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The collection / 592 fragments

Mind.

Explore passages mentioning mind, thought, thoughts. Topic suggestions use transparent word matching, not scholarly classification. Editorial meanings and lexical matches are discovery aids, not independent authentication of a quotation.

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Culture labels and country attributions follow the source collections; earliest origins may be unknown.

592 results · Page 14 of 25Play this collection ▷
02c. 1842 AD
The world is his, who can see through its pretension. What deafness, what stone-blind custom, what overgrown error you behold, is there only by sufferance—by your sufferance. See it to be a lie, and you have already dealt it its mortal blow.... In proportion as a man has anything in him divine, the firmament flows before him and takes his signet and form. Not he is great who can alter matter, but he who can alter my state of mind. They are the kings of the world who give the colour of their present thought to all nature and all art.... The great man makes the great thing.... Linnæus makes botany the most alluring of studies, and wins it from the farmer and the herb-woman; Davy, chemistry; and Cuvier, fossils. The day is always his, who works in it with serenity and great aims. The unstable estimates of men crowd to him whose mind is filled with a truth, as the heaped waves of the Atlantic follow the moon.
Ralph Waldo Emerson / quote
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03c. 1790 AD
An actor should take lessons from a painter and a sculptor. For an actor to represent a Greek hero it is imperative he should have thoroughly studied those antique statues which have lasted to our day, and mastered the particular grace they exhibited in their postures, whether sitting, standing, or walking. Nor should he make attitude his only study. He should highly develop his mind by an assiduous study of the best writers, ancient and modern, which will enable him not only to understand his parts, but to communicate a nobler coloring to his manners and mien.
Goethe / quote
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13In print by 1893 AD
A spur in the head is worth two in the heels.
Traditional proverb · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: Inner purpose can motivate more effectively than repeated outside pressure. The spur in the head stands for a reason someone understands or accepts, while the spurs at the heels represent urging imposed by others.

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14In print by 1893 AD
A wise man is never less alone than when alone.
Traditional proverb · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: Chosen solitude can contain rich thought rather than an absence of company. The paradox values a person’s engagement with reflection, while distinguishing welcome time alone from loneliness that someone does not want.

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16In print by 1857 AD
Every fool likes his bauble.
Traditional (French-language collection) · Unknown culture / proverb

Meaning: People become attached to their own favourite diversions, even when others see little value in them. The bauble is a small object that matters especially to its owner.

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