Quotations on Thinking

You know that I love quotations.  I write quotations down in my notebook--and I re-read quotations that are in my notebook.  Here are a wonderful series of quotations on thinking.

"A rush of thoughts is the only conceivable prosperity."  I know that is true for me.  To have some good thoughts--about teaching, about dancing, about my children--to have some good thoughts is to be rich.  It is not what you have but how you feel about what you have.  And I have only begun to explain that wonderful saying: "A rush of thoughts is the only conceivable prosperity."  That also says that money is not the only way to achieve happiness.  The saying also hints that the only true reality is the reality inside you mind--and that the mind does get a rush--a high--when it thinks good thoughts.

Here's a second quotation on thinking: "A man may dwell so long upon a thought, it may take him prisoner."  Or, too much thinking may be bad.  People do get obsessed with certain ideas--they become prisoners of their thoughts--rather than controllers, directors, of their thoughts.

And here are a pair of quotations about evil thoughts: "Our thoughts are often worse than we are."  What a wise quotation.  One would hope that our thoughts are worse than we are.  All of us have so many thoughts, so many fleeting ideas.  We have far more thoughts--and far more contradictory thoughts--than we have actions.  What we finally decide to do is only one of the many things we thought of doing.  I would almost rewrite the saying into "Our thoughts are Always worse than we are."

And here's a different way of saying the preceding: "Evil thoughts are birds which fly above a scarecrow.  Our only responsibility is to prevent them from settling."  This saying seems to admit that evil thoughts--like birds--are a part of nature.  There is no way we can eradicate evil thoughts.  Like birds they will always hover high in the sky waiting to feed on luscious crops.

It is the scarecrow's responsibility--are we scarecrows?--to prevent the birds from landing.  So long as we keep the birds--the evil thoughts--up in the air, we are doing just fine: nature, in all its splendor--good & evil, is preserved.  We may harbor evil thoughts, but we plant good crops, and we wisely keep a scarecrow in our field to keep the evil thoughts we do harbor up in the air--and not amidst the crops we planted--or in the midst of the lives we lead.

Here again are the four quotations about thinking: "A rush of thoughts is the only conceivable prosperity."  "A man can dwell so long upon a thought, it may take him prisoner."  "Our thoughts are often worse than we are."  And finally, "Evil thoughts are birds which fly above a scarecrow whose sole responsibility is to prevent them from settling."

 

Copyright © 2004   Henry Morgenstein

Henry's Home Page