He that never thinks can never be wise.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Sinful thoughts are even more dangerous than sin itself.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Thought takes man out of servitude, into freedom.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
A man is like a fraction whose numerator is what he is and whose denominator is what he thinks of himself. The larger the denominator the smaller the fraction.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
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
Make a decision that from now on, your thoughts do not run you, you run your thoughts. From now on, your mind is not the captain of your ship, you are the captain of the ship, and your mind works for you.
—T. Harv Eker (b.1954) American Motivational Speaker, Lecturer, Author
There are mighty few people who think what they think they think.
—Robert Henri (1865–1929) American Painter, Teacher
Every event that a man would master must be mounted on the run, and no man ever caught the reins of a thought except as it galloped past him.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
No man should think himself a zero, and think he can do nothing about the state of the world.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Thoughts are funny little things; they can make paupers or make kings.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
That’s where the fear comes from—from your uninvestigated thoughts.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
No brain is stronger than its weakest think.
—Thomas Masson (1866–1934) American Journalist, Humorist, Author
Everything good and bad comes from your own mind. To find something beyond the mind is impossible.
—Buddhist Teaching
I think and that is all that I am.
—Wayne Dyer (b.1940) American Motivational Writer, Author, Motivational Speaker
The how” thinker gets problems solved effectively because he wastes no time with futile “ifs” but goes right to work on the creative “how”.”
—Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American Clergyman, Self-Help Author
Thinking things has been done through the ages; knowing things remains to be done.
—Unknown
My thoughts are my company; I can bring them together, select them, detain them, dismiss them.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
Thought would destroy their paradise.
—Thomas Gray (1716–71) English Poet, Book Collector
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.
—Vittorio Alfieri (1749–1803) Italian Poet, Dramatist
There is no thought in any mind, but it quickly tends to convert itself into a power, and organizes a huge instrumentality of means.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
If a man sits down to think, he is immediately asked if has a headache.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Think big. Think differently. Think fast. Think ahead. Aim for the best.
—Dhirubhai Ambani (1932–2002) Indian Businessperson
It is the power of thought that gives man power over nature.
—Hans Christian Andersen (1805–75) Danish Author, Poet, Short Story Writer
The birth of thought in the depths of the spirit, the shaping and ordering of it into periods, the translation into signs, and above all the transference of it from one spirit to another, the communication that is, if only for an instant, the meeting of two beings, with the unforeseeable consequences that such a meeting always causes, is in fact a miracle; except that the moment one stops to think about it one can’t even write a letter.
—Salvatore Satta (1902–75) Italian Jurist, Novelist
The busiest of living agents are certain dead men’s thoughts; they are forever influencing the opinions and destinies of men.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
The law of the harvest is to reap more than you sow. Sow an act, and you reap a habit; sow a habit, and you reap a character; sow a character, and you reap a destiny.
—George Boardman the Younger (1801–31) American Baptist Minister
Thought is the wind and knowledge the sail.
—David Hare (b.1947) English Dramatist, Director, Film-Maker
Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment; of these, if you but remain true to them, your world will at last be built.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Suffering follows an evil thought as the wheels of a cart follow the oxen that draws it. Our life is shaped by our mind; we become what we think. Joy follows a pure thought like a shadow that never leaves.
—Buddhist Teaching
A hundred wagon loads of thoughts will not pay a single ounce of debt.
—Italian Proverb
Thoughts are the shadows of our sensations—always darker, emptier, simpler than these.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Why should we think upon things that are lovely? Because thinking determines life. It is a common habit to blame life upon the environment. Environment modifies life but does not govern life. The soul is stronger than its surroundings.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
If we are not ashamed to think it, we should not be ashamed to say it.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
The calmer thought is not always the right thought, just as the distant view is not always the truest view
—Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–64) American Novelist, Short Story Writer
A conclusion is the place where you got tired thinking.
—Martin H. Fischer
The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed by showing him a new idea which commands his own.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Kind thoughts are rarer than either kind words or deeds. They imply a great deal of thinking about others. This in itself is rare. But they also imply a great deal of thinking about others without the thoughts being criticisms. This is rarer still.
—Frederick William Faber (1814–63) British Hymn writer, Theologian
I am not what I think. I am thinking what I think.
—Eric Butterworth (1916–2003) American Spirituality Writer
What’s going on in the inside shows on the outside.
—Earl Nightingale (1921–89) American Motivational Speaker, Author
How can we expect a harvest of thought who have not had a seed time of character?
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.
—James Allen (1864–1912) British Philosophical Writer
We in America have everything we need except the most important thing of all-time to think and the habit of thought.
—Norman Cousins (1915–90) American Journalist, Author, Academic, Activist
We are ashamed of our thoughts and often see them brought forth by others.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Thought is a process of exaggeration. The refusal to exaggerate is not infrequently an alibi for the disinclination to think or praise.
—Eric Hoffer (1902–83) American Philosopher, Author
I have no riches but my thoughts. Yet these are wealth enough for me.
—Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American Poet
I’ve known countless people who were reservoirs of learning, yet never had a thought.
—Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American Playwright, Entrepreneur
Planning allows you to mentally create a model of your future.
—Steve Pavlina (b.1971) American Motivational Speaker
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