Quotes about mind

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“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe remember you can achieve.”

Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) Entrepreneur

“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's there are few.”

Shunryu Suzuki (1904–1971) Japanese Buddhist missionary

“It requires a very unusual mind to undertake the analysis of the obvious.”

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher

“I felt dumb and subdued. Every time I tried to concentrate, my mind glided off, like a skater, into a large empty space, and pirouetted there, absently.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

“If all the evidence in the universe turned in favour of creationism, I would be the first to admit it, and I would immediately change my mind. As things stand, however, all available evidence (and there is a vast amount of it) favours evolution.”

Richard Dawkins book The God Delusion

“Really high-minded people are indifferent to happiness, especially other people's.”

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist

“I realized that searching was my symbol, the emblem of those who go out at night with nothing in mind, the motives of a destroyer of compasses.”

Julio Cortázar (1914–1984) Argentinian writer

“I saw that my witticism was unperceived and quietly replaced it in the treasury of my mind.”

Flann O'Brien book At Swim-Two-Birds

“The mind is its own place, and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven. / What matter where, if I be still the same…”

John Milton book Paradise Lost

“When the
mind's free,
The Body's delicate.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

“Possession of anything begins in the mind.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

“The mind can calculate, but the spirit yearns, and the heart knows what the heart knows”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“It is awfully hard work doing nothing. However, I don't mind hard work where there is no definite object of any kind. -Algernon”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

“You must read, you must persevere, you must sit up nights, you must inquire, and exert the utmost power of your mind. If one way does not lead to the desired meaning, take another; if obstacles arise, then still another; until, if your strength holds out, you will find that clear which at first looked dark.”

Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) Italian author and poet

“Don't follow after the object of hatred, look at the angry mind. Anger liberated by itself as it arises is mirrorlike wisdom.

Don't chase after the object of pride, look at the grasping mind. Self-importance liberated as it arises is the wisdom of equanimity.

Don't hanker after the object of desire, look at the craving mind.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

“So she was considering in her own mind… whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up & picking the daisies…”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

“Little things affect little minds.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

“They dared not peer down into their own natures, down into the feverish confusion that filled their minds with a kind of dense, acrid mist.”

Emile Zola book Thérèse Raquin

“The people I distrust most are those who want to improve our lives but have only one course of action in mind.”

Frank Herbert (1920–1986) American writer

“My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly. Women represent the triumph of matter over mind, just as men represent the triumph of mind over morals.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

“Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.”

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English philosopher, born 1588

“I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.”

Mark Twain book The Innocents Abroad

“I will not be "famous," "great." I will go on adventuring, changing, opening my mind and my eyes, refusing to be stamped and stereotyped. The thing is to free one's self: to let it find its dimensions, not be impeded.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

“Going into our fear and confronting our greed, our weaknesses, our neediness is the way out. And the way out is through the mind, by choosing our thoughts.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

“Well-meaning, helpful, good-natured attitudes of mind have not come to be honored on account of their usefulness, but because they are states of richer souls that are capable of bestowing and have their value in the feeling of the plenitude of life.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book The Will to Power

“There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. While this may not seem beneficial, it is. There are times when reality is nothing but pain, and to escape that pain the mind must leave reality behind.”

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

“The mind commands the body and it obeys. The mind orders itself and meets resistance.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

“It is in your power to withdraw yourself whenever you desire. Perfect tranquility within consists in the good ordering of the mind, the realm of your own.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

“Emotions are what make us human. Make us real. The word 'emotion' stands for energy in motion. Be truthful about your emotions, and use your mind and emotions in your favor, not against yourself.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

“Dolls with no little girls around to mind them were sort of creepy under any conditions.”

Stephen King book Desperation

“Do not dwell upon the sins and mistakes of yesterday so exclusively as to have no energy and mind left for living rightly today, and do not think that the sins of yesterday can prevent you from living purely today.”

James Allen (1864–1912) British philosophical writer

“The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”

James Allen (1864–1912) British philosophical writer

“The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

“The forgiving state of mind is a magnetic power for attracting good.”

Catherine Ponder (1927) American priest

“Blessings be on this house," Granny said, perfunctorily. It was always a good opening remark for a witch. It concentrated people's minds on what other things might be on this house.”

Terry Pratchett book Witches Abroad

“All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

“Mind you, the Elizabethans had so many words for the female genitals that it is quite hard to speak a sentence of modern English without inadvertently mentioning at least three of them.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

“The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

“A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

“The Heart is the Capital of the Mind—
The Mind is a single State—
The Heart and the Mind together make
A single Continent—

One—is the Population—
Numerous enough—
This ecstatic Nation
Seek—it is Yourself.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

“They went in and out of each other's minds without any effort.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

“Be courageous when the mind deceives you
Be courageous
In the final account only this is important”

Zbigniew Herbert (1924–1998) Polish writer

“Out of all the things I have lost, I miss my mind the most.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering the attitudes of their minds.”

Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher

“What the mind doesn't understand, it worships or fears.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

“In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

“PROCTOR, his mind wild, breathless: I say--I say--God is dead!”

Arthur Miller The Crucible

“Here you discover that so long as books are kept open, then minds can never be closed.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)

“Every secret of a writer's soul, every experience of his life, every quality of his mind is written large in his works.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

“The way to get rid of darkness is with light; the way to overcome cold is with heat; the way to overcome the negative thought is to substitute the good thought. Affirm the good, and the bad will vanish."

- The power of your subconcious mind”

Joseph Murphy The Power of Your Subconscious Mind

“All the soarings of my mind begin in my blood.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

“The hippo of recollection stirred in the muddy waters of the mind.”

Terry Pratchett book Soul Music

“As for my next book, I won't write it till it has grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear; pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

“When we have to change our mind about a person, we hold the inconvenience he causes us very much against him.”

Friedrich Nietzsche book Beyond Good and Evil

“If you have time to be mindful, you have time to meditate.”

Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) thai Buddhist monk

“It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

“It would be ridiculous to talk of male and female atmospheres, male and female springs or rains, male and female sunshine…. how much more ridiculous is it in relation to mind, to soul, to thought, where there is as undeniably no such thing as sex, to talk of male and female education and of male and female schools. [written with Elizabeth Cady Stanton]”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

“Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority doesn't mean they're not a nasty small-minded little jerk.”

Terry Pratchett book Feet of Clay

“My heart has made its mind up
And I’m afraid it’s you.
Whatever you’ve got lined up,
My heart has made its mind up
And if you can’t be signed up
This year, next year will do.
My heart has made its mind up
And I’m afraid it’s you.”

Wendy Cope (1945) British writer

“It always strikes me, and it is very peculiar, that, whenever we see the image of indescribable and unutterable desolation—of loneliness, poverty, and misery, the end and extreme of things—the thought of God comes into one's mind.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.”

Edmund Burke book A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful

“Good health is the best weapon against religion. Healthy bodies and healthy minds have never been shaken by religious fears.”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

“Thanking people is dangerous business. A name always slips your mind.”

John Wayne (1907–1979) American film actor

“They say, Find a purpose in your life and live it. But, sometimes, it is only after you have lived that you recognize your life had a purpose, and likely one you never had in mind.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

“Words are finite organs of the infinite mind.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson book Nature

“I remember thinking I just want more. This isn't it. Fame is not the goal. Money is not the goal. To be able to know how to get peace of mind, how to be happy, is something you don't just stumble across. You've got to search for it.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

“All thought of something is at the same time self-consciousness […] At the root of all our experiences and all our reflections, we find […] a being which immediately recognises itself, […] and which knows its own existence, not by observation and as a given fact, nor by inference from any idea of itself, but through direct contact with that existence. Self-consciousness is the very being of mind in action.”

Maurice Merleau-Ponty book Phenomenology of Perception

“Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury - to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“Since I've met you, everything I've done has been in part because of you. I can't untie myself from you, Clary- not my heart or my blood or my mind or any other part of me. And I don't want to."
~Jace Wayland”

Cassandra Clare book City of Glass

“If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.”

Lewis Carroll book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

“No sooner have you feasted on beauty with your eyes than your mind tells you that beauty is vain and beauty passes”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

“Come away with me, he said, we will live on a desert island. I said, I am a desert island. It was not what he had in mind.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

“Effort within the mind further limits the mind, because effort implies struggle towards a goal and when you have a goal, a purpose, an end in view, you have placed a limit on the mind.”

Bruce Lee book Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“The duke had a mind that ticked like a clock and, like a clock, it regularly went cuckoo.”

Terry Pratchett book Wyrd Sisters

“Mindfulness should guide all your actions and your spiritual endeavors. Whatever you do, always apply three essential points: undertake the action with the intention of doing so for the good of all beings; execute it with perfect concentration, free of attachment to concepts of subject, object, and action; and, finally, dedicate the merit you have created to the enlightenment of all beings.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

“Physical beauty is passing - a transitory possession - but beauty of the mind, richness of the spirit, tenderness of the heart - I have all these things - aren't taken away but grow! Increase with the years!”

Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire

“If you set to work to believe everything, you will tire out the believing-muscles of your mind, and then you'll be so weak you won't be able to believe the simplest true things.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer, logician, Anglican deacon and photographer

“Many of us lead family lives. At most, the members of a family stay together for the duration of a lifetime, often much less. While that fleeting moment of being together still lasts, we should try to remain in perfect harmony with each other, while observing the Dharma as much as possible. Night and day, let us turn our minds toward goodness, love, and compassion.”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

“Film is not analysis, it is the agitation of mind; cinema comes from the country fair and the circus, not from art and academicism.”

Werner Herzog (1942) German film director, producer, screenwriter, actor and opera director

“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever”

Nicholas Sparks (1965) American writer and novelist

“But believe me, just because the human mind can't imagine something happening… doesn't mean it won't.”

Dan Brown book Inferno

“Surrealism had a great effect on me because then I realised that the imagery in my mind wasn't insanity. Surrealism to me is reality.”

John Lennon (1940–1980) English singer and songwriter

“I am convinced that every effort must be made in childhood to teach the young to use their own minds. For one thing is sure: If they don't make up their minds, someone will do it for them.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

“You are what you are and you are where you are because of what has gone into your mind. You change what you are and you change where you are by changing what goes into your mind.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

“The words went round and round and round in my mind and my body, until I knew they were no longer my words but something that had been carved into my heart.
And now my soul was crying.”

Tracey Emin (1963) English artist, one of the group known as Britartists or Young British Artists

“My mind is the only sanctuary that has not been stolen from me.”

Christopher Paolini (1983) American author

“I should never be left alone with my mind for too long.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

“Nothing whets the intelligence more than a passionate suspicion, nothing develops all the faculties of an immature mind more than a trail running away into the dark.”

Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) Austrian writer

“Learning never exhausts the mind.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“I'm not saying it's going to be easy. Nothing in life is easy. But that's no reason to give up. You'll be surprised what you can accomplish if you set your mind to it. After all, you only have one life, so you should try to make the most of it.”

Louis Sachar (1954) American writer of children's books

“Always keep an open mind and a compassionate heart.”

Phil Jackson (1945) basketball player and coach from the United States

“Never mind what I say. I am always saying what I shouldn't say. In fact, I usually say what I really think. A great mistake nowadays. It makes one so liable to be misunderstood.”

Oscar Wilde An Ideal Husband

“It is strange how a scrap of poetry works in the mind and makes the legs move in time to it along the road.”

Virginia Woolf book A Room of One's Own

“Bring the mind into sharp focus and make it alert so that it can immediately intuit truth, which is everywhere. The mind must be emancipated from old habits, prejudices, restrictive thought processes and even ordinary thought itself.”

Bruce Lee book Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“All things are ready, if our mind be so.”

William Shakespeare Henry V