As you begin changing your thinking, start immediately to change your behavior. Begin to act the part of the person you would like to become. Take action on your behavior. Too many people want to feel, then take action. This never works.
—John C. Maxwell (b.1947) American Christian Professional Speaker, Author, Clergyman
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
I refuse the compliment that I think like a man, thought has no sex, one either thinks or one does not.
—Clare Boothe Luce (1903–87) American Playwright, Diplomat, Journalist, Diplomat, Elected Rep
They that have read about everything are thought to understand everything too; but it is not always so. Reading furnishes the mind only with the materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours. We are of the ruminating kind, and it is not enough to cram ourselves with a great load of collections. Unless we chew them over again, they will not give us strength and nourishment.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
No amount of energy will take the place of thought. A strenuous life with its eyes shut is a kind of wild insanity.
—Henry van Dyke Jr. (1852–1933) American Author, Educator, Clergyman
It was at a particular moment in the history of my own rages that I saw the Western world conditioned by the images of Marx, Darwin and Freud; and Marx, Darwin and Freud are the three most crashing bores of the Western world. The simplistic popularization of their ideas has thrust our world into a mental straitjacket from which we can only escape by the most anarchic violence.
—William Golding (1911–93) English Novelist
You become what you think about all day long.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Man can alter his life by altering his thinking.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
We get into the habit of living before acquiring the habit of thinking. In that race which daily hastens us towards death, the body maintains its irreparable lead.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist, Author
A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results.
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Brain, n. An apparatus with which we think that we think.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
Men always do leave off really thinking, when the last bit of wild animal dies in them.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
I have no riches but my thoughts. Yet these are wealth enough for me.
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
Thinking is more interesting than knowing, but less interesting than looking.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
If one wants to abide in the thought-free state, a struggle is inevitable. One must fight one’s way through before regaining one’s original primal state. If one succeeds in the fight and reaches the goal, the enemy, namely the thoughts, will all subside in the Self and disappear entirely.
—Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian Hindu Mystic
You become what you think about.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
The significant problems we face today cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
—A. A. Milne (1882–1956) British Humorist, Playwright, Children’s Writer
Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
On artificial intelligence: the real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.
—B. F. Skinner (1904–90) American Psychologist, Social Philosopher, Inventor, Author
Thinking is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed; it just takes effort and repetition.
—John Eliot (b.1971) American Psychologist, Academic
Thinking is like loving and dying. Each of us must do it for himself.
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916) American Idealist Philosopher
All that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking.
—Marcus Aurelius (121–180) Emperor of Rome, Stoic Philosopher
Man’s mind stretched by a new idea, never goes back to its original dimensions.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
Logic: The art of thinking and reasoning in strict accordance with the limitations and incapacities of the human misunderstanding.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
I cannot cure myself of that most woeful of youth’s follies—thinking that those who care about us will care for the things that mean much to us.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
To think is to differ.
—Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American Civil Liberties Lawyer
Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeated again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life’s blueprint. Smile!
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
The use of traveling is to regulate imagination by reality, and instead of thinking how things may be, to see them as they are.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
If our thinking is clear, how could work or money be the problem? Our thinking is all we need to change.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
He that never thinks can never be wise.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The way we communicate with others and with ourselves ultimately determines the quality of our lives.
—Tony Robbins (b.1960) American Self-Help Author, Entrepreneur
There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.
—Robert Henri (1865–1929) American Painter, Teacher
Invest a few moments in thinking. It will pay good interest.
—Unknown
Thought is action in rehearsal.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
You must be what it is that you’re seeking. This is a universe of attraction and energy. You can’t have a desire to attract a mate who’s confident, generous, non-judgmental, and gentle, and expect that desire to be manifested if you’re thinking and acting in nonconfident, selfish, judgmental, or arrogant ways…
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
A hundred wagon loads of thoughts will not pay a single ounce of debt.
—Italian Proverb
Misery is almost always the result of thinking.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
The average person thinks he isn’t.
—Larry Lorenzoni
We were not taught financial literacy in school. It takes a lot of work and time to change your thinking and to become financially literate.
—Robert Kiyosaki (b.1947) American Businessperson, Author, Motivational Speaker
Thinking is one thing no one has ever been able to tax.
—Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American Inventor, Entrepreneur, Businessperson
In private conversation between intimate friends the wisest men very often talk like the weakest; for, indeed, the talking with a friend is nothing else but thinking aloud.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
To do anything truly worth doing, I must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in with gusto and scramble through as well as I can.
—Og Mandino (1923–96) American Self-Help Author
I really wish I was less of a thinking man and more of a fool not afraid of rejection.
—Billy Joel (b.1949) American Singer, Songwriter, Musician
Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him.
—James Lane Allen (1849–1925) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
It is astonishing what an effort it seems to be for many people to put their brains definitely and systematically to work.
—Thomas Edison (1847–1931) American Inventor, Scientist, Entrepreneur