Empty Mind Quotes

An empty mind is a safe mind," he'd say, though I wanted to fill my head with knowledge until it overflowed. ~ Lindsay Smith

Was it possible to feel love with an empty mind? For if the mind was empty, then it was empty of love too. ~ Luke Davies

She would go off in the morning with the punt full of books, and spend long glorious days away in the forest lying on the green springy carpet of whortleberries, reading. She would most diligently work at furnishing her empty mind. She would sternly endeavour to train it not to jump. ~ Elizabeth Von Arnim

Focus on what you like and forget about what you don't like, before it drains all your energy.Full equipment on the hands of an empty mind is useless, I prefer a full mind with empty hands. ~ Cyc Jouzy

There is nothing as stale as an empty mind. ~ Daniel Kemp

The undisturbed mind is like the calm body water reflecting the brilliance of the moon. Empty the mind and you will realize the undisturbed mind. ~ Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi

The first thing that stuck in the minds of the disciples was not the empty tomb, but rather the empty grave clothes - undisturbed in form and position. ~ Josh McDowell

To be prejudiced is the privilege of the thinking human being ... The open mind is the empty mind. ~ Rose Macaulay

I am an empty mind with an empty body and with an empty soul. I am neither haunting for anything nor something. ~ Santosh Kalwar

Full mind is the mind of stupid man; empty mind is the mind of wise man! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

The empty mind - the pure mind - is not a blank, zero-land, where you're not feeling or caring about anything. It's an effulgence of the mind. It's a brightness that is truly sensitive and accepting. It's an ability to accept life as it is. When we accept life as it is, we can respond appropriately to the way we're experiencing it, rather than just reacting out of fear and aversion. ~ Ajahn Sumedho

When you have an empty mind, you are prepared for the next thing that happens. It's like to be part of a spiritual practice for me simply means that you are there now. Not waiting for the next moment, or not living in the moment before, but you're there now. And it's there now which can only be really breathed and lived if the mind is empty enough to receive it. ~ George Ogilvie

He who speaks from the lips chatters. He who speaks from an empty mind adds confusion to discord. He who speaks from a full mind feeds the minds of men. He who speaks from his heart wins the confidence of mankind. But he who speaks from his soul heals the heartbreaks of a world and feeds the hungry, starving souls of men. He can dry the tears of anguish and pain. He can bring light, for he will carry light. ~ Annalee Skarin

Travel's greatest purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one. ~ William Hazlitt

During the late nights, try to walk in the empty streets with an empty mind! Light of wisdom will soon accompany you! ~ Mehmet Murat Ildan

To become learned, each day add something. To become enlightened, each day drop something. ~ Lao-Tzu

We are told that if you are not occupied with the mind all the time, then you will invite the devil. It is such a heightened misconception that people are going crazy just because of this. An empty mind is not the devil's home but an empty mind is the home of the Buddha. ~ Anandmurti Gurumaa

If you say you have an empty mind and you don't have an empty mind, you only know later that you have an empty mind. Because if you say you have empty mind, you don't have empty mind, because you're already thinking about it. ~ Hamid Drake

[I]f a man bred to the seafaring life, and accustomed to think and talk only of matters relating to navigation, enters into discourse upon any other subject; it is well known, that the language and the notions proper to his own profession are infused into every subject, and all things are measured by the rules of navigation: and if he should take it into his head to philosophize concerning the faculties of the mind, it cannot be doubted, but he would draw his notions from the fabric of the ship, and would find in the mind, sails, masts, rudder, and compass. ~ Thomas Reid

I learned that if you want to get somewhere, you just make up your mind and work like hell til you get there. ~ S.E. Hinton

We have to learn how to control our minds. We have to learn self-control. ~ Francis Chan

We need to bear in mind that our opinion of other people, our ties with friends or family, have only the semblance of fixity and are, in fact, as eternally fluid as the sea. ~ Marcel Proust

He knew how the audition was going to affect their lives for the next ten weeks as she slowly lost her mind from nerves and the strain of trying to scrounge precious practice time from an already jam-packed life. No matter how much time poor Sam gave her, it would never be quite enough, because what she actually needed was for him and the kids to just temporarily not exist. She needed to slip into another dimension where she was a single, childless person. Just between now and the audition. She needed to go to a mountain chalet (somewhere with good acoustics) and live and breathe nothing but music. Go for walks. Meditate. Eat well. Do all those positive-visualization exercises young musicians did these days. She had an awful suspicion that if she were to do this in reality, she might not even miss Sam and the children that much, or if she did miss them, it would be quite bearable. ~ Liane Moriarty

But I don't think of any particular viewer in mind other than myself. ~ Richard Serra

Everybody is bound by some social rules. But I think that artists need some kind of freedom to explore their minds and that some of them tend to take that freedom to live a little more openly or a little more dangerously, sometimes a lot more self-destructively, than other people. ~ Anne Roiphe

Love is a response to values. The amoralist's actual self-appraisal is revealed in his abnormal need to be loved (but not in the rational sense of the word) - to be "loved for himself," i.e., causelessly. James Taggart reveals the nature of such a need: "I don't want to be loved for anything. I want to be loved for myself - not for anything I do or have or say or think. For myself - not for my body or mind or words or works or actions." (Atlas Shrugged.) When his wife asks: "But then ... what is yourself?" he has no answer. ~ Ayn Rand

DO WHAT YOUR HEART tells you to do, and hope for the best had been Lou's advice. Elizabeth found it ironic that her heart was telling her to murder Caroline Bingley and dispose of the body in the San Francisco Bay.
"No, those floatation devices on her chest will keep her from sinking," she murmured to herself as she steered her car toward Darcy's place. "Better to give her the dirt nap." Homicidal fantasies had filled her mind for the past twenty-four hours. ~ Sara Angelini

One should pray to God not for the alleviation of suffering, but for peace of mind. Once you have peace of mind, your problems will vanish. You can even escape the consequences of your actions, if you have God's Grace. After the expiry date, a medicine loses its potency. Similarly, if you acquire God's Grace, the consequences of your actions will have no effect on you. In order to bring your consequences to expiry, prayer is essential. You have to pray wholeheartedly. ~ Publications Division

He walked back to St George's-in-the-East, which in his mind he had now reduced to a number of surfaces against which the murderer might have leaned in sorrow, desperation or even, perhaps, joy. For this reason it was worth examining the blackened stones in detail, although he realised that the marks upon them had been deposited by many generations of men and women. It was now a matter of received knowledge in the police force that no human being could rest or move in any area without leaving some trace of his or her identity; but if the walls of the Wapping church were to be analysed by emission spectroscopy, how many partial or residual spectra might be detected? And he had an image of a mob screaming to be set free as he guided his steps towards the tower which rose above the houses cluttered around Red Maiden Lane, Crab Court and Rope Walk. ~ Peter Ackroyd

There is scarcely a page of the Bible on which an open mind does not perceive a contradiction, an unlikely story, an obvious error, an historical impossibility of one sort or another. ~ Steve Allen

My body has never been to Europe. My mind has never left it. ~ Brian Spellman

Imagination stimulates your thinking power by giving your mind abundant data with which to work. It opens the gate to dreams and fantasies so that you may become receptive, as a little child, in exploring the Kingdom of Ideas. ~ Wilferd Peterson

I think way too much and speak way too little. ~ Lidia Longorio

If you slip or have a minor fall, don't allow yourself an instant's pause. Find your pace again the moment you get up. In your mind take careful note of the circumstances of your fall, but don't let your body linger over what happened. The body constantly tries to draw attention to itself by its shiverings, its breathlessness, its palpitations, its shudders and sweats and cramps; but it reacts quickly to any scorn and indifference in its master. Once it senses that he is not taken in by its jeremiads, once it understands that it will inspire no pity for it that way, then it comes into line and obediently accomplishes its task. ~ Rene Daumal

I hurried over to Conrad, walking so fast I kicked up sand behind me. "Hey, I'm gonna get a ride," I said breathlessly.
The blond Red Sox girl looked me up and down. "Hello," she said.
Conrad said, "With who?"
I pointed at Cam. "Him."
"You're not riding with someone you don't even know," he said flatly.
"I do so know him. He's Sextus."
He narrowed his eyes. "Sex what?"
"Never mind. His name is Cam, he's studying whales, and you don't get to decide who I ride home with. I was just letting you know, as a courtesy. I wasn't asking for your permission." I started to walk away, but he grabbed my elbow.
"I don't care what he's studying. It's not gonna happen," he said casually, but his grip was tight. "If you want to go, I'll take you."
I took a deep breath. I had to keep cool. I wasn't going to let him goad me into being a baby, not in front of all these people. "No, thanks," I said, trying to walk away again. But he didn't let go.
"I thought you already had a boyfriend?" His tone was mocking, and I knew he'd seen through my lie the night before.
I wanted so badly to throw a handful of sand in his face. I tried to twist out of his grip. "Let go of me! That hurts!"
He let go immediately, his face red. It didn't really hurt, but I wanted to embarrass him the way he was embarrassing me. I said loudly, "I'd rather ride with a stranger than with someone who's been drinking!"
"I've had one beer," he snapped. "I weigh a hun ~ Jenny Han

TEMPLE
When the mind goes within (no-mind state) and the true nature of being is revealed, then the mind is a temple. ~ Sirshree

She started to scream. She screamed and screamed and screamed. Her vision was numb. There was a window in front of her but it opened into a nothingness like the one yawning from her mouth. Somewhere she could hear a building sound, a wind, huge and wide, rushing out of the void, rushing toward her. The walls, the veils in her head, they tore, they ripped, they collapsed. The wind rushed over his empty voice and the Ada thought with a sudden final clarity--
She has come. She has come for me at last. ~ Akwaeke Emezi

He went to India to "find himself" last year, but evidently he wasn't there, and he came back empty-handed. ~ Craig McLay

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind. ~ Bernard M. Baruch

I'm a very emotional person. If I've got something on my mind, that would stop me from giving my best. ~ Jeff Beck

Blind eyes can perceive more than an ignorant mind ~ Faisal Khosa

Awareness is something apart from, and different from, all that of which we are aware: thoughts, emotions, images, sensations, desires and memory. Awareness is the ground in which the mind's contents manifest themselves; they appear in it and disappear once again. ~ Arthur J. Deikman

Suffering is basically the mind's refusal to accept reality as it is. ~ Marcus Thomas

There are, it seems, two muses: the Muse of Inspiration, who gives us inarticulate visions and desires, and the Muse of Realization, who returns again and again to say "It is yet more difficult than you thought." This is the muse of form. It may be then that form serves us best when it works as an obstruction, to baffle us and deflect our intended course. It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey. The mind that is not baffled is not employed. The impeded stream is the one that sings. ~ Wendell Berry

I now believe that the universe was brought into existence by an infinite Intelligence. I believe that this universe's intricate laws manifest what scientists have called the Mind of God. I believe that life and reproduction originate in a divine Source. Why do I believe this, given that I expounded and defended atheism for more than a half century? The short answer is this: this is the world picture, as I see it, that has emerged from modern science. ~ Antony Flew

Wonder, as a point of concern, denies its own consideration. It has the remarkable capacity to hide in the midst of its revelation. Wonder, to preserve itself, withdraws. It withdraws from the mind, from the willing mind, which would make of mystery a category. ~ Dan Beachy-Quick

Homeric mind is ingenuity, practical intelligence. There is no Rodin-like deep thinking, no mathematical or philosophical speculation. Odysseus thinks with his hands. ~ Camille Paglia

It is a dangerous thing for the perfecting of our minds to gain applause by works that do not call forth the whole of our energies; for in that case one generally comes to a standstill. ~ Georg C. Lichtenberg

Five months later, he still wasn't over it. After seeing so many guys dumped during deployments - and now having experienced it himself - he'd banished any thought of women from his mind. ~ Victoria Vane

In the weeks that followed, Elizabeth discovered to her pleasure that she could ask Ian any question about any subject and that he would answer her as fully as she wished. Not once did he ever patronize her when he replied, or fend her off by pointing out that, as a woman, the matter was truly none of her concern-or worse-that the answer would be beyond any female's ability to understand. Elizabeth found his respect for her intelligence enormously flattering-particularly after two astounding discoveries she made about him:
The first occurred three days after their wedding, when they both decided to spend the evening at home, reading.
That night after supper, Ian brought a book he wanted to read from their library-a heavy tome with an incomprehensible title-to the drawing room. Elizabeth brought Pride and Prejudice, which she'd been longing to read since first hearing of the uproar it was causing among the conservative members of the ton. After pressing a kiss on her forehead, Ian sat down in the high-backed chair beside hers. Reaching across the small table between them for her hand, he linked their fingers together, and opened his book. Elizabeth thought it was incredibly cozy to sit, curled up in a chair beside him, her hand held in his, with a book in her lap, and she didn't mind the small inconvenience of turning the pages with one hand.
Soon, she was so engrossed in her book that it was a full half-hour before she noticed how swiftly Ian turned the pages o ~ Judith McNaught

Limiting beliefs and thoughts are created in the mind. These mental blocks must be cleared to be happy. Only then the loving wisdom of the soul will open. ~ Hina Hashmi

No wonder everyone is keen to put their feet up and let Fate look after them. It's rather like your granddad. Or a very hands-on organised person, sort of your own personal PA.
Only in my experience Fate is no such thing, and the same goes for his little brother, Destiny. Quite frankly they've made a real mess of things where I'm concerned. So from now on they can bugger off and stop meddling. I'm taking charge of my own life, and when it comes to love, Fate can mind its own bloody business. ~ Alexandra Potter

I don't mind people going about unobtrusively doing good, but I can't stomach moral indignation. ~ Kate Ross

Pirate and Osbie Feel are leaning on their roof-ledge, a magnificent sunset across and up the winding river, the imperial serpant, crowds of factories, flats, parks, smoky spires and gables, incandescent sky casting downward across the miles of deep streets and roofs cluttering and sinuous river Thames a drastic strain of burnt orange, to remind a visitor of his mortal transience here, to seal or empty all the doors and windows in sight to his eyes that look only for a bit of company, a word or two in the street before he goes up to the soap-heavy smell of the rented room and the squares of coral sunset on the floor-boards - an antique light, self-absorbed, fuel consumed in the metered winter holocaust, the more distant shapes among the threads or sheets of smoke now perfect ash ruins of themselves, nearer windows, struck a moment by the sun, not reflecting at all but containing the same destroying light, this intense fading in which there is no promise of return, light that rusts the government cars at the curbsides, varnishes the last faces hurrying past the shops in the cold as if a vast siren had finally sounded, light that makes chilled untraveled canals of many streets, and that fills with the starlings of London, converging by millions to hazy stone pedestals, to emptying squares and a great collective sleep. They flow in rings, concentric rings on the radar screens. The operators call them 'angels. ~ Thomas Pynchon

Bet they'll change their minds when they meet the right woman," she murmured. "A few months ago I would have disagreed," he said ruefully. "Now, not so much." She smiled at him. He was cute in his befuddlement. But she had to hand it to him. He was taking their relationship - or whatever the hell it was they had - very well. He hadn't seemed to fight it at all, though she had no idea what had gone on in his mind, especially when she'd been missing for so many weeks. Maybe in that time he'd come to terms with his feelings for her. It had definitely solidified things in her mind. But then she'd already fallen hard and fast from the very first night they'd spent together. ~ Maya Banks

Great abilities are not requisite for an Historian; for in historical composition, all the greatest powers of the human mind are quiescent. ~ Samuel Johnson

One of the first evidences of a real lady, is that she should be modest. By modesty we mean that she shall not say, do, nor wear anything that would cause her to appear gaudy, ill-bred, or unchaste. There should be nothing about her to attract unfavorable attention, nothing in her dress or manner that would give a man an excuse for vulgar comment. When we dress contrary to the rule of modesty we give excuse for unwholesome thoughts in the mind of those who look upon us, and every girl who oversteps these bounds makes herself liable to misunderstanding and insult, though she may be innocent of any such intention. ~ Margaret Hale

he inadvertently opened the door to a storeroom on the station and found it full of aircrew uniforms on hangers. He thought they must be replacement issue until he looked more closely and saw the brevets and stripes and ribbon medals and realized they had come off the bodies of the dead and injured. The empty uniforms would have provided a poetic image if he hadn't more or less relinquished poetry by then. ~ Kate Atkinson

Meditation gives you the wherewithal to pause, observe how easily the mind can exaggerate the severity of a setback, and resist getting drawn into the abyss. ~ Richard Davidson

Try to go out empty and let your images fill you up. ~ Jay Maisel

What do you think of Adolf Hitler?" Einstein replied, "He is living on the empty stomach of Germany. As soon as economic conditions improve, he will no longer be important. ~ Walter Isaacson

Weaken a bad habit by avoiding everything that occasioned it or stimulated it, without concentrating upon it in your zeal to avoid it. Then divert your mind to some good habit and steadily cultivate it until it becomes a dependable part of you. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda

If we look at the world with a deluded body and mind, we will think that our self is permanent. But if we practice correctly and return to our true self, we will realize that nothing is permanent ~ Dogen

Our mind has its own ideal time, which is no other but the consciousness of the progressive development of our beings. ~ August Wilhelm Von Schlegel