Quotes about Mindset

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.

Our actions may be impeded... But there can be no impeding our intentions or our dispositions. Because we can accommodate and adapt. The mind adapts and converts to its own purposes the obstacle to our acting. The impeding to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

You have the power within you to endure anything, for your mere opinion can render it tolerable, perhaps even acceptable, by regarding it as an opportunity for enlightenment or a matter of duty.

To change your experience, change your opinion. If you're upset by something outside you, it's not the thing itself that upsets you, but your opinion of it. And it's in your power to wipe away that opinion immediately.

Your character is simply the sum of your thoughts over time.

Remember, however, that you are formed by nature to bear everything whose tolerability depends on your own opinion to make it so, by thinking that it is in your interest or duty to do so.

You can live here as you expect to live there.

External things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them. Which you can erase right now. If the problem is something in your own character, who's stopping you from setting your mind straight? And if it's that you're not doing something you think you should be, why not just do it? —But there are insuperable obstacles. Then it's not a problem. The cause of your inaction lies outside you.

If you are distressed about anything, the pain is not one to the thing but to your own estimate to it.

What do you want, rational minds or irrational?" Rational minds. "What sort of rational minds, calm or disturbed?" Calm. "How can you acquire calm, rational minds?" We already have them. "Really? Then why are you squabbling among yourselves?" —Socrates

Indeed, no one can thwart the purposes of your mind—for they can't be touched by fire, steel, tyranny, slander, or anything.

But true good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, and good actions.