“We identify ourselves with our mind and body. But we are neither the mind nor the body.”

“All our power lies in both mind and body; we employ the mind to rule, the body rather to serve; the one we have in common with the Gods, the other with the brutes.”
Sed nostra omnis vis in animo et corpore sita est; animi imperio, corporis servitio magis utimur; alterum nobis cum dis, alterum cum beluis commune est.

Sallust (-86–-34 BC) Roman historian, politician

“Nature, body, mind go to death, not we. We neither go nor come. The man Vivekananda is in nature, is born and dies; but the Self we see as Vivekananda is never born and never dies. It is the eternal and unchangeable Reality.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

“Age is deformed, youth unkind,
We scorn their bodies, they our mind.”

Thomas Bastard

“All that we refer to as being ours – our body, our mind, our emotions – is not what we are, essentially.”

Mooji (1954) Jamaican spiritual teacher

“Genuine feelings cannot be produced, nor can they be eradicated. We can only repress them, delude ourselves, and deceive our bodies. The body sticks to the facts.”

Alice Miller (1923–2010) Swiss psychologist

“(…) As it is natural for the incense stick to burn out, so it is natural for the body to die. Really, it is a matter of very little importance. What matters is that I am neither the body nor the mind. I am.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

“It is easier to coordinate mind and body when we are sitting or standing still than when we are in motion. But true unification means to maintain the coordination of mind and body even when we are moving.”

Koichi Tohei (1920–2011) Japanese aikidoka

“Surely thy body is thy mind,
For in thy face is nought to find,
Only thy soft unchristened smile,
That shadows neither love nor guile.”

Robert Seymour Bridges (1844–1930) British writer

“… the way we eat represents our most profound engagement with the natural world. Daily, our eating turns nature into culture, transforming the body of the world into our bodies and minds.”

Michael Pollan book The Omnivore's Dilemma