Quotes About Thought

One can no more keep the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to the shore.

To place the infinity here below in contact, by the medium of thought, with the infinity on high, is called praying.

One can no more prevent thought from recurring to an idea than one can the sea from returning to the shore: the sailor calls it the tide; the guilty man calls it remorse; God upheaves the soul as he does the ocean.

Diamonds are found only in the dark places of the earth; truths are found only in the depths of thought

Le mot tantôt comme un passant mystérieux de l'âme, tantot comme un polype noir de l'océan pensê.

The Unknown is an ocean. What is conscience? It is the compass of the Unknown. Thought

Le livre, comme livre, appartient à l'auteur, mais comme pensée, il appartient -le mot n'est pas trop vaste- au genre humain. Toutes les intelligences y ont droit. Si l'un des deux droits, le droit de l'écrivain et le droit de l'esprit humain, devait être sacrifié, ce serait, certes, le droit de l'écrivain, car l'intérêt public est notre préoccupation unique, et tous, je le déclare, doivent passer avant nous.

At that time, for the thought written in stone, there existed a privilege perfectly comparable to our present liberty of the press. It was the liberty of architecture.

In thought there always exists a certain amount of internal rebellion;

And whatever he did, he always fell back onto this paradox at the core of his thought. To remain in paradise and become a demon! To re-enter hell and become an angel!

A certain amount of dreaming is good, like a narcotic in discreet doses. It lulls to sleep the fevers of the mind at labor, which are sometimes severe, and produces in the spirit a soft and fresh vapor which corrects the over-harsh contours of pure thought, fills in gaps here and there, binds together and rounds off the angles of the ideas. But

Assim como só nas entranhas da Terra se acham os diamantes, assim somente nas entranhas do pensamento se encontram as verdades.

Ninguém poderá impedir o pensamento de voltar a uma ideia, como não podemos impedir o mar de voltar sempre a uma praia. Para o marinheiro isso se chama maré; para o culpado isso se chama remorso. Deus agita a alma como agita o oceano.

His brain was in one of those states that are both violent and yet frighteningly calm, in which thought runs so deep it blots out reality. You no longer see the objects around you, yet you can see the shapes in your mind as thought they are outside your body.

From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought.

It is chiefly at the moment when there is the greatest need for attaching them to the painful realities of life, that the threads of thought snap within the brain.

The moment comes when protest is not enough; reason must give way to action, and force ensure what thought has conceived.

Remplacer la pensée par la rêverie, c'est confondre un poison avec une nourriture.

pensée est le labeur de l'intelligence, la rêverie en est la volupté. Remplacer la pensée par la rêverie, c'est confondre un poison avec une nourriture.

Thought is the toil of the intelligence, revery its voluptuousness. To replace thought with revery is to confound a poison with a food.

When put into print, thought is more imperishable than ever; it is volatile, intangible, indestructible; it mingles with the air. In the time of architecture, it became a mountain, and made itself master of a century and a region. Now it has been transformed into a flock of birds, scattering to the four winds and filling all air and space.

Há sempre na reflexão uma certa quantidade de rebelião íntima, que o irritava.

Quiconque sait faire usage de la pensée finit par s'apercevoir qu'il n'y a point de choses indifférentes, et toute méditation dans un esprit sain et droit se termine par un éveil confus de responsabilité. Vivre, c'est être engagé.

In its printed form, thought is more imperishable than ever; it is volatile, irresistible, indestructible.