It is fortunate that we can think in secret, because our thoughts would quickly get us in trouble if others could read them. In our thoughts, we can choose what we wish to reveal to others before we speak or act.
In the long run, however, we do not really conceal our true thoughts and feelings. The nature of our thoughts shapes our character and becomes part of us. It even affects our appearance. It is not difficult at all to identify people who are fearful, angry, or jealous.
This process has its good side, because kind thoughts and feelings also affect our appearance, and in positive ways. Norman Vincent Peale wrote that "God runs a beauty parlor," meaning that plain people with gracious thoughts tend to become more attractive as years wear on.
As AA members, we need not fear our own thoughts and feelings if we are continuing to work the program. As the sober years stretch out, we will be improving our thoughts and feelings, and this will tell others what the program is doing for us and through us.
I'll remember today that I don't really keep my thoughts and feelings secret. I will think well of myself and all others. I know that there are no hidden thoughts in the long run.
Larry_H wrote: there are no hidden thoughts in the long run.
A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. -- Mahatma Gandhi
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 character. Watch your character, for it becomes your destiny.
A man sooner or later discovers that he is the master-gardener of his soul, the director of his life. -- James Allen
All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become. -- Buddha
All that you accomplish or fail to accomplish with your life is the direct result of your thoughts. -- James Allen
All truly wise thoughts have been thoughts already thousands of times; but to make them truly ours, we must think them over again honestly, till they take root in our personal experience. -- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Anger will never disappear so long as thoughts of resentment are cherished in the mind. Anger will disappear just as soon as thoughts of resentment are forgotten. -- Buddha
Build this day on a foundation of pleasant thoughts. Never fret at any imperfections that you fear may impede your progress. Remind yourself, as often as necessary, that you are a creature of God and have the power to achieve any dream by lifting up your thoughts. You can fly when you decide that you can. Never consider yourself defeated again. Let the vision in your heart be in your life's blueprint. Smile! -- Og Mandino
Change your thoughts, and you change your world. -- Norman Vincent Peale
Every thought is a seed. If you plant crab apples don't count on harvesting golden Delicious. -- Author Unknown
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad fruit. -- James Allen
Great thoughts reduced to practice become great acts. -- William Hazlitt
I think and that is all that I am. -- Wayne Dyer
I was a freethinker before I knew how to think. -- George Bernard Shaw
If constructive thoughts are planted positive outcomes will be the result. Plant the seeds of failure and failure will follow. -- Sidney Madwed
If you realized how powerful your thoughts are, you would never think a negative thought. -- Peace Pilgrim
Keep your feet on the ground and your thoughts at lofty heights. -- Peace Pilgrim
Let the wise guard their thoughts, which are difficult to perceive, extremely subtle, and wander at will. Thought which is well guarded is the bearer of happiness. -- Buddha
Life consists in what a person is thinking of all day. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Little-minded people's thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation. -- James Allen
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. -- Oscar Wilde
Nothing has any power over me other than that which I give it through my conscious thoughts. -- Anthony Robbins
Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think. -- Benjamin Disraeli
Our life is what our thoughts make it. A man will find that as he alters his thoughts toward things and other people, things and other people will alter towards him. -- James Allen
Our minds become magnetized with the dominating thoughts we hold in our minds and these magnets attract to us the forces, the people, the circumstances of life which harmonize with the nature of our dominating thoughts. -- Napoleon Hill
Our thoughts create our reality -- where we put our focus is the direction we tend to go. -- Peter McWilliams
Self-disciplined begins with the mastery of your thoughts. If you don't control what you think, you can't control what you do. Simply, self-discipline enables you to think first and act afterward. -- Napoleon Hill
Some thoughts always find us young, and keep us so. Such a thought is the love of the universal and eternal beauty. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
The game of life is the game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later, with astounding accuracy. -- Florence Shinn
The human mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions. -- Oliver Wendell Holmes
The more clear and definite you make your picture then, and the more you dwell upon it, bringing out all its delightful details, the stronger your desire will be, and the stronger your desire, the easier it will be to hold your mind fixed upon the picture of what you want. -- Wallace D. Wattles
There is a basic law that like attracts like. Negative thinking definitely attracts negative results. Conversely, if a person habitually thinks optimistically and hopefully his positive thinking sets in motion creative forces - and success instead of eluding him flows toward him. -- Norman Vincent Peale
Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another. -- Napoleon Hill
Thought is the sculptor who can create the person you want to be. -- Henry David Thoreau
To find yourself, think for yourself. -- Socrates
To put away aimlessness and weakness, and to begin to think with purpose, is to enter the ranks of those strong ones who only recognize failure as one of the pathways to attainment; who make all conditions serve them, and who think strongly, attempt fearlessly, and accomplish masterfully. -- James Allen
We are formed and molded by our thoughts. Those whose minds are shaped by selfless thoughts give joy when they speak or act. Joy follows them like a shadow that never leaves them. -- Buddha
We are what we think. All that we are arises With our thoughts. With our thoughts, We make our world. -- Buddha
What is the hardest thing in the world? To think. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind. -- Buddha
What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul's emphasis is always right. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be. -- Patanjali
You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you. -- James Allen
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Good reminder topic, and quotes. I used to have lengthy arguments in early sobriety about whether we (I) think our way into good action or act our way into good thinking. Then I realized I'm so sick I need to do both - hahaha! But I can add that it has always been very important for me to stick around people who work to live healthy lives and have healthy thoughts. I can't just decide to think differently and be completely successful (it helps, but its not everything).
I need this reminder, as I've had lots of changes in my life and I tend toward fear-thinking. But that's why I'm on this site today - trying to do some healthy actions and get good thoughts and feelings going. Thanks!
Terrific compendium of thoughts.......and words. Thanks for all the info.......wisdom and understanding, I need all I can get. And sometimes even then I don't get it?!
All consensus in the field of psychology (cognitive model that is) would suggest a bidirectional model in which positive action leads to better thinking and feelings and better thinking leads to better action and feelings as well.
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