vinci

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.

— Rene Descartes

I think therefore I am.

— Rene Descartes

The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think -- rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with the thoughts of other men.

— John Dewey

Man must get his thoughts, words and actions out of this vast moral jungle. We are not predators. We are, hopefully, more than instinctive killers and selfish brutes. Why take such a dim view of our potentialities and capabilities?

— H.Jay Dinsah

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.

— Benjamin Disraeli

Far more numerous are those as such; who think too little and talk too much.

— John Dryden

The problem with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes rather than their minds.

— Walter Duranty

I think and that is all that I am.

— Wayne Dyer

There is a big difference between thinking: I'm in a relationship and something's wrong. Therefore something must be wrong with the relationship. and thinking I'm in a relationship and we've got problems. This is evidence that you are different than me.

— Wayne Dyer

There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the real labor of thinking.

— Thomas A. Edison

It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.

— Thomas A. Edison

We shall require a substantially new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.

— Albert Einstein

Each thought is a nail that is driven In structures that cannot decay; And the mansion at last will be given To us as we build it each day.

— George Eliot

Our virtues are dearer to us the more we have had to suffer for them. It is the same with our children. All profound affection entertains a sacrifice. Our thoughts are often worse than we are, just as they are often better.

— George Eliot

Thinking in its lower grades, is comparable to paper money, and in its higher forms it is a kind of poetry.

— Havelock Ellis

Humans have the ability to shift perspective. We can experience the world through our senses. Or we can remove ourselves from our senses and experience the world even less directly. We can think about our life, rather than thinking in our life. We can think about what we think about our life, and we can think about what we think about that. We can shift perceptual positions many times over.

— John J. Emerick

What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The revelation of Thought takes men out of servitude into freedom.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

The soul of God is poured into the world through the thoughts of men.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into power.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thought makes every thing fit for use.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

To think is to act.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A sect or party is an incognito devised to save man from the vexation of thinking.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

A man's what he thinks about all day long

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

We are ashamed of our thoughts and often see them brought forth by others.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is the hardest thing in the world? To think.

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.

— Frederick W. Faber

Do you suffer your thoughts to tamper with evil; and to dally with wrong-doing? If so; you are not sincere. God will regard your thoughts; for thoughts are heard in heaven. If you willingly sin in thought; if you are base and guilty there; because you think that no eye will see your thoughts; the guilt and baseness will sooner or later break into the outlets of word and deed -- from thought to wish -- from wish to purpose -- from purpose to word -- from word to act -- from act to habit -- from delight in the imagination to consent in the will -- from deed to repeated transgression; such is the genesis of sin.

— Frederick Farrar

Either you think -- or else others have to think for you and take power from you, pervert and discipline your natural tastes, civilize and sterilize you.

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory.

— Paul Fix

Thinking in words slows you down and actually decreases comprehension in much the same way as walking a tightrope too slowly makes one lose one's balance.

— Lenore Fleischer

If I held all the thoughts of the world in my hand, I would be careful not to open it.

— Bernard Le Bovier Fontenelle

Thinking well to be wise: planning well, wiser: doing well wisest and best of all.

— Malcolm S. Forbes

How can I know what I think till I see what I say?

— Edward M. Forster

Profundity of thought belongs to youth, clarity of thought to old age.

— Fredrich

What was once thought can never be unthought.

— Carl J. Friedrich

Thinking is not to agree or disagree. That is voting.

— Robert Frost

It is clear that all verbal structures with meaning are verbal imitations of that elusive psychological and physiological process known as thought, a process stumbling through emotional entanglements, sudden irrational convictions, involuntary gleams of insight, rationalized prejudices, and blocks of panic and inertia, finally to reach a completely incommunicable intuition.

— Northrop Frye

Thought is, perhaps, the forerunner and even the mother of ideas, and ideas are the most powerful and the most useful things in the world.

— George Gardner

We do not live to think, but, on the contrary, we think in order that we may succeed in surviving.

— Jose Ortega Y Gasset

Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

Thought expands, but paralyzes; action animates, but narrows.

— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe