Quotes about thought
page 99

“All creative thought and creative action is strictly personal. A committee, any collective, cannot think. It cannot act creatively. It can only act destructively. It can exercise brute force.”

Leonard E. Read (1898–1983) American academic

Leonard Read Journals, November 4, 1951 https://history.fee.org/leonard-read-journal/1951/leonard-e-read-journal-november-1951/

Exercises, Thinking, Personality

“And captains that we thought were dead,
And dreamers that we thought were dumb,
And voices that we thought were fled,
Arise, and call us, and we come;
And "search in thine own soul," they cry;
"For there, too, lurks thine enemy."”

Alfred Noyes (1880–1958) English poet

Search for the foe in thine own soul,
The sloth, the intellectual pride;
The trivial jest that veils the goal
For which our fathers lived and died;
The lawless dreams, the cynic Art,
That rend thy nobler self apart.
The Search-Lights
The Lord of Misrule and Other Poems (1915)

Soul, Search, Cry, Dead

“Few campaigns are more dangerous than emotional calls for proscription rather than thought.”

Stephen Jay Gould book An Urchin in the Storm

"Integrity and Mr. Rifkin", p. 238
An Urchin in the Storm (1987)

“I can control my thoughts as necessary; then how can I be troubled?”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Hays translation
VII, 2
Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VII

“When I close my eyes, a strange thought comes to my mind. Who am I, what is my existence, this question comes again and again in my mind, I start looking for answers to my questions, time starts passing through me, then somewhere a golden ray starts appearing, when I see that ray I feel relaxed, slowly my eyes open, when I start getting answers to my questions.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Feeling, Question, Appearance, Time

“Love without communication is like loving our fantasies, which stay with us in our thoughts but we can never face it for the rest of our life.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Love, Life, Communication

“The utility of a thought experiment is inversely proportional to the size of its departures from reality.”

Daniel Dennett (1942) American philosopher

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking (2013)

Departure, Reality

“We are what we are, because of the vibrations of thought which we pick up and register, through the stimuli of our daily environment.
Resolve to throw off the influences of any unfortunate environment, and to build your own life to order.”

Napoleon Hill book Think and Grow Rich

Source: Think and Grow Rich (1938) p. 54

Life

“The English language lacks the ability to express thoughts that surpass the order of concrete things. It’s because the German language has this ability that Germany is the country of thinkers.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

Source: 7 March 1942, quoted in Hitler's Table Talk, 1941–1944

Country

“Of course, we in the so-called developed countries thought we were civilized.”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

At least war wasn't respectable any more, and the United Nations was always doing its best to stop the wars that did break out.''Not very successfully: I'd give it about three out of ten.
1990s, 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)

Country

“A warrior takes responsibility for his acts, for the most trivial of his acts. An average man acts out his thoughts, and never takes responsibility for what he does.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)

“The most effective way to live is as a warrior. A warrior may worry and think before making any decision, but once he makes it, he goes on his way, free from worries or thoughts; there will be a million other decisions still awaiting him. That's the warriors' way.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from A Separate Reality (Chapter 6)

Way, Thinking, Decision

“There isn’t just one true opinion. I’m a free speech guy. Now, I’m Team Dave Chappelle, but that doesn’t mean I’m anti-trans. We can have two thoughts in our head at the same time.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: New Rule: Andrew Yang & John McWhorter on Dave Chappelle and 'Transphobia' (2021)

Guy, Time

“My mistake. My inexcusable mistake, as a con man never stops being a con man; he can’t. But I suffered from a will to believe, a defect of character that I thought I had rooted out. I was mistaken.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Friday

Source: Friday (1982), Chapter 3 (p. 22)

Suffering

“We thought that we are on the way to democracy, to freedom. But again, now, it collapsed again to the military and we have no right to speak about human rights and we have practically no dialogue.”

Charles Maung Bo (1948) Burmese Roman Catholic Archbishop and Cardinal

Source: Cardinal Bo: Called to be a voice for human rights in Myanmar https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/248937/cardinal-bo-called-to-be-a-voice-for-human-rights-in-myanmar (9 September 2021)

Way, Democracy, Freedom

“A good death. Well, he thought, given that you had to die, why want a bad one?”

Iain Banks Culture series

Source: Culture series, Matter (2008), Chapter 27 “The Core” (p. 551)

Death

“It's not entirely fair to put that on the viewer because we're purposefully creating a device that is meant to be provocative—and hopefully thought-provoking—but not just titillating.”

Penn Badgley (1986) American actor and musician

Source: "You's Penn Badgley Can Go from Zero to Serial Killer in Mere Seconds" in Harpers Bazaar https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a30478989/penn-badgley-joe-goldberg-you-creepy-video/ (11 January 2020)

“Those who want to know my thoughts will always be able to do so: it will suffice for them to consult my work.”

Auguste, Baron Lambermont (1819–1905) Belgian politician

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Preface:The Colonial Ideology of Britain's Leading Superpower http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#2.%20 WILLEQUET, J. Le baron Lambermont, 9.

“Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom they associate in a spirit of sympathy and harmony.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Power of the Master Mind
Source: Think & Grow Rich, January 1963, p. 150.

Men, Nature

“At the beginning, I thought that a model should be a sexy girl or should just be a really gorgeous girl or should be a cute girl or just very calm. Now, as time passes, I found that modeling can be more complicated and I can be inspired by many things besides just poses in magazines.”

HoYeon Jung (1994) South Korean model, actress

Source: "HoYeon Jung" in Models https://models.com/mdx/hoyeon-jung-on-koreas-next-top-model-skydiving-and-her-no-limit-approach-to-life/ (12 December 2018)

Girl, Time

“I was just so happy that I got a role and could give a performance. I still feel nervous at the thought of meeting an audience through the screen. I never dreamed that the show would become such a global sensation.”

HoYeon Jung (1994) South Korean model, actress

Source: "Exclusive: How Squid Game’s Hoyeon Jung Went from Model to Star of Netflix’s Biggest Hit" in Vogue https://www.vogue.com/article/squid-game-star-hoyeon-jung-interview (7 October 2021)

Happiness, Dreams, Feeling

“You can take my freedom, even my life, but not my thought, not my truth, not my contribution to the history of the people to which I belong.”

Franjo Tuđman (1922–1999) Croatian politician, soldier and president

Source: "Excerpts from his diary, written while in prison" https://www.tudjman.hr/promisljanja/ (14 August 1984)

Life, People, Truth, History

“That was the real price, I thought. Once you had power, you ended up having to depend on it. Eventually, like anything else, it owned you.
Eventually? No, from the beginning; we just don’t bother admitting it at first.”

Pat Cadigan (1953) science fiction author

Source: Short fiction, Naming Names (1992), p. 389

Dependency

“Of course, we in the so-called developed countries thought we were civilized. At least war wasn't respectable any more, and the United Nations was always doing its best to stop the wars that did break out. Not very successfully: I'd give it about three out of ten...”

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host

1990s, 3001: The Final Odyssey (1997)

War, Country

“In making our blue-print of the coming new world, it will be advisable for us to proceed without the slightest regard... for what is apparently possible or for existing conditions, so that present habits of thought and inhibiting fears do not hamper our vision in any way.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

World, Fear, Way

“I dressed more like a tomboy in very slouchy clothing. I was very humble because I didn’t think of myself as beautiful. It wasn’t something I even thought about.”

Liu Wen (model) (1988) Chinese model

Source: "Liu Wen Sees Beauty as a Journey, Not a Destination" in Harper's Bazaar https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/features/a36205161/liu-wen-beauty-issue-may-2021/ (26 April 2021)

Beauty, Thinking, Clothes

“I had no expectations. I thought, “If I don’t make it, it’s my own fault.””

Anchee Min (1957) Chinese-American author

Source: On choosing to immigrate to the United States in “Anchee Min: 'If I had stayed in China, I would be dead'” https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/10116718/Anchee-Min-If-I-had-stayed-in-China-I-would-be-dead.html in The Telegraph (2013 Jul 4) Context: In China I had to suffer and labour for the Communist Party – here I was given the opportunity to suffer and labour for myself and to build my own life. I chose to look at the glass half full – I think that’s a very immigrant attitude.

“Word inflation is a problem. You can try to change reality by changing the words, but you can’t. It just stops you from dealing with it. One of the bad guys in Nineteen Eighty-Foursays, ‘The whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought.’ It’s Orwellian, and Orwell never ends well.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Source: Sen. Chris Coons and Caitlin Flanagan, Natural Immunity, (2021)

Guy, Problem, Reality, Change

“I keep trying to resist the thought, but the thought keeps pushing its way back in: The Western world has sunk into madness. There are no solutions to anything. The talk of our politicians is the babbling of fools, but we keep electing them anyway. We are collectively insane.”

John Derbyshire (1945) writer

Source: Succouring the Poor https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/succouring-poor-john-derbyshire/, National Review, February 6, 2012.

World, Fools, Way, Madness

“My friends, do they now and then send
A wish or a thought after me?
O tell me I yet have a friend,
Though a friend I am never to see.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

Source: Verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk (1782), Line 37

“When a woman's charm dominates thought, a man becomes a prisoner of it.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Quando il fascino di una donna domina il pensiero, l'uomo ne diventa prigioniero.
Source: prevale.net

“Some of us in those days thought that we had actually identified a disease, which this clearly is not
To make people ill, to give them an illness, was the wrong thing
The fundamental problem is that the improvement that you see, which is not really great in clinical trials, is not maintained”

Frederick Wolfe (1936) researcher ORCID ID = 0000-0002-2801-6413

Source: "Drug Approved. Is Disease Real?" https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/14/health/14pain.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0, New York Times (14 January 2008)

People, Disease, Problem

“Asceticism concerns the soul for the next world. True asceticism means the thrusting out from the heart of all worldly thoughts reckoning them as vanity. It leads ultimately to friendship with God.”

Abu Talib al-Makki Scholar, mystic

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 86

God, Friendship, World, Soul

“We need to teach, preach, impact love and compassion into the world. Too much bitterness, No love for one another. If only we could be more compassionate towards one another, more kind and thoughtful ,this world be probably be a better place”

Ini Edo (1982) Nollywood actress

Source: https://quotes.ng/mobile/author.php?title=ini-edo&id=1873

Love, World

“Idleness is the open field of perdition, well tilled and sown with evil thoughts.”

Mateo Alemán book Guzmán de Alfarache

Pt. II, Lib. II, Ch. VI.
Guzmán de Alfarache (1599-1604)

Evil

“I've thought of firing myself multiple times.”

David Hunt (actor) (1954) British actor

Patricia Heaton and David Hunt on Entertainment Tonight https://www.fourboysent.com/patricia-heaton-david-hunt-entertainment-tonight/ (2005)

Time

“I pledge hereby that I shall act according to the Constitution and fulfill my responsibility as the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people of Japan, while always wishing for the happiness of the people and the peace of the world, turning my thoughts to the people and standing by them.”

Naruhito (1960) Emperor of Japan since 2019

Source: "Naruhito: Japan’s emperor formally proclaims enthronement in centuries-old ceremony" in CNN https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/21/asia/japan-enthronement-emperor-intl-hnk/index.html (22 October 2019)

Happiness, People, World, Peace

“Let me first frame this. I looked at something that I had seen going on in the world, which is that I thought there were too many unjust acts. And I wanted there to be more just acts, and fewer unjust acts.”

Julian Assange book When Google Met Wikileaks

Source: Julian Assange, "When Google Met Wikileaks" (ORbooks, New York, 2014), pp. 66-67

World

“Leaving the EU is harder than a lot of people thought it was going to be.”

Amber Rudd (1963) British politician (born 1963)

Source: Brexit: Tusk says UK MEPs could sit for 'months or longer' https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47946256 BBC News (16 April 2019)

People

“New Year's Eve is literally filled with good cheer and happy thoughts, as we all try to put our best foot forward. This openness and generosity are the spirit of this wonderful holiday, when it is so important to warm parents’ hearts with kindness and loving care, to hug them if they are near you, and to tell everyone around you how dear they are to you and that happiness is all about love, children, family, and friends.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

2021

Love, Happiness, Children, Family

“Here’s some miscellaneous information. First, wear what you like. Personally I dislike uniforms. I never have worn a uniform. Secondly, if you have a religion, keep it to yourself. I dislike religions. I have always disliked religions. In response to the thought passing through each of your skulls, I do not think of myself as God. But you may do so, if you choose.”

Jack Vance (1916–2013) American mystery and speculative fiction writer

Sail 25 (p. 75)
Short fiction, Future Tense (1964)

God, Religion, Thinking, Personality

“I'd thought my way into this mess. I should be able to think my way out, shouldn't I?”

Larry Niven book Convergent Series

Source: Short fiction, Convergent Series (1979), Convergent Series (p. 103)

Way, Thinking

“He thought he was gonna die,
But he didn't.
She thought she just couldn't cope,
But she did.
We thought it would be so hard,
But it wasn't...
It wasn't easy, though!”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Source: Song lyrics, The Sensual World (1989)

“He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father's saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, “Good fences make good neighbours.””

Robert Frost Mending Wall

Source: 1910s, Mending Wall (1914)

Tree

“The first requirement to purifying the soul is that one continues to remove all evil and impure thoughts from the heart.”

Mirza Basheer-ud-Din Mahmood Ahmad (1889–1965) Caliph of the Messiah

Source: Irfan-e-Ilahi, Anwar-ul-Ulum, Vol. 4, p. 371

Soul, Evil, Heart

“When I first started singing the anthem, my thoughts were always to sing it in a way that my father would like it to be sung— not just the sound, but also the intention. If you sing anything with intention, it really is hard to get tired of it.”

Mark Donnelly (1960) Canadian singer

Source: Mark Donnelly: Q&A with the slimming anthem singer https://www.canadianbusiness.com/lifestyle/mark-donnelly-qa-with-the-slimming-anthem-singer/ (March 13, 2012)

Way, Singing

“I like my creations to be thought-provoking and not have a narrative. Creating mystery and questions are key elements in my work.”

John Jude Palencar (1957) American artist

Source: Beauty and mystery: An interview with John Jude Palencar https://vadamagazine.com/entertainment/arts/john-jude-palencar (27 November, 2015)

Question

“Next time you get lost in thought, pay attention to where you went for therein lies your inner passion.”

Jay Samit (1961) American businessman

Future Proofing You (2021)

Passion, Time

“I never thought I'd see the day
when murder would become so commonplace.
Hardly a minute ever goes by
without a murder taking place. And why?
Well, for a start, the punishment's not hard:
they sentence you to life but you're out in no time.”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Talking of Murder" (song) Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Talking of Murder" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a327hRmOEes (song on YouTube) Song lyrics

Life, Time

“Don't turn your thoughts into fears. Turn your dreams into actions and your actions into successes.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Non trasformare i tuoi pensieri in paure. Trasforma i tuoi sogni in azioni e le tue azioni in successi.
Source: prevale.net

Fear, Dreams, Success

“[A] Bill of Rights directed against federal abuses was thought necessary in addition to the separation and division of powers...”

Laurence Tribe (1941) American lawyer and law school professor

Source: American Constitutional Law (1978), Approaches to Constituitonal Analysis

“Thought is so cunning, so clever, that it distorts everything for its own convenience.”

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian spiritual philosopher

“There, where the mind concentrates the positive frequency of its thoughts, vitality is born.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) Là, dove la mente concentra la frequenza positiva dei suoi pensieri, nasce vitalità.
Source: prevale.net

“Why from the plain truth should I shrink?
In woods men feel; in towns they think.
Yet, which is best? Thought, stumbling, plods
Past fallen temples, vanished gods,
Altars unincensed, fanes undecked,
Eternal systems flown or wrecked;
Through trackless centuries that grant
To the poor trudge refreshment scant,
Age after age, pants on to find
A melting mirage of the mind.
But feeling never wanders far,
Content to fare with things that are.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

Source: At the Gate of the Convent (1885), "A Defence of English Spring", p. 58.

Men, God, Truth, Age

“Strange thoughts come to the man alone;
'Tis then, if ever, he talks with God,
And views himself as a single clod
In the soil of life where the souls are grown.
'Tis then he questions the why and where,
The start and end of his years and days,
And what is blame and what is praise,
And what is ugly and what is fair.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.145 - Alone, stanza 1.

Life, God, Soul, Question

“He never guessed that being kind
Depends upon the heart and mind
And not upon the purse at all;
That poor men's gifts, however small,
Make light some weary traveler's load
And smooth for him his troubled road.
He never knew or understood
The fellowship of doing good.
Because he had not much to spare
He thought it vain to give his share.Yet many passed him, day by day,
He might have helped along the way.
He fancied kindness something which
Belongs entirely to the rich.
And so he lived and toiled for gold,
Unsympathetic, harsh and cold,
Intending all the time to share
The burdens that his brothers bear
When he possessed great wealth, and he
Could well afford a friend to be.”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: The Path to Home (1919), p.130 - Lost Opportunities, stanzas 2 and 3.

Men, Way, Travel, Light

“You were the best fun I ever had
You gave me a love that couldn't be bad
You taught me things that I thought were rude
Oh, ohhh, you were the best girl I ever knew
(You were the best girl I ever knew)
We were a couple so much in love
We gave to each other over and above
You made my life and I'm glad
Oh, ohhh, you were the best fun I ever had
You were the best fun I ever had”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"The Best Fun I Ever Had" (song) Song lyrics Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "The Best Fun I Ever Had" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY2zGAXEkmg (song on YouTube)

Love, Life, Girl

“If through the years we're not to do
Much finer deeds than we have done;
If we must merely wander through
Time's garden, idling in the sun;
If there is nothing big ahead,
Why do we fear to join the dead?Unless to-morrow means that we
Shall do some needed service here;
That tasks are waiting you and me
That will be lost, save we appear;
Then why this dreadful thought of sorrow
That we may never see to-morrow?”

Edgar Guest (1881–1959) American writer

Source: Just Folks (1917), Living, first and second stanzas.

Fear, Appearance, Time, Waiting

“Nature shouldn’t be able to do this, Sunday thought. It shouldn’t be able to produce something that resembled the work of directed intelligence, something artful, when the only factors involved were unthinking physics and obscene, spendthrift quantities of time. Time to lay down the sediments, in deluge after deluge, entire epochs in the impossibly distant past when Mars had been both warm and wet, a world deluded into thinking it had a future. Time for cosmic happenstance to hurl a fist from the sky, punching down through these carefully superimposed layers, drilling through these carefully superimposed layers, drilling the geological chapters like a bullet through a book. And then yesterday more time—countless millions of years—for wind and dust to work their callous handiwork, scouring and abrading, wearing the exposed layers back at subtly different rates depending on hardness and chemistry, util these deliberate-looking right-angled steps and contours began to assume grand and imperial solidity, rising from the depths like the stairways of the gods.
Awe-inspiring, yesterday. Sometimes it was entirely right and proper to be awed. And recognising the physics in these formations, the hand of time and matter and the nuclear forces underpinning all things, did not lessen that feeling. What was she, ultimately, but the end product of physics and matter? And what was her art but the product of physics and matter working on itself?”

Alastair Reynolds book Blue Remembered Earth

Source: Blue Remembered Earth (2012), Chapter 17 (pp. 292-293)

God, Books, World, Art

“This is the dialectic of Christian thought: God enters into the social context of human existence and appropriates the ideas and actions of the oppressed as his own. When this event of liberation occurs in thought and praxis, the words and actions of the oppressed become the Word and Action of God. They no longer belong to the oppressed. Indeed, the word of the oppressed becomes God’s Word insofar as the former recognize it not as their own but as given to them through divine grace.”

James H. Cone (1938–2018) American theologian

Source: God of the Oppressed (1975, 1997), p. 98-99 (1975 edition)

God, Idea

“Where is a self-revelation of this sort achieved? In Life, as its essence, since Life is nothing other than that which reveals itself – not something that might have an added property of self-revealing, but the very fact of self-revealing, self-revelation as such. Everywhere that something like a self-revelation is produced there is Life. Everywhere there is Life, this self-revelation is produced. If, then, the Revelation of God is a self-revelation that owes nothing to the truth of the world, and if we ask where such a self-revelation is achieved, the answer is unequivocal: in Life and in Life alone. Therefore we are in the presence of the first fundamental equation of Christianity: God is Life – he is the essence of Life, or if one prefers, the essence of Life is God. Saying this we already know what God is, but we do not know it through the effect of some knowledge or learning – we do not know it through thought, against the background of the truth of the world. Rather we know it, and we can know it, only in and through Life itself. We can know the essence of God only in God. But this observation is premature.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

Books on Religion and Christianity, I am the Truth. Toward a philosophy of Christianity (1996)
Source: Michel Henry, I am the Truth. Toward a Philosophy of Christianity, translated by Susan Emanuel, Stanford University Press, 2003, p. 27-28

Life, God, Truth, World

“Although it is not thought or some other form of knowledge, although it is not the truth of the world, that gives access to the Revelation of God, at least a single possibility persist, already mentioned as a simple matter of fact and now rendered unimpeachable. Access to God, understood as his self-revelation according to a phenomenality proper to Him, is not susceptible of being produced except where this self-revelation is produced and in the way self-revelation does so. There where God originally arrives in himself, in the phenomenalization of phenomenality that is his own and is thus like the self-phenomenalization of this phenomenality proper – there alone is access to God. It is not that thought is lacking and so we cannot accede to the Revelation of God. Quite the contrary, it is only when thought defaults, because the truth of the world is absent, that what is at stake be achieved: the self-revelation of God – the self-phenomenalization of pure phenomenality against the background of a phenomenality that is not that of the world.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

God, Truth, World, Way

“I do not intend to ask whether Christianity is “true” or “false,” or to establish, for example, the former hypothesis. Rather, what will be in question here is what Christianity considers as truth – what kind of truth it offers to people, what it endeavors to communicate to them, not as a theoretical and indifferent truth but as the essential truth that by some mysterious affinity is suitable for them, to the point that it alone is capable of assuring them salvation. We are trying to understand the form of truth that circumscribes the domain of Christianity, the milieu in which it spreads, the air that it breaths, one might say – because there are many sorts of truths, many ways of being true or false. And we are also perhaps trying to get away from the concept of truth that dominates modern thought and that, as much in and of itself as in its multiple implications, determines the world in which we live.”

Michel Henry (1922–2002) French writer

People, Truth, World, Way

“[T]he Victorian Age... cared more for life than for thought; consequently it produced abundant and fine life, while its thought was comparatively unambitious and aimed mainly at serving the practical purposes of life. It cared intensely for morals and little for metaphysics; a good deal for religion and scarcely at all for theology... It had an immense faith, a faith in goodness, in duty, in the future of mankind.”

Gilbert Murray (1866–1957) Anglo-Australian scholar

1920s, The Ordeal of This Generation: The War, the League and the Future (1929)
Source: "The Civilization of the Nineteenth Century: Its Greatness and the Flaw which led to its Collapse", p. 51

Life, Age, Faith, Religion

“From the beginning of time,
in childhood, I thought
that pain meant
I was not loved.
It meant I loved.”

Louise Glück (1943–2023) American poet

Source: "First Memory", Ararat (1990)

Love, Pain, Time, Childhood

“The poem will not survive on content but through voice. By voice I mean the style of thought, for which a style of speech never convincingly substitutes.”

Louise Glück (1943–2023) American poet

Source: As quoted in "Poet Laureate: Louise Glück and the Public Face of a Private Artist" https://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/04/opinion/editorial-observer-poet-laureate-louise-gluck-public-face-private-artist.html by Andrew Johnston, The New York Times (November 4, 2003)

“All my life I was told and taught I am not shit
By you wack fuckin' giant sacks of lyin' dog shit
Now you shut up, bitch, I am talkin'
Thought I was full of horseshit and now you fuckin' worship the ground on which I am walkin'”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Legacy"
2010s, The Marshall Mathers LP 2 (2013)

Life, Dogs, Bitch

“All human thought, all science, all religion, is the holding of a candle to the night of the universe.”

Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) American author

Quoted in The Black Book of Clark Ashton Smith (1979)

Religion, Universe, Science, Night

“Atheists, or Deists only in the name,
By word or deed deny a God. They eat
Their daily bread, & draw the breath of heaven,
Without a thought or thanks; heav'n's roof to them
Is but a painted ceiling hung with lamps,
No more, that light them to their purposes.
They 'wander loose about.'”

Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist

They nothing see,
Themselves except, and creatures like themselves,
That liv'd short-sighted, impotent to save.
So on their dissolute spirits, soon or late,
Destruction cometh 'like an armed man,'
Or like a dream of murder in the night,
Withering their mortal faculties, & breaking
The bones of all their pride.
Living Without God In The World (1798)

God, Light, Drawing, Painting

“Animals who die for your dinner table die alone, in terror, in sadness and in pain. The killing is merciless and inhumane. … Animals suffer from pain and fear just as much as you do. Most spend their last hours locked in a truck, packed into a cage with hundreds of other terrified animals and then cruelly pushed into a blood soaked death chamber. Animals which are a year old are often far more rational – and capable of logical thought – than six-week-old babies. Pigs and sheep are far more intelligent than small children.”

Vernon Coleman (1946) British doctor

"Twenty One Reasons For Being A Vegetarian" (2007), in vernoncoleman.com http://www.vernoncoleman.com/twentyoner.htm.

Death, Pain, Children, Sadness

“An aphorism can be considered a logically completed thought, accepted from the point of view of its meaning for the expression of new sensations, knowledge and meanings.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Knowledge

“Emptiness is not what we thought. Neither is mindfulness or fear. Compassion—not what we thought. Love. Buddha nature. Courage.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

Love, Fear, Courage, Nature

“The trick is to keep exploring and not bail out, even when we find out that something is not what we thought... Nothing is what we thought.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

“Through meditation, we’re able to see clearly what’s going on with our thoughts and emotions, and we can also let them go.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

“I only speak to drown out my thoughts.”

Ron English (1959) American artist

Ron English's Fauxlosophy: Volume 2 (2022)

“As you think, so you become. As you think, so you develop. As is your ideal, so gradually your life will become. This is so, because there is a great transforming power in thought.”

Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) Indian philosopher

Conquest of Fear (c-1960)

Life, Thinking

“Though you pay for the hands they're shaking
The speeches and the mistakes they're making
As they struggle with the undertaking
Of simple thought What you want, you don't know
You're with stupid now
What you know, you don't want to know
You're with stupid now.”

Aimee Mann (1960) American indie rock singer-songwriter (born 1960)

"You're With Stupid Now"
Song lyrics, I'm with Stupid (1995)

Stupidity

“When the Bible was the only book people knew, they naturally thought it embodied all that is true; but when their reading expanded, and with it the world, and a sense of other times, other voices, other possibilities and points of view, that authority could not last.”

A. C. Grayling (1949) English philosopher

Source: Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God (2002), Chapter 20, “Intellectuals” (p. 86)

People, Books, World, Nature

“The new "humour", if you can call it that, is pure malicious gossip. Instead of making a genuine point, it's now good enough to repeat any ribald story without a thought for whether it's even true.”

Lindsey Davis book Last Act in Palmyra

Last Act in Palmyra (1994)

“Finehouse relaxed in his own seat. They had all certainly failed.
But maybe sometimes, he thought, it’s a good thing, on the whole, to have closed a knife that someone else had opened.”

Tim Powers (1952) American writer

Epilogue, “I Have No Idea” (p. 284)
Stolen Skies (2022)

“We should also have national red-flag laws so that a parent, a teacher, a counselor can flag for a court that a child, a student, a patient is exhibiting violent tendencies, threatening classmates, or experiencing suicidal thoughts that makes them a danger to themselves or to others.”

Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)

2022, June 2022, Remarks on Gun Violence in America

Law, Parent, Suicide, Teachers

“People thought I was crazy (for having fashion show in various unusual places). To me, the more challenging a project, the more fun it is. What is the one place that people won't be able to do a show at? I choose that one.”

Jessica Minh Anh (1988) Vietnamese model

Jessica Minh Anh (2020) cited in: " For Jessica Minh Anh all the world's her runway https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/fashion/the-world-is-her-runway/article32032876.ece" in The Hindu, 10 July 2020.

People, Fashion

“Faith I have, in myself, in humanity, in the worthwhileness of the pursuits in entertainment for the masses. But wide awake, not blind faith, moves me. My operations are based on experience, thoughtful observation and warm fellowship with my neighbors at home and around the world.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

As quoted in The Gospel According to Disney : Faith, Trust, and Pixie Dust (2004) by Mark I. Pinsky, p. 20
Year unknown, published in 2004

World, Faith, Home

“To the youngsters of today, I say believe in the future, the world is getting better; there still is plenty of opportunity. Why, would you believe it, when I was a kid I thought it was already too late for me to make good at anything.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

Year unknown, published in 2001, The Quotable Walt Disney (2001)

World, Future

“I put on my best shirt and shorts,
wear my hair down to make him want me more,
watch my words so I linger in his thoughts,
let my heart blind me to his flaws.”

Marian Renta

Music lyrics, Candy-coated Pill (2022) —"Candy-coated Pill"

Heart

“I think that might not have been enough, were it not for me being my family ’s only hope. Because they were also dying, in a different way: financially, mentally. And I thought, I can’t die. Literally I can’t die.”

Ocean Vuong (1988) Vietnamese American poet, essayist and novelist

On being surrounded by friends taken by the opioid epidemic and his quest to be the breadwinner for his family in “Ocean Vuong: ‘As a child I would ask: What’s napalm?’” https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/09/ocean-vuong-on-earth-we-are-briefly-gorgeous-interview in The Guardian (2019 Jun 9)

Family, Hope, Way, Thinking

“Our economic system puts us in a position where we can follow Christ's maxim, so impossible for you, to 'take no thought for the morrow.'”

Edward Bellamy book Equality

Equality (1897)

Christ

“You have to remain calm. You can’t make precipitous decisions. You just have to sit down and be very thoughtful and deliberative in everything you say and do.”

Gary Locke (1950) American politician

"An Interview with Gary Locke, Former U.S. Ambassador to China" in The Yale Politic https://thepolitic.org/an-interview-with-gary-locke-former-u-s-ambassador-to-china/ (5 June 2017)

Decision

“Constantly wrestle with your thought, and whenever it wanders call it back to you.”

John Climacus book The Ladder of Divine Ascent

4:92
The Ladder of Divine Ascent

“No man ever said at the end of his days, "I have read my Bible too much, I have thought of God too much, I have prayed too much, I have been too careful about my soul."”

J.C. Ryle (1816–1900) Anglican bishop

Source: Home Truths (1859), Ch. II: "Repent, or Perish", p. 73

God, Soul, Reading

“In these tempestuous times, we can't leave our enemies of the past and the present the monopoly on thought, imagination, and creativity.”

Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) President of Upper Volta

From a speech to the United Nations on 4 October 1984 https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2007/10/SANKARA/15203

Imagination, Time, Past

“It exposed, I thought, a lot of aspects of this society we have which are not terribly positive — toxic masculinity, victim culture. Liberal hypocrisy, I think, was the big loser.”

Bill Maher (1956) American stand-up comedian

Toxic Femininity (2022)

Thinking

“The most unbending thoughts are the most vulnerable to change.”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Source: Paradoxes of Faith (1987), Ch. IX. "Truth", p. 105

Change

“If you feel proud, let it be in the thought that you are the servant of God, the son of God. Great men have the nature of a child. They are always a child before Him; so they are free from pride. All their strength is of God and not their own. It belongs to Him and comes from Him.”

Ramakrishna (1836–1886) Indian mystic and religious preacher

124
Sayings of Sri Ramakrishna (1960)

Men, God, Feeling, Nature

“Every art, and every system, and in like manner every action and purpose aims, it is thought, at some good; for which reason a common and by no means a bad description of the good is, ‘that at which all things aim.’”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Bk I, Ch I
The Ethics Of Aristotle (Vol. I)

Art

“Leave aside craving for other than God: anything else is pseudo thought. Except the Real One, all things are perishable. Each instant concentrate on the Real; undoubtedly this is the committed way.”

Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1845–1901) 19th-century sufi Punjabi poet of the punjab , polyglot, scholar and writer

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 299

God, Way

“The problem is that Hollywood is competition for Chinese art films. So I thought I should make a film with box office promise, that refers to Chinese culture, but also contains an art element.”

Zhang Yimou (1950) Chinese actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer

"Fighting for Peace (and Art Films), Zhang Yimou on “Hero”" in Indie Wire https://www.indiewire.com/2004/08/fighting-for-peace-and-art-films-zhang-yimou-on-hero-78697/ (27 August 2004)

Art, Problem, Box