Quotes about mind page 23
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947) poet, mountaineer, occultist
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley: An Autohagiography
Source: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (1929), Ch. 23.
Context: To read a newspaper is to refrain from reading something worth while. The natural laziness of the mind tempts one to eschew authors who demand a continuous effort of intelligence. The first discipline of education must therefore be to refuse resolutely to feed the mind with canned chatter.
People tell me that they must read the papers so as to know what is going on. In the first place, they could hardly find a worse guide. Most of what is printed turns out to be false, sooner or later. Even when there is no deliberate deception, the account must, from the nature of the case, be presented without adequate reflection and must seem to possess an importance which time shows to be absurdly exaggerated; or vice versa. No event can be fairly judged without background and perspective.
Glen Duncan (1965) British writer
Source: Talulla Rising
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
Letter to his son, John Quincy Adams (13 November 1816)
1810s
Source: The Letters of John and Abigail Adams
“To his mind, free will was a privilege, not a right.”
Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist
Source: Lover Unleashed
George Gordon Byron book The Bride of Abydos
Canto I, Stanza 6; this can be compared to: "The bloom of young Desire and purple light of Love", Thomas Gray, The Progress of Poesy I. 3, line 16; also: "Oh, could you view the melody / Of every grace / And music of her face", Richard Lovelace, Orpheus to Beasts; "There is music in the beauty, and the silent note which Cupid strikes, far sweeter than the sound of an instrument", Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, Part ii, Section ix.
The Bride of Abydos (1813)
“I have no idea how people function without near-constant internal chaos. I'd lose my mind.”
Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius
“Do you mind not being so kind and obedient? It makes me nervous.”
Diana Wynne Jones (1934–2011) English children's fantasy writer
Source: The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol. 1
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) British American author and journalist
Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
“Memory, of all the powers of the mind, is the most delicate and frail.”
Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English writer
Rodman Philbrick book Freak the Mighty
Variant: Pain is just a state of mind. You can think your way out of everything, even pain.
Source: Freak the Mighty
Jerry Bridges (1929–2016) American writer
Source: Trusting God: Even When Life Hurts
“The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“I shot him the bird. (Get it? I shot him the—never mind.)”
James Patterson (1947) American author
Source: The Angel Experiment
Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher
Source: An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness
F. Scott Fitzgerald book The Crack-Up
Source: Quoted, The Crack-Up (1936)
Context: Before I go on with this short history, let me make a general observation – the test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.
One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless and yet be determined to make them otherwise. This philosophy fitted on to my early adult life, when I saw the improbable, the implausible, often the "impossible," come true.
“One cannot alter a condition with the same mind set that created it in the first place.”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: Problems cannot be solved with the same mind set that created them.
“Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.”
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People
“Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.”
Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex
Source: Middlesex
Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last
Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last
“Of all ruins, that of a noble mind is the most deplorable.”
Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author
Source: The Complete Sherlock Holmes
“We are born into this world unarmed - our mind is our only weapon.”
Ayn Rand book Atlas Shrugged
Source: Atlas Shrugged
“She's not stupid. She just never lets her mind out.”
Diana Wynne Jones House of Many Ways
Source: House of Many Ways
“Stay focus on what God has assigned me to do. Keep my mind on what I am doing/”
John C. Maxwell (1947) American author, speaker and pastor
Francine Rivers (1947) American writer
Source: Redeeming Love
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860–1935) American feminist, writer, commercial artist, lecturer and social reformer
“Those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”
George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright
Everybody's Political What's What? (ebook, must be borrowed) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24979564M/Everybody's_political_what's_what (1944), Chapter XXXVII: Creed and Conduct, p. 330 <br class="br">1940s and later <br class="br">Variant: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. <br class="br">Context: Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. Creeds, articles, and institutes of religious faith ossify our brains and make change impossible. As such they are nuisances, and in practice have to be mostly ignored.
“When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.”
George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles
“How can we not create a fantasy in our minds when the reality is so hard?”
Lisa See book Peony in Love
Source: Peony in Love
Michael Pollan book The Omnivore's Dilemma
Source: The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals
“We have seen the best minds of our generation destroyed by boredom at poetry readings.”
Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919) American artist, writer and activist
Source: Wild Dreams of a New Beginning
Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress
Source: Seriously... I'm Kidding
“In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn than to contemplate.”
René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist
“I didn't mind getting old when I was young. It's the being old now that's getting to me.”
John Scalzi (1969) American science fiction writer
Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister
Source: The Purpose and Power of Love & Marriage
Andy Andrews (1959) author and corporate speaker
Source: The Traveler's Gift: Seven Decisions that Determine Personal Success
Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist
Source: The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation
Source: Lock and Key
Richard Paul Evans (1962) American writer
Source: The Gift
“Upon the whole, a contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.”
Joseph Addison (1672–1719) politician, writer and playwright
No. 574 (30 July 1714).
The Spectator (1711–1714)
“Distance has the same effect on the mind as on the eye.”
Samuel Johnson book The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Source: The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
Robinson Jeffers (1887–1962) American poet
"Love the Wild Swan" (1935)
Context: This wild swan of a world is no hunter's game.
Better bullets than yours would miss the white breast
Better mirrors than yours would crack in the flame.
Does it matter whether you hate your... self?
At least Love your eyes that can see, your mind that can
Hear the music, the thunder of the wings. Love the wild swan.
“There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind.”
Margaret Atwood book The Handmaid's Tale
Source: The Handmaid's Tale
“Travelling expands the mind rarely.”
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) Danish author, fairy tale writer, and poet
Haruki Murakami book Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World
Source: Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985), Chapter 38, Escape
William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist
"Man alone, of all creatures of earth, can change his thought pattern and become the architect of his destiny." Actually said by Spencer W. Kimball, twelfth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in his Miracle of Forgiveness (1969), p. 114. This predates any of the misquotations.
Other forms: "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." This is also misattributed to Albert Schweitzer.
James did say: "As life goes on, there is a constant change of our interests, and a consequent change of place in our systems of ideas, from more central to more peripheral, and from more peripheral to more central parts of consciousness."
Misattributed
Context: Man alone, of all the creatures on earth, can change his own patterns. Man alone is the architect of his destiny. The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives … It is too bad that most people will not accept this tremendous discovery and begin living it.
