Quotes about mind
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“Everyone looks retarded once you set your mind to it.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

“As with stomachs, we should pity minds that do not eat.”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Deep

“terror finally becomes almost
bearable
but never quite

terror creeps like a cat
crawls like a cat
across my mind”

Charles Bukowski book Love Is a Dog from Hell

Source: Love Is a Dog from Hell

Cats

“There was an awful suspicion in my mind that I'd finally gone over the hump, and the worst thing about it was that I didn't feel tragic at all, but only weary, and sort of comfortably detached.”

Hunter S. Thompson The Rum Diary

Source: The Rum Diary

Feeling

“There is no Final Resting Place of the Mind.”

Anthony Bourdain (1956–2018) Chef and food writer

“Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Constable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?'
Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.”

Neal Stephenson (1959) American science fiction writer

Source: The Diamond Age: or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer

People, Way

“You have to keep your mind as wide-open as your eyes, because almost nothing is what it seems.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

Source: Rot & Ruin

“I never wish to be easily defined. I’d rather float over other people’s minds as something strictly fluid and non-perceivable; more like a transparent, paradoxically iridescent creature rather than an actual person.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

People, Personality

“My hate is general, I detest all men;
Some because they are wicked and do evil,
Others because they tolerate the wicked,
Refusing them the active vigorous scorn
Which vice should stimulate in virtuous minds.”

Molière The Misanthrope

Source: The Misanthrope

Men, Hate, Evil

“Chaos is a name for any order that produces confusion in our minds.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

“Note to self: It's hard to attain a state of no-mind when you're incredibly pumped up on tea and sugar and have to urinate every three and a half minutes.”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Zen and the Art of Faking It

Tea

“A real man's weapon is his mind.”

Rick Riordan book The Son of Neptune

Source: The Son of Neptune

“Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one… I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Context: Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live.

Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, published in LIFE magazine a few days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972)

“To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

20 December 1822
1820s, Journals (1822–1863)

World, Hell

“If you can win over your mind, you can win over the whole world.”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader

World, Peaceful

“Is she for real?” He paused and reconsidered. “Are you for real? Spells? Magic? I mean, don’t get me wrong. I drink blood and control people’s minds. But I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

People, Drink

“The empires of the future are the empires of the mind.”

Winston S. Churchill book The Second World War

Speech at Harvard University, September 6, 1943 ( full text https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1941-1945-war-leader/the-price-of-greatness-is-responsibility, audio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESiuSi8Qp9U). <br class="br">The Second World War (1939–1945)

Future

“Anyone who makes up their mind about an issue before they hear the issue is a fool.”

Chris Rock (1965) American comedian, actor, screenwriter, television producer, film producer, and director

Fools

“Genius is no more than childhood recaptured at will, childhood equipped now with man's physical means to express itself, and with the analytical mind that enables it to bring order into the sum of experience, involuntarily amassed.”

Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867) French poet

Source: The Painter Of Modern Life And Other Essays

Childhood

“Arousal leaves us mind-blind.”

Malcolm Gladwell book Blink

Source: Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

“Now, 75 years [after], in an abundant society where people have laptops, cell phones, iPods, and minds like empty rooms, I still plod along with books.

[Open Letter,, July 2006]”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

People, Books

“If you've got them by the balls their hearts and minds will follow.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

Heart

“Romantic poses aside, let us recognize that "falling in love"… is an inferior state of mind, a form of transitory imbecility.”

José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish liberal philosopher and essayist

Love

“When by my solitary hearth I sit,
When no fair dreams before my “mind’s eye” flit,
And the bare heath of life presents no bloom;
Sweet Hope, ethereal balm upon me shed,
And wave thy silver pinions o’er my head.”

John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet

Source: The Complete Poems

Life, Dreams, Hope

“Worry drains the mind of its power and, sooner or later, it injures the soul”

Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer

Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams Reaching Your Destiny

Soul

“To a great mind, nothing is little,' remarked Holmes, sententiously.”

Arthur Conan Doyle book A Study in Scarlet

Source: A Study in Scarlet

“And the kittykats would have to erect scaffolding and a pulley to get him down. Mind you, I wouldn't put that past them. Sometimes when they are behind the sofa supposedly purring, I think they are drilling.”

Louise Rennison (1951–2016) British writer

Source: Startled by His Furry Shorts

Thinking, Past

“you have to ‘lose your mind’ before you can come to your senses.”

Dan Millman book Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Source: Way of the Peaceful Warrior

Sense

“A happy life consists in tranquility of mind.”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

Life, Happiness, Cute

“Each book is a mind alive, a life revealed, a world awaiting exploration, but living people are all those things, as well—and more, because their stories haven’t yet been completely told.”

Dean Koontz (1945) American author

Source: Innocence

Life, People, Books, World

“It is not time that changes man nor knowledge the only thing that can change someone's mind is love.”

Paulo Coelho book Eleven Minutes

Source: Eleven Minutes

Love, Knowledge, Change, Time

“… the greatest weapon against big stupid men was a sharp mind.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Froi of the Exiles

Men, Stupidity

“A pure heart and mind only takes you so far - sooner or later the hormones have their say, too.”

Jim Butcher book Storm Front

Source: Storm Front

Heart

“The heart, like the mind, has a memory.
And in it are kept the most precious keepsakes.”

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet

Memory, Heart

“What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Part Three, Ch. 11
Source: On the Road (1957)
Context: In 1942 I was the star in one of the filthiest dramas of all time. I was a seaman, and went to the Imperial Café on Scollay Square in Boston to drink; I drank sixty glasses of beer and retired to the toilet, where I wrapped myself around the toilet bowl and went to sleep. During the night at least a hundred seamen and assorted civilians came in and cast their sentient debouchements on me till I was unrecognizably caked. What difference does it make after all? — anonymity in the world of men is better than fame in heaven, for what's heaven? what's earth? All in the mind.

Men, World

“Enough about my beauty," Buttercup said. "Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I've got a mind, Westley. Talk about that.”

William Goldman book The Princess Bride

Source: The Princess Bride

Beauty

“Before the mind snaps, or the heart breaks, it gather itself like a clock about to strike. It might even be said one pulls himself together to disintegrate.”

Peter de Vries (1910–1993) American editor and novelist

Source: The Blood of the Lamb

Heart

“Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in their hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt, without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only in the God idea, not God Himself.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

God, Idea, Passion, Heart

“Curiosity, that's what kills us. Not muggers or all that bullshit about the ozone layer. It's our own hearts and minds.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Heart

“I felt a Cleaving in my Mind—
As if my Brain had split—
I tried to match it—Seam by Seam—
But could not make it fit.”

Emily Dickinson book The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

Source: The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson

“Place nothing above the verdict of your own mind.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

“Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night without moon or star.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

Star, Night

“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

Life, Attitude, Positive

“Things will get easier, people's minds will change, and you should be alive to see it.”

Ellen DeGeneres (1958) American stand-up comedian, television host, and actress

People, Change

“Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become reality.”

Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker

Reality

“The dead are never far from us. They're in our hearts and on our minds and in the end all that separates us from them is a single breath, one final puff of air.”

William Kent Krueger book Ordinary Grace

Source: Ordinary Grace

Heart, Dead

“The body can endure compromise and the mind can be seduced by it. Only the heart protests.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Source: The Powerbook (2000)

Heart

“What we have loved, others will love, and we will teach them how; instruct them how the mind of man becomes a thousand times more beautiful than the earth on which he dwells…”

William Wordsworth book Lyrical Ballads

Source: Lyrical Ballads

Love, Beauty, Time

“Zarek! I won’t leave you here to die. (Astrid)
It’s okay, princess. I don’t mind dying for you. (Zarek)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Princess

“There is always a part of my mind that is preparing for the worst, and another part of my mind that believes if I prepare enough for it, the worst won’t happen.”

Kay Redfield Jamison (1946) American bipolar disorder researcher

Parting

“The mind can never be satisfied.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

"The Well Dressed Man With a Beard"
Harmonium (1923)
Variant: It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.
Source: The Collected Poems
Context: Out of a thing believed, a thing affirmed:
The form on the pillow humming while one sleeps,
The aureole above the humming house...
It can never be satisfied, the mind, never.

“The resting place of the mind is the heart.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Heart

“The mind self-edits. The mind airbrushes. It's a different thing to be inside a body than outside. From outside, you can look, inspect, compare. From inside there is no comparison.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

“I have a good mind not to take Aloysius to Venice. I don't want him to meet a lot of horrid Italian bears and pick up bad habits.”

Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966) British writer

Source: Brideshead Revisited: The Sacred and Profane Memories of Captain Charles Ryder

“Nothing is more creative… nor destructive… than a brilliant mind with a purpose.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

Source: Inferno

“Closing your mind to religion is no different than the close-mindedness that
religions can cause.”

Carlton Mellick III (1977) American writer

Source: Satan Burger

Religion

“Now that I'm in your mind, want to see some naked mental pictures of Jace?”

Cassandra Clare The City of Lost Souls

Source: City of Lost Souls

“… since you can't heal your own sick mind with your own sick mind, I needed to consult somebody else's sick mind.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

“My mind may be American but my heart is British.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

Heart

“You don't have to look back to see those children; part of your mind will see them forever. They are not necessarily the best part of you, but they were once the repository of all you could become.”

Stephen King book It

Source: It (1986)

Children, Parting

“She'd never seen a monster like that before, had never heard of one in all the Lore. When she grappled with the question of what it was, her sharply honed scientifical mind deduced one answer: manbearpig.”

Kresley Cole American writer

Source: Demon from the Dark

Question

“Man has no moral instinct. He is not born with moral sense. You were not born with it, I was not - and a puppy has none. We acquire moral sense, when we do, through training, experience, and hard sweat of the mind.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Starship Troopers

Source: Starship Troopers

Sense, Training

“He slowed down a bit more. "Gaia, how do you know these things?" She shrugged. "I'm smart." "And modest, too." "Modesty is a waste of time," she pronounced. "I'll keep that in mind.”

Francine Pascal Fearless

Source: Fearless

Time

“Religion is just mind control.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Doin' It Again, Parental Advisory: Explicit Lyrics (1990)
Context: Same with religion. Religion is nothing but mind control. Religion is just trying to control your mind, control your thoughts, so they're gonna tell you some things you shouldn't say because they're... sins. And besides telling you things you shouldn't say, religion is gonna suggest some things that you ought to be saying; "Here's something you ought to say first thing when you wake up in the morning; here's something you ought to say just before you go to sleep at night; here's something we always say on the third Wednesday in April after the first full moon in spring at 4 o'clock when the bells ring." Religion is always suggesting things you ought to be saying.

Religion