“The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”
The universe is flux, life is opinion.
The universe is transformation: life is opinion. (Long translation)
ὁ κόσμος ἀλλοίωσις, ὁ βίος ὑπόληψις.
IV, 3
Variant: Our life is what our thoughts make it.
Source: Meditations (c. 121–180 AD), Book IV
“The universe is made of our thoughts. Our thoughts are infinite.”
Excerpt from the poem Celestial Son in the book Dark Letter Days: Collected Works (2016) by Lorin Morgan-Richards.
“It is our own thoughts that hold the key to miraculous transformation.”
Source: Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness And Making Miracles
“It's fear that makes us lose our conscience. It's also what transforms us into cowards.”
Source: The Complete Persepolis
“We are what we think.
All that we are arises with our thoughts.
With our thoughts we make the world.”
As rendered by T. Byrom (1993), Shambhala Publications.
There is no quote from the Pali Canon that matches up with any of these. The closest quote to this is in the Majjhima Nikaya 19:
"Whatever a monk keeps pursuing with his thinking & pondering, that becomes the inclination of his awareness. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with sensuality, abandoning thinking imbued with renunciation, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with sensuality. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with ill will, abandoning thinking imbued with non-ill will, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with ill will. If a monk keeps pursuing thinking imbued with harmfulness, abandoning thinking imbued with harmlessness, his mind is bent by that thinking imbued with harmfulness." Sources: http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.019.than.html
Misattributed
Train In The Distance
Song lyrics, Hearts and Bones (1983)
“We want to know in order to make ourselves free. That is our life: one universal cry for freedom.”
Pearls of Wisdom
“We trouble our life by thoughts about death, and our death by thoughts about life.”
Source: The Essays: A Selection
