Quotes About Thoughts, Self-Talk, and the Mind
Ready to conquer your inner critic? Check out these powerful quotes for some motivation.
“Our greatest battles are that with our own minds.”
— Jameson Frank
“If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.”
— Vincent Van Gogh
“What consumes your mind controls your life.”
— Creed
“You don’t have to control your thoughts. You just have to stop letting them control you.”
— Dan Millman
“You cannot have a positive life and a negative mind.”
— Joyce Meyer
“The voice in your head that says ‘you can’t do this’ is a liar.”
— Unknown
“My life has been filled with terrible misfortune, most of which never happened.”
— Michel de Montaigne
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.”
— Ken Venturi
“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”
— Sir Edmund Hillary
“Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”
― Kahlil Gibran
“Change your thoughts and you change your world.”
— Norman Vincent Peale
“You either control your mind or it controls you.”
— Napoleon Hill
“Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.”
— James Dean
“You can’t be that kid standing at the top of the waterslide, overthinking it. You have to go down the chute.”
— Tina Fey
“Worry is a misuse of imagination.”
— Unknown
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
— Marcus Aurelius
“Has worrying about tomorrow every changed it?”
― Max Lucado
“While we may not be able to control all that happens to us, we can control what happens inside us.”
— Ben Franklin
“Don't be pushed around by the fears in your mind. Be led by the dreams in your heart.”
— Roy T. Bennett
“Our mind should be soft and open enough to understand things as they are; it is called mindfulness.”
— Shunryu Suzuki
“Minds are like parachutes. They only function properly when open.”
— Unknown
“Let go of the thoughts that don’t make you strong."
— Karen Salmansohn
“Make sure your worst enemy doesn’t live between your own two ears.”
— Laird Hamilton
“Use your imagination not to scare yourself to death, but to inspire yourself to life.”
— Adele Brookman
“You wouldn’t worry so much about what people really thought of you if you knew just how seldom they actually do.”
— Unknown
“The mind is its own place, and in itself, can make a heaven of Hell, a hell of Heaven.”
— John Milton
“Give space to your thoughts, clear the noise in your head, chit-chat with your inner critic, decide and move on.”
― Cristina Imre
“To do: stop being so hard on myself.”
— Unknown
“Your body hears everything your mind says.”
— Naomi Judd
“It’s not who you think you are that holds you back; it’s who you think you’re not.”
— Unknown
“The longest journey of any person is the journey inward.”
— Dag Hammerskjold
“In life we can have results or reasons. If you are not getting the results you want, your reasons are the lies that you keep telling yourself.”
— Harald Anderson
“I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.”
— Mahatma Gandhi
“Your mind will quit a thousand times before your body will.”
— Reginald Red
“If you spend too much time thinking about a thing, you’ll never get it done.”
— Bruce Lee
“The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.”
— Albert Einstein
“Accountability, is the state or condition of being accountable or responsible. That is right. We are responsible for what goes on in our heads.”
— John Vaulkner
“You cannot always control what goes on outside, but you can always control what goes on inside.”
— Wayne Dyer
“Whatever gets you moving and out of your head is good for you.”
— Marty Rubin
“The body achieves what the mind believes.”
— Unknown
“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.”
— Dalai Lama
“Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength.”
— Unknown
“Be great in act, as you have been in thought.”
— Shakespeare
“The only one who can tell you ‘you can’t win’ is you and you don’t have to listen.”
— Jessica Ennis
“You cannot plow a field by turning it over in your mind. To begin, begin.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley
“The mind is the most important part of achieving any fitness goal. Mental change always comes before physical change.”
— Matt McGorry
“The same voice that says ‘give up’ can also be trained to say ‘keep going’.”
— Unknown
“Life isn't as serious as the mind makes it out to be.”
— Eckhart Tolle
“At every moment, we always have a choice, even if it feels as if we don’t. Sometimes that choice may simply be to think a more positive thought.”
― Tina Turner
“To worry is like rocking in a rocking chair. It gives you something to do but gets you nowhere.”
— Unknown
“If you are depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future, if you are at peace, you are living in the present.”
― Lao Tzu
“Don’t believe everything you think. Thoughts are just that - thoughts.”
— Allan Lokos
“None but ourselves can free out minds.”
— Bob Marley
“All we are is the result of all we have thought.”
— Buddha
“If you start to think the problem is ‘out there,’ stop yourself. That thought is the problem.”
— Stephen Covey
"It is confidence in our bodies, minds, and spirits that allows us to keep looking for new adventures."
— Oprah Winfrey
“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.”
― William Burroughs
“Fears over tomorrow and regrets over yesterday are twin thieves that rob us of the moment.”
— Unknown
“A healthy outside starts from the inside.”
— Robert Urich
“Decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying.”
― Amelia Earhart
“Values are related to our emotions, just as we practice physical hygiene to preserve our physical health, we need to observe emotional hygiene to preserve a healthy mind and attitudes.”
— Dalai Lama
“Now is no time to think of what you do not have. Think of what you can do with what there is.”
― Ernest Hemingway
“You're far too smart to be the only thing standing in your way.”
― Unknown
“Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream.”
— John Lennon
“Pay attention to what you pay attention to.”
— Amy Krouse Rosenthal
"You wouldn't worry so much about what others think of you if you realized how seldom they do."
— Eleanor Roosevelt
“It's not what you say out of your mouth that determines your life, it's what you whisper to yourself that has the most power!”
― Robert T. Kiyosaki
“I’ve lived through some terrible things in my life, some of which actually happened.”
— Mark Twain
“True wisdom requires both thinking with our head and understanding with our heart.”
— Jane Goodall
“Your body can stand almost anything. It’s your mind that you have to convince.”
— Andrew Murphy
“Your goal is not to battle with the mind, but to witness the mind.”
— Swami Muktananda
“May all beings have happy minds.”
— The Buddha
“Meditation is not a way of making your mind quiet. It is a way of entering into the quiet that is already there - buried under the 50,000 thoughts the average person thinks every day.”
— Deepak Chopra
“Mind is a flexible mirror, adjust it, to see a better world.”
— Amit Ray