Neurosis is always a substitute for legitimate suffering.
—Carl Gustav Jung (1875–1961) Swiss Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Philosopher
The mind conceives with pain, but it brings forth with delight.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Out of sight, out of mind. The absent are always in the wrong.
—Common Proverb
The mind’s deepest desire, even in its most elaborate operations, parallels man’s unconscious feeling in the face of his universe: it is an insistence upon familiarity, an appetite for clarity.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
I always felt that my greatest asset was not my physical ability, it was my mental ability.
—Bruce Jenner (b.1949) American Sportsperson
Vain, very vain is my search to find; that happiness which only centers in the mind.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The human mind will not be confined to any limits.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Great athletes train their minds as well as their bodies. There are various mental conditioning techniques many use when preparing for an event. Perhaps the best known technique is visualization, creating a mental image not only of the desired result (the gold medal, a new world record, a hole-in-one), but also of every move that will be taken en route to the ultimate goal.
—Unknown
As rain does not break through a well-thatched house, passion will not break through a well-reflecting mind.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Give up the belief that mind is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You will understand yourself and your Maker better than before.
—Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) American Christian Science Religious Leader, Humanitarian, Writer
A misdirected mind causes a worse destruction than a robber or an enemy can do to each other.
—Buddhist Teaching
A mind grows by what it feeds on.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
These tenses—past, present and future—are not the tenses of time; they are tenses of the mind. That which is no longer before the mind becomes the past. That which is before the mind is the present. And that which is going to be before the mind is the future. Past is that which is no longer before you. Future is that which is not yet before you. And present is that which is before you and is slipping out of your sight. Soon it will be past….
—Sri Rajneesh (Osho) (1931–90) Indian Spiritual Teacher
Man’s consciousness is his least known and most abused vital organ. Most people believe that consciousness as such is some sort of indeterminate faculty which has no nature, no specific identity and therefore no requirements, no needs, no rules for being properly or improperly used…. Men abuse, subvert and starve their consciousness in a manner they would not dream of applying to their hair, toenails or stomachs. They know that these things have a specific identity and specific requirements, and, if one whishes to preserve them, one must comb one’s hair, trim one’s toenails and refrain from swallowing rat poison.
—Ayn Rand (1905–82) Russian-born American Novelist, Philosopher
There is nothing so disobedient as an undisciplined mind, and there is nothing so obedient as a disciplined mind.
—Buddhist Teaching
It is the mind that makes the body rich; and as the sun breaks through the darkest clouds, so honor peereth in the meanest habit.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The trouble with most people is that they think with their hopes or fears or wishes, rather than their minds.
—William C. Durant (1861–1947) American Industrialist
Everything tends to make us believe that there exists a certain point of the mind at which life and death, the real and the imagined, past and future, the communicable and the incommunicable, high and low, cease to be perceived as contradictions.
—Andre Breton (1896–1966) French Poet, Essayist, Critic
We must combine the toughness of the serpent with the softness of the dove, a tough mind and a tender heart.
—Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–68) American Civil Rights Leader, Clergyman
Is there no way out of the mind?
—Sylvia Plath (1932–63) American Poet, Novelist
The mind, like the dyer’s hand, is colored by what it holds.
—Indian Proverb
I can do something else besides stuff a ball through a hoop. My biggest resource is my mind.
—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (b.1947) American Basketball Player, Author, Actor
The brain is the only part of the human machine that doesn’t wear out. Probably it’s because the brain is the only part that is not overworked.
—Unknown
It is the mind that maketh good or ill, that maketh wretch or happy, rich or poor.
—Edmund Spenser (1552–99) English Poet
You can have such an open mind that it is too porous to hold a conviction.
—George W. Crane (1901–95) American Psychologist, Physician
Always wavering and flitting, as well as unruly and stubborn is this mind. A wise man can still it just as a Fletcher straightens his arrows.
—Buddhist Teaching
A mind not to be changed by place or time. The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heav’n of hell, a hell of heav’n.
—John Milton (1608–74) English Poet, Civil Servant, Scholar, Debater
As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.
—Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Polymath, Painter, Sculptor, Inventor, Architect
The blessing of an active mind, when it is in a good condition, is, that it not only employs itself, but is almost sure to be the means of giving wholesome employment to others.
—Anonymous
The truth is that we can learn to condition our minds, bodies, and emotions to link pain or pleasure to whatever we choose. By changing what we link pain and pleasure to, we will instantly change our behaviors.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
He who is easily frightened at the sound like a jungle deer, is called the “light-minded”. His ascetic observance is liable to failure.
—Buddhist Teaching
The most complicated achievements of thought are possible without the assistance of consciousness.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
We cannot see things that stare us in the face until the hour comes that the mind is ripened.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Thinking doesn’t seem to help very much. The human brain is too high-powered to have many practical uses in this particular universe.
—Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Don’t let your mind go wandering, its too small to go out by itself.
—Unknown
The disunited mind is far from wise; how can it meditate? How be at peace? When you know no peace, how can you know joy?
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Mind moves matter.
—Virgil (70–19 BCE) Roman Poet
Desire to know why, and how—curiosity, which is a lust of the mind, that a perseverance of delight in the continued and indefatigable generation of knowledge—exceedeth the short vehemence of any carnal pleasure.
—Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679) English Political Philosopher
One dull pencil is worth two sharp minds.
—Unknown
It is the mind that makes one wise or ignorant, bound or emancipated.
—Ramakrishna Paramahamsa (1836–86) Indian Hindu Philosopher
Irony is the hygiene of the mind.
—Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) English Poet, Short Story Writer, Novelist
Where the Mind is biggest, the Heart, the Senses, Magnanimity, Charity, Tolerance, Kindliness, and the rest of them scarcely have room to breathe.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
The brain’s calculations do not require our conscious effort, only our attention and our openness to let the information through. Although the brain absorbs universes of information, little is admitted into normal consciousness.
—Marilyn Ferguson (1938–2008) American Author, Editor, Orator
As you think so shall you be! Since you cannot physically experience another person, you can only experience them in your mind. Conclusion: All of the other people in your life are simply thoughts in your mind. Not physical beings to you, but thoughts. Your relationships are all in how you think about the other people of your life. Your experience of all those people is only in your mind. Your feelings about your lovers come from your thoughts. For example, they may in fact behave in ways that you find offensive. However, your relationship to them when they behave offensively is not determined by their behavior, it is determined only by how you choose to relate to that behavior. Their actions are theirs, you cannot own them, you cannot be them, you can only process them in your mind.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
A well cultivated mind is made up of all the minds of preceding ages; it is only the one single mind educated by all previous time.
—Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (1657–1757) French Essayist, Polymath, Philosopher
The mind of man is like a clock that is always running down, and requires to be constantly wound up.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Let me not to the marriage of true minds admit impediments. Love is not love which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to remove.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Not all those who know their minds know their hearts as well.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Nature abhors a vacuum. When a head lacks brains, nature fills it with conceit.
—Unknown