Mind

Environment is but his looking-glass.

James Allen, As A Man Thinketh (1902).
Variant: Mind is the Master Power that molds and
makes, And we are mind. And ever more we take
the tool of thought, and shaping what we will, bring
forth a thousand joys, or a thousand ills. We think
in secret, and it comes to pass, environment, is but
our looking glass
James Allen, As A Man Thinketh (1902).
A man is literally what he thinks, his character
being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
James Allen, As A Man Thinketh (1902).
It is the nature of the mind that makes individuals
kin, and the dierences in the shape, form or manner of the material atoms out of whose intricate relationships that mind is built are altogether trivial.
Isaac Asimov, The Beginning and the End
(1977) as quoted in Todd Siler, Breaking the
Mind Barrier (1997).
There is good evidence for a sensorimotor self,
an emotional and motivational self probably represented in the right hemisphere, a social self-system,
and perhaps an appetitive self. All these selfsystems ordinarily work in reasonable coordination
with each other, though they can be in conict at
times.

Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a

thinking reed. The entire universe need not arm itself to crush
him. A vapor, a drop of water suces to kill him. But, if the
universe were to crush him, man would still be more noble than
that which killed him, because he knows that he dies and the
advantage which the universe has over him; the universe knows
nothing of this. All our dignity consists then in thought. By it
we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and time which we
cannot ll. Let us endeavor to think well; this is the principle of
morality. ~ Blaise Pascal

Bernard J. Baars, Understanding Subjectivity: Global Workspace Theory and the Resurrection of the Observing Self Journal of Consciousness Studies, 3, No. 3, 1996, pp. 211-16.

Mind refers to the collective aspects of intellect and

consciousness which are manifest in thought, perception,
emotion, will and imagination.

They scare me more than any other ctional creature

out there because they break all the rules. Werewolves and vampires and mummies and giant sharks,
you have to go look for them. My attitude is if you
go looking for them, no sympathy. But zombies
come to you. Zombies don't act like a predator; they
act like a virus, and that is the core of my terror. A
predator is intelligent by nature, and knows not to
overhunt its feeding ground. A virus will just continue to spread, infect and consume, no matter what
happens. Its the mindlessness behind it.

Quotes
Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
1

1
Max Brooks Lance Eaton (October 2,
2006). Zombies Spreading like a Virus:
PW Talks with Max Brooks. Interview.
Publishers Weekly. Retrieved January
15, 2009
The lack of rational thought has always scared me
when it came to zombies, the idea that there is no
middle ground, no room for negotiation. That has
always terried me. Of course that applies to terrorists, but it can also apply to a hurricane, or u
pandemic, or the potential earthquake that I grew up
with living in L.A. Any kind of mindless extremism
scares me, and we're living in some pretty extreme
times.
Max Brooks (October 6, 2006). Zombie Wars. Washington Post. Retrieved
September 19, 2008.
Whatever an enemy might do to an enemy, or a foe
to a foe, the ill-directed mind can do to you even
worse.
Whatever a mother, father or other kinsman might
do for you, the well-directed mind can do for you
even better.
Gautama Buddha, Cittavagga The Mind.
Such as take lodgings in a head
Thats to be let unfurnished.
Samuel Butler, Hudibras, Part I (1663-64),
Canto I, line 161.
When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter,
And proved it,'Twas no matter what he said.
Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto IX,
Stanza 1. Allusion to a dissertation by Berkeley on Mind and Matter, found in a note by Dr.
Hawkesworth to Swifts Letters, pub. 1769.
'Tis strange the mind, that very ery particle,
Should let itself be snu'd out by an article.
Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818-24), Canto XI,
Stanza 60.
The mind which does not have a place to turn or any
stable base will undergo change from hour to hour
and from minute to minute due to the variety of its
distractions. ... By the things that come to it from
outside it will be continually transformed.

QUOTES

Fausto Cercignani in: Brian Morris, Simply

Transcribed. Quotations from Fausto Cercignani, 2014, p. 25.
Sometimes one would almost like to say: what really
matters is only the mind. But where can you nd a
mind without a body?
Fausto Cercignani in: Brian Morris, Simply
Transcribed. Quotations from Writings by
Fausto Cercignani, 2014, quote 42.
Theres nothing thats ever happened in the world
that didn't start in one human mind.
Tom Clancy, In Depth with Tom Clancy, CSPAN (3 February 2002).
The juvenile sea squirt wanders through the sea
searching for a suitable rock or hunk of coral to cling
to and make its home for life. For this task, it has a
rudimentary nervous system. When it nds its spot
and takes root, it doesn't need its brain anymore so
it eats it! (Its rather like getting tenure.)
Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained
(1991), p. 177.
Each of us knows exactly one mind from the inside,
and no two of us know the same mind from the inside.
Daniel C. Dennett, Kinds Of Minds: Toward
An Understanding Of Consciousness (2008).
The scientic course is to put the burden of proof
on the attribution. As a scientist, you can't just declare, for instance, that the presence of glutamate
molecules amounts to the presence of mind; you
have to prove it, against a background in which the
"null hypothesis" is that mind is not present. There
is substantial disagreement among scientists as to
which species have what sorts of mind, but even
those scientists who are the most ardent champions of consciousness in animals accept this burden
of proofand think they can meet it, by devising
and conrming theories that show which animals are
conscious. But no such theories are yet conrmed,
and in the meantime we can appreciate the discomfort of those who see this agnostic, wait-and-see policy as jeopardizing the moral status of creatures that
they are sure are conscious.
Daniel C. Dennett, Kinds Of Minds: Toward
An Understanding Of Consciousness (2008).

John Cassian The Conferences 1.5.2.

The best speeches are those that hurt your mind, not
your ear.

Minds are the ultimate terra incognita, beyond the

reach of all science andin the case of languageless
mindsbeyond all empathetic conversation as well.

3
So what? A little humility ought to temper our curiosity. Don't confuse ontological questions (about
what exists) with epistemological questions (about
how we know about it). We must grow comfortable
with this wonderful fact about what is o-limits to
inquiry.
Daniel C. Dennett, ibid., Kinds Of Minds...
Another prospect to consider is that among the creatures who lack language, there are some who do not
have minds at all, but do everything automatically
or unconsciously. We may never be able to tell
where to draw the line between those creatures that
have minds and those that do not, but this is just another aspect of the unavoidable limitations on our
knowledge. Such facts may be systematically unknowable, not just hard to uncover.
Daniel C. Dennett, ibid., Kinds Of Minds...
The dierences between minds might be... like the
dierences between languages, or styles of music
or artinexhaustible in the limit, but approachable
to any degree of approximation you like. But the
dierence between having a mind and not having a
mind at allbeing something with its own subjective point of view and being something that is all outside and no inside, like a rock or a discarded sliver
of ngernailis apparently an all-or-nothing dierence.
Daniel C. Dennett, ibid., Kinds Of Minds...
Minds are like parachutes: they only function
when open.
Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar, Quoted in
Giovanni Graziadei, Gestione della produzione
industriale, Hoepli, Milano, 2004, p. 65.
ISBN 88-203-3395-3. May be a bit questionable.
It appears that the tendency of mind to inltrate and
control matter is a law of the universe. Individual
minds die and individual planets may be destroyed.
But... The inltration of mind into the universe will
not be permanently halted by any catastrophe or by
any barrier that I can imagine. If our species does
not choose to lead the way, others will do so, or
may have already done so. If our species is extinguished, others will be wiser or luckier. Mind is
patient. Mind has waited for 3 billion years before
composing its rst string quartet.
Freeman Dyson, Innite in All Directions
(1988)
I do not make any clear distinction between mind
and God. God is what mind becomes when it has
passed beyond the scale of our comprehension.

Freeman Dyson, Innite in All Directions

(1988)
Matter in quantum mechanics is not an inert substance but an active agent, constantly making
choices between alternative possibilities according
to probabilistic laws. ...It appears that mind, as
manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to
some extent inherent in every electron. ...Our brains
appear to be devices for the amplication of the
mental component of the quantum choices made
by molecules inside our heads. ...There is evidence
from peculiar features of the laws of nature that the
universe as a whole is hospitable to the growth of
mind. ...an extension of the Anthropic Principle up
to a universal scale.
Freeman Dyson, Innite in All Directions
(1988)
Mind is the rst and most direct thing in our experience; all else is remote inference.
Arthur Eddington, Science and the Unseen
World (1929)
However closely we may associate thought with the
physical machinery of the brain, the connection is
dropped as irrelevant as soon as we consider the fundamental property of thoughtthat it may be correct or incorrect. ...that involves recognising a domain of the other type of lawlaws which ought to
be kept, but may be broken.
Arthur Eddington, Science and the Unseen
World (1929)
Our best scientic theory about the mind is better
than empiricism; but, in all sorts of ways, its still
not very good.
Jerry Fodor, The Trouble with Psychological
Darwinism London Review of Books, Vol. 20
No. 2, 22 January 1998, pp.11-13.
Mind is mysterious and has myriad appearances. It
cannot be identied in the way external objects can.
It has no shape, form or colour. This mere clear
awareness is of the nature of experience and feeling. It is something like colored wateralthough
the water is not of the same nature as the color, so
long as they are mixed, the true color of the water
is not obvious. Similarly, the mind does not have
the nature of external objects such as physical form,
and so forth. However the mind is so habituated
to following the ve sensory consciousnesses that it
becomes almost indistinguishable from the physical
form, shape, color and so forth, that it experiences.

QUOTES

In the province of the mind, what one believes

to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be
transcended. In the mind, there are no limits... In
the province of connected minds, what the network
believes to be true, either is true or becomes true
within certain limits to be found experientially and
experimentally. These limits are further beliefs
to be transcended. In the networks mind there
are no limits.
John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974).
Your life doesn't get any better than your mind is. ~ Sam Harris

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama, Stages of

Meditation, p. 144.
Your life doesn't get any better than your mind is:
You might have wonderful friends, perfect health,
a great career, and everything else you want, and
you can still be miserable. The converse is also true:
There are people who basically have nothingwho
live in circumstances that you and I would do more
or less anything to avoidwho are happier than we
tend to be because of the character of their minds.
Unfortunately, one glimpse of this truth is never
enough. We have to be continually reminded of it.
Sam Harris, Taming the Mind (12 April 2014).
Some, answered Imlac, have indeed said that the
soul is material, but I can scarcely believe that any
man has thought it, who knew how to think; for all
the conclusions of reason enforce the immateriality
of mind, and all the notices of sense and investigations of science, concur to prove the unconsciousness of matter.
Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas,
Prince of Abissinia (1759) Ch. 48.
[Imlac continues] It was never supposed that
cogitation is inherent in matter, or that every particle is a thinking being. Yet, if any part of matter
be devoid of thought, what part can we suppose to
think? Matter can dier from matter only in form,
density, bulk, motion, and direction of motion: to
which of these, however varied or combined, can
consciousness be annexed? To be round or square,
to be solid or uid, to be great or little, to be moved
slowly or swiftly one way or another, are modes of
material existence, all equally alien from the nature
of cogitation. If matter be once without thought, it
can only be made to think by some new modication, but all the modications which it can admit are
equally unconnected with cogitative powers.
Samuel Johnson, The History of Rasselas,
Prince of Abissinia (1759) Ch. 48.

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the

inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the
midst of black seas of innity, and it was not meant
that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated
knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we
shall either go mad from the revelation, or ee from
the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.
H. P. Lovecraft, The Call of Cthulhu (1926).
Nothing exists outside Mind. Everything that appears in your thoughts is Mind itself. This Mind
is all pervading. All dharmas, all things, all
phenomenonall are nothing but Mind.
Dennis Genpo Merzel, Beyond Sanity and
Madness (1994) p. 145.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven.
John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674),
Book I, line 254.
Some form of self-awareness is surely essential to
highly intelligent thought... On the other hand, I
doubt that any part of a mind can see very deeply
into other parts; it can only use models it constructs
of them.
Marvin Minsky, K-Lines A Theory of Memory Cognitive Science 4, pp.117-133 (1980).
The mind holds tightly to its secrets not from stinginess or shame, but simply because it does not know
them.
Marvin Minsky, Music, Mind, and Meaning
(1981).
Each agent needs to know which of its servants can
do what, but as to how, that information has no place
or use inside those tiny minds inside our minds.

5
Marvin Minsky, Music, Mind, and Meaning
(1981).
The nature of mind: much of its power seems to
stem from just the messy ways its agents crossconnect. ...its only what we must expect from evolutions countless tricks.
Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind (1988)
Prologue.
Good theories of the mind must span at least three
dierent scales of time: slow, for the billions of
years in which our brains have survivied; fast, for the
eeting weeks and months of childhood; and in between, the centuries of growth of our ideas through
history.
Marvin Minsky, The Society of Mind (1988)
Ch. 1.
Mind has come up with this brilliant way of looking
at the world science but it cant look at itself.
Science has no place for the mind. The whole of our
science is based upon empirical, repeatable experiments. Whereas thought is not in that category, you
cant take thought into a laboratory. The essential
fact of our existence, perhaps the only fact of our
existence our own thought and perception is ruled
o-side by the science it has invented. Science looks
at the universe, doesnt see itself there, doesnt see
mind there, so you have a world in which mind has
no place. We are still no nearer to coming to terms
with the actual dynamics of what consciousness is.
Alan Moore Alan Moore Interview by
Matthew De Abaitua (1998), later published
in Alan Moore: Conversations (2011) edited
by Eric L. Berlatsky.
The mind is the clear (transparent or translucent)
faculty of knowing to which things can appear and
be ascertained. The primordial mind is pure. It is
empty of itself, of inherent existence. This is our
Buddha nature. This is our Bodhi mind. It is one
thing to have clarity, it is another to use it.
Ross Moore teaching at Tara Institute, Melbourne. Nov. 2004.
If you think about it, the inside of your own mind is
the only thing you can be sure of.
Thomas Nagel, What Does It All Mean?: A
Very Short Introduction to Philosophy (1987),
Ch. 2. How Do We Know Anything?
Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature,
but he is a thinking reed. The entire universe need

not arm itself to crush him. A vapor, a drop of water suces to kill him. But, if the universe were to
crush him, man would still be more noble than that
which killed him, because he knows that he dies and
the advantage which the universe has over him; the
universe knows nothing of this.
All our dignity consists then in thought. By it
we must elevate ourselves, and not by space and
time which we cannot ll. Let us endeavor to
think well; this is the principle of morality.
Blaise Pascal, Penses, #347, W. F. Trotter, trans. (New York: 1958).
The more complex the mind, the greater the need
for the simplicity of play
Theodore Sturgeon, "Shore Leave", Star Trek:
The Original Series (aired December 29,
1966), spoken by Captain Kirk.
If, in fact, the good news we declare is veiled, it is
veiled among those who are perishing, among whom
the god of this system of things has blinded the
minds of the unbelievers, so that the illumination of
the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the
image of God, might not shine through.
Paul of Tarsus, The Second to the Corinthians
4:3-4.
But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent seduced Eve by its cunning, Your minds might be corrupted away from the sincerity and the chastity that
are due the Christ.
Paul of Tarsus; 2 Corinthians 11:3.
Emphatically did the Buddha proclaim again and
again that man is in full possession of all the resources needed for self-help. The most simple and
most comprehensive way in which he spoke about
these resources is this method of Satipahna. Its
essence may be compressed into two words: Be
mindful! That means: Be mindful of your own
mind! And why? Mind harbours all: the world of
suering and its origin, but also ills nal cessation
and the path to it. Whether one or the other will
be predominant depends again on our own mind, on
the direction that the ux of mind receives through
this very moment of mind-activity that faces us just
now. Satipahna, always dealing with this crucial
present moment of mind activity, must necessarily
be a teaching of self-reliance. But self-reliance must
be gradually developed, because men, knowing not
how to handle the tool of the mind, have become
used to leaning on others and on habit; and, owing
to that, this splendid tool, the human mind, has in
fact become unreliable through neglect.

QUOTES

Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist

Meditation (1965), pp. 78-79.

Lancelot Law Whyte, Essay on Atomism:

From Democritus to 1960 (1961).

That which possesses discriminating awareness, that

which possesses a sense of dualitywhich grasps
or rejects something externalthat is mind. Fundamentally it is that which can associate with an
'other'with a 'something', that is perceived as different from the perceiver.

The material particle or the conscious mindhas

been discovered not to be suciently unchanging to
be treated as a thing in isolation... but more often
to be the opposite: a changing system in a changing
environment.
Lancelot Law Whyte, Essay on Atomism:
From Democritus to 1960 (1961).

Chogyam Trungpa Rimpoche, 'The Heart of

the Buddha' [Boston; Shambala, 1991], p. 23.
O the depth of Gods riches and wisdom and
knowledge! How unsearchable his judgments are
and beyond tracing out his ways are! For who has
come to know Jehovahs mind, or who has become
his adviser? Or, who has rst given to him, so that
it must be repaid to him? 36 Because from him and
by him and for him are all things. To him be the
glory forever. Amen.
Romans 11:33-36, New World Translation.
The mind within the senses does not dwell, It has no
place in outer things, like form, And in between, the
mind does not abide;
Not out, not in, not elsewhere can the mind be found.
Something not within the body, and yet nowhere
else, That does not merge with it nor stand apart
Something such as this does not exist, not even
slightly. Beings have nirvana in their nature.
Shantideva, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara), Chapter 9 verse 102-103,
Shambala Publications ISBN 1-57062-253-1.
If the mind is empty, it is always ready for anything;
it is open to everything. In the beginners mind there
are many possibilities, in the experts mind there are
few.
Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginners Mind;
p. 21.
Its a great question about what is our mind. Undoubtedly a creation of our brain.
Jerzy Vetulani, Sta si dobrym. To si opaca
(interview), Gazeta Wyborcza, 2426 December 2011.
No scientist has yet provided an acceptable denition of mind or mental that reveals the character of unconscious mental processes, and no physicist a lucid denition of elementary particles that
shows how they can appear or disappear, and why
there are so many.

1.1

Hoyts New Cyclopedia Of Practical

Quotations
Quotes reported in Hoyts New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 513-16.

I had rather believe all the fables in the Legends and

the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that this universal
frame is without a mind.
Francis Bacon, Essays, Of Atheism.
That last inrmity of noble mind.
The Tragedy of Sir John Van Olden Barnevelt
(1622).
All the choir of heaven and furniture of earthin
a word, all those bodies which compose the mighty
frame of the worldhave not any subsistence without a mind.
George Berkeley (Bishop of Cloyne), Principles of Human Knowledge.
Measure your minds height by the shade it casts.
Robert Browning, Paracelsus, II.
The march of the human mind is slow.
Edmund Burke, speech on the Conciliation of
America.
I love my neighbor as myself,
Myself like him too, by his leave,
Nor to his pleasure, power or pelf
Came I to crouch, as I conceive.
Dame Nature doubtless has designed
A man the monarch of his mind.
John Byrom, Careless Content.
Constant attention wears the active mind,
Blots out our pow'rs, and leaves a blank behind.
Charles Churchill, Epistle to Hogarth, line 647.

1.1

Hoyts New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Animi cultus quasi quidam humanitatis cibus.

The cultivation of the mind is a kind of food
supplied for the soul of man.
Cicero, De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, V.
19.
Frons est animi janua.
The forehead is the gate of the mind.
Cicero, Oratio De Provinciis Consularibus, XI.
Morbi perniciores pluresque animi quam corporis.
The diseases of the mind are more and more
destructive than those of the body.
Cicero, Tusculanarum Disputationum, III. 3.
In anime perturbato, sicut in corpore, sanitas esse non
potest.
In a disturbed mind, as in a body in the same
state, health can not exist.
Cicero, Tusculanarum Disputationum, III. 4.
Absence of occupation is not rest,
A mind quite vacant is a mind distressd.
William Cowper, Retirement.
His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
William Cowper, Truth, line 405.
How eet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its ight,
The tempest itself lags behind,
And the swift-winged arrows of light.
William Cowper, verses supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk.
Natures rst great titlemind.
George Croly, Pericles and Aspasia.
As that the walls worn thin, permit the mind
To look out through, and his Frailty nd.
Samuel Daniel, History of the Civil War, Book
IV, Stanza 84.
Babylon in all its desolation is a sight not so awful as
that of the human mind in ruins.
Scrope Davies, letter to Thomas Raikes (May
25, 1835).

7
My mynde to me a kingdome is
Such preasent joyes therein I fynde
That it excells all other blisse
That earth aorde or growes by kynde
Though muche I wante which moste would have
Yet still my mynde forbiddes to crave.
Edward Dyer, Rawlinson MSS, 85, p. 17.
(In the Bodleian Library at Oxford). Words
changed by Byrd when he set it to music.
Quoted by Ben Jonson, Every Man out of his
Humour, I. 1. Found in Percys Reliques. Series I, Book III. No. V. And in J. Sylvesters
Works, p. 651.
My minde to me a kingdome is,
Such perfect joy therein I nde
As farre exceeds all earthly blisse
That God or Nature hath assignde
Though much I want that most would have
Yet still my minde forbids to crave.
William Byrds rendering of Dyers verse,
when he set it to music. See his Psalmen,
Sonets and Songs made into Musicke. Printed
by Thomas East. (No date. Later edition,
1588).
God is Mind, and God is all; hence all is Mind.
Mary Baker G. Eddy, Science and Health,
Chapter XIV.
A great mind is a good sailor, as a great heart is.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English Traits, Voyage
to England, Chapter II.
Each mind has its own method.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays, Intellect.
Wer fertig ist, dem ist nichts recht zu machen,
Ein Werdender wird immer dankbar sein.
A mind, once formed, is never suited after,
One yet in growth will ever grateful be.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, Vorspiel
auf dem Theater, line 150.
Vain, very vain, my weary search to nd
That bliss which only centers in the mind.
Oliver Goldsmith, Traveler, line 423.
A noble mind disdains to hide his head,
And let his foes triumph in his overthrow.
Robert Greene, Alphonso, King of Arragon,
Act I.

1
The mind is like a sheet of white paper in this, that
the impressions it receives the oftenest, and retains
the longest, are black ones.
J. C. and A. W. Hare, Guesses at Truth.
Lumen siccum optima anima.
The most perfect mind is a dry light.
The obscure saying of Heraclitus, quoted by
Bacon, who explains it as a mind not steeped
and infused in the humors of the aections.
Whose little body lodged a mighty mind.
Homer, The Iliad, Book V, line 999. Popes
translation.
A faultless body and a blameless mind.
Homer, The Odyssey, Book III, line 138.
Popes translation.
The glory of a rm capacious mind.
Homer, The Odyssey, Book IV, line 262.
Popes translation.
And bear unmov'd the wrongs of base mankind,
The last, and hardest, conquest of the mind.
Homer, The Odyssey, Book XIII, line 353.
Popes translation.
Sperat infestis, metuit secundis
Alteram sortem, bene preparatum
Pectus.
A well-prepared mind hopes in adversity and
fears in prosperity.
Horace, Carmina, II. 10. 13.
Qu ldunt oculum festinas demere; si quid
Est animum, diers curandi tempus in annum.
If anything aects your eye, you hasten to have
it removed; if anything aects your mind, you
postpone the cure for a year.
Horace, Epistles, I. 238.
Acclinis falsis animus meliora recusat.
A mind that is charmed by false appearances
refuses better things.
Horace, Satire, II. 2. 6.
Quin corpus onustum
Hesternis vitiis, animum quoque prgravat una
Atque agit humo divin particulam aur.

QUOTES

The body loaded by the excess of yesterday, depresses the mind also, and xes to the
ground this particle of divine breath.
Horace, Satires, II. 2. 77.
The true, strong, and sound mind is the mind that
can embrace equally great things and small.
Samuel Johnson, reported in James Boswell,
Life of Samuel Johnson (1778).
What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never
mind.
T. H. Key, once Head Master of University
School, On the authority of F. J. Furnivall.
Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower,
Watching what had come upon Mankind,
Showed the Man the Glory and the Power
And bade him shape the Kingdom to his mind.
......
That a mans mind is wont to tell him more
Than Seven Watchmen sitting in a tower.
Rudyard Kipling, Dedication to Seven Watchmen.
La gravit est un mystre du corps invent pour cacher
les dfauts de l'esprit.
Gravity is a mystery of the body invented to
conceal the defects of the mind.
Franois de La Rochefoucauld, Maximes, 257.
Nobody, I believe, will deny, that we are to form our
judgment of the true nature of the human mind, not
from sloth and stupidity of the most degenerate and
vilest of men, but from the sentiments and fervent
desires of the best and wisest of the species.
Robert Leighton, Theological Lectures, No. 5,
Of the Immortality of the Soul.
Whoever has received from the divine bounty a large
share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and material, or gifts of the mind, has received
them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that
he may employ them, as the steward of Gods providence, for the benet of others.
Pope Leo XIII Rerum novarum (1891), p. 22
Stern men with empires in their brains.
James Russell Lowell, The Biglow Papers
(1848), Second Series. No. 2.

1.1

Hoyts New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

O miseras hominum menteis! oh, pectora cca!

How wretched are the minds of men, and how
blind their understandings.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, II. 14.
Cum corpore ut una
Crescere sentimus pariterque senescere mentemItalic
text.
We plainly perceive that the mind strengthens
and decays with the body.
Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, III. 446.
The conformation of his mind was such, that whatever was little seemed to him great, and whatever
was great seemed to him little.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron
Macaulay, On Horace Walpole.
Rationi nulla resistunt.
Claustra nec immens moles, ceduntque recessus:
Omnia succumbunt, ipsum est penetrabile clum.
No barriers, no masses of matter, however
enormous, can withstand the powers of the
mind the remotest corners yield to them; all
things succumb, the very heaven itself is laid
open.
Marcus Manilius, Astronomica. I. 541.
Clothed, and in his right mind.
Mark. V. 15; Luke, VIII. 35.
The social states of human kinds
Are made by multitudes of minds,
And after multitudes of years
A little human growth appears
Worth having, even to the soul
Who sees most plain its not the whole.
John Maseeld, Everlasting Mercy, Stanza 60.
Mensque pati durum sustinet gra nihil.
The sick mind can not bear anything harsh.
Ovid, Epistol Ex Ponto, I. 5. 18.
Mens sola loco non exulat.
The mind alone can not be exiled.
Ovid, Epistol Ex Ponto,,, IV. 9. 41.
Conscia mens recti fam mendacia risit.
A mind conscious of right laughs at the falsehoods of rumour.

9
Ovid, Fasti, Book IV. 311.
Pro superi! quantum mortalia pectora cc,
Noctis habent.
Heavens! what thick darkness pervades the
minds of men.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, VI. 472.
It is the mind that makes the man, and our vigour is
in our immortal soul.
Ovid, Metamorphoses, XIII.
Corpore sed mens est gro magis gra; malique
In circumspectu stat sine ne sui.
The mind is sicker than the sick body; in contemplation of its suerings it becomes hopeless.
Ovid, Tristium, IV. 6. 43.
Be ye all of one mind.
I Peter, III. 8.
Animus quod perdidit optat,
Atque in prterita se totus imagine versat.
The mind wishes for what it has missed, and
occupies itself with retrospective contemplation.
Petronius Arbiter, Satyricon.
Habet cerebrum sensus arcem; hic mentis est regimen.
The brain is the citadel of the senses: this
guides the principle of thought.
Pliny the Elder, Historia Naturalis, XI. 49. 2.
Strength of mind is exercise, not rest.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34),
Epistle II, line 104.
Love, Hope, and Joy, fair pleasures smiling train,
Hate, Fear, and Grief, the family of pain,
These mix'd with art, and to due bounds conn'd
Make and maintain the balance of the mind.
Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man (1733-34),
Epistle II, line 117.
My minds my kingdom.
Francis Quarles, School of the Heart, Ode IV,
Stanza 3.

10

Mens mutatione recreabitur; sicut in cibis, quorum diversitate recitur stomachus, et pluribus minore fastidio alitur.
Our minds are like our stomachs; they are
whetted by the change of their food, and variety supplies both with fresh appetite.
Quintilian, De Institutione Oratoria, I. 11. 1.
Whose cockloft is unfurnished.
Franois Rabelais, The Authors Prologue to
the Fifth Book.
Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Romans, XIV. 5.
Un corps dbile aoiblit l'me.
A feeble body weakens the mind.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, mile, I.
Tanto miser l'uom quant' ei si riputa.
Man is only miserable so far as he thinks himself so.
Jacopo Sannazaro, Ecloga Octava.
Magnam fortunam magnus animus decet.
A great mind becomes a great fortune.
Seneca the Younger, De Clementia, I. 5.

QUOTES

William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1600-02), Act

III, scene 1, line 158.
The incessant care and labour of his mind
Hath wrought the mure that should conne it in
So thin that life looks through and will break out.
William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part II (c.
1597-99), Act IV, scene 4, line 118.
And when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt,
The organs, though defunct and dead before,
Break up their drowsy grave and newly move
With casted slough and fresh legerity.
William Shakespeare, Henry V (c. 1599), Act
IV, scene 1, line 20.
'Tis but a base, ignoble mind
That mounts no higher than a bird can soar.
William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part II (c.
1590-91), Act II, scene 1, line 13.
For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich.
William Shakespeare, The Taming of the
Shrew (c. 1593-94), Act IV, scene 3, line 174.
'Tis pity bounty had not eyes behind,
That man mignt ae'er be wretched for his mind.
William Shakespeare, Timon of Athens (date
uncertain, published 1623), Act I, scene 2, line
170.

Valentior omni fortuna animus est: in utramque

partem ipse res suas ducit, beatque miser vit sibi
causa est.

Now, the melancholy god protect thee; and the tailor

make thy doublet of changeable taeta, for thy mind
is a very opal.

The mind is the master over every kind of fortune: itself acts in both ways, being the cause
of its own happiness and misery.

William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 160102), Act II, scene 4, line 74.

Seneca the Younger, Epistol Ad Lucilium,

XCVIII.

Not body enough to cover his mind decently with;

his intellect is improperly exposed.

For I do not distinguish them by the eye, but by the

mind, which is the proper judge of the man.
Seneca the Younger, Of a Happy Life, Chapter
I. (L'Estranges Abstract).
Mens bona regnum possidet.
A good mind possesses a kingdom.
Seneca the Younger, Thyestes, Act II. 380.
O, what a noble mind is here o'erthrown!
The courtiers, soldiers, scholars, eye, tongue,
sword!

Sydney Smith, Lady Hollands Memoir, Volume I, p. 258.

I feel no care of coin;
Well-doing is my wealth;
My mind to me an empire is,
While grace aordeth health.
Robert Southwell, Content and Rich (Look
Home).
Mans mind a mirror is of heavenly sights,
A brief wherein all marvels summd lie,
Of fairest forms and sweetest shapes the store,
Most graceful all, yet thought may grace them more.

1.2

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989)

11

Robert Southwell, Content and Rich (Look 1.2

Home).

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of

Quotations (1989)

A ower more sacred than far-seen success

Perfumes my solitary path; I nd
Sweet compensation in my humbleness,
And reap the harvest of a quiet mind.
John Townsend Trowbridge, Twoscore and
Ten, Stanza 28.
Mens sibi conscia recti.
A mind conscious of its own rectitude.
Virgil, neid (29-19 BC), I. 604.
Mens agitat molem.
Mind moves matter.
Virgil, neid (29-19 BC), VI. 727.
Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futur,
Et servare modum, rebus sublata secundis.
The mind of man is ignorant of fate and future
destiny, and can not keep within due bounds
when elated by prosperity.
Virgil, neid (29-19 BC), X. 501.
The souls dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made.
Waller, Verses upon his Divine Poesy; compare
Longinus, De Sab, Section XXII.
Mind is the great lever of all things; human thought
is the process by which human ends are alternately
answered.
Daniel Webster, address at the Laying of the
Corner Stone of the Bunker Hill Monument.
You will turn it over once more in what you are
pleased to call your mind.
Lord Westbury, to a solicitor. See Nash, Life
of Lord Westbury, Volume II, p. 292.
A man of hope and forward-looking mind.
William Wordsworth, The Excursion (1814),
Book VII. 278.
In years that bring the philosophic mind.
William Wordsworth, Ode, Intimations of Immortality, Stanza 10.
Minds that have nothing to confer
Find little to perceive.
William Wordsworth, Yes! Thou Art Fair.

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little

minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers
and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self-Reliance, Essays: First Series (vol. 2 of The Complete
Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson), p. 57
(1903).
The mind is never satised with the objects immediately before it, but is always breaking away from
the present moment, and losing itself in schemes of
future felicity. The natural ights of the human
mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from
hope to hope.
Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, no. 2, March
24, 1750. The Rambler; A Periodical Paper,
Published in 1750, 1751, 1752, p. 3 (1825).
Cultivated mind is the guardian genius of Democracy, and while guided and controlled by virtue, the
noblest attribute of man. It is the only dictator that
freemen acknowledge, and the only security which
freemen desire.
Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, president of
the Republic of Texas, rst message to both
houses of Congress of the Republic of Texas,
Houston, Texas, December 21, 1838.The
Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar, ed.
Charles A. Gulick, Jr., vol. 2, p. 348 (1922).
When a public school was a novelty and the
Republics treasury and credit were at their
lowest, only a daring mind and a champion
of enlightened liberty could have conceived
the idea for insuring the education of the future Texas generations. Philip Graham, The
Life and Poems of Mirabeau B. Lamar, p. 53
(1938).
If there is anything in the world that can really be
called a mans property, it is surely that which is the
result of his mental activity.
Attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer. Reported
as unveried in Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989).
If we work upon marble, it will perish; if we work
on brass, time will eace it. If we rear temples, they
will crumble to dust. But if we work on mens immortal minds, if we impress on them high principles, the just fear of God, and love for their fellowmen, we engrave on those tablets something which
no time can eace, and which will brighten and
brighten to all eternity.

12

3
Daniel Webster, speech to the City Council,
Boston, Massachusetts, May 22, 1852. The
Writings and Speeches of Daniel Webster, vol.
13, p. 51819 (1903).

See also
Brain
Consciousness
Intellect
Mindfulness
Psychology
Thought

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