thought on Originality

Books serve to show a man that those original thoughts of his aren't very new at all.

If at first the idea is not absurd, then there is no hope for it.

The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.

I have never wished to cater to the crowd; for what I know they do not approve, and what they approve I do not know.

A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought.

At the start of the process the idea is just a thought - very fragile and exclusive. When the first physical manifestation is created everything changes. It is no longer exclusive, now it involves a l...

Our business is to present the Christian faith clothed in modern terms, not to propagate modern thought clothed in Christian terms... Confusion here is fatal.

A remarkable aspect of your mental life is that you are rarely stumped.

When we have the same thought again, the line of the original thought is deepened, causing what's called a memory trace. With each repetition the trace goes deeper and deeper, forming and embeddin...

Too often we give real estate to things in our lives that either haven’t earned their land or were never meant to occupy important space in the first place.

There is no way out of one’s inner life, so one had better get into it. On the inward and downward spiritual journey, the only way out is through.

Worldviews are like belly buttons. Everyone has one, but we don’t talk about them very often. Or perhaps it would be better to say that worldviews are like cerebellums: everyone has one and we can’t l...

It is often said that second thoughts are best. So they are in matters of judgment but not in matters of conscience.

Those who can’t change their minds can’t change anything.

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

Thought is the blossom; language the bud; action the fruit behind it.

If you only read the books that everyone else is reading, you can only think what everyone else is thinking.

If we examine our thoughts, we shall find them always occupied with the past and the future.

One thing is certain: if you don’t shape your life, it will be shaped for you. And to shape your life, you need to know how to shape your mind—you need mind-management.

What Determines Happiness?  Imagine a movie theater full of a hundred people. These hundred individuals represent the full continuum of happiness: Some are exceptionally happy, others less so, and ...

My thought it is a wanton ranger,  It skips away;  I fear 'twill bring my soul in danger  On Judgment Day...

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.

In his book The Allure of Gentleness , Dallas Willard includes a thought-provoking excerpt from Richard Robinson, a prominent atheist thinker from the mid-20th century. In his work An Atheist’...

To most people nothing is more troublesome than the effort of thinking.

We think in generalities, but we live in detail.

But it’s not so simple, that sort of “quiet hour”. It has to be learned. A lot of unimportant inner litter and bits and pieces have to be swept out first. Even a small head can be piled high inside wi...

The insight that we can exercise some control over our thoughts and feelings is deep in Christianity.

Many of us tend to be passive with our thoughts and feelings. We treat them like they rule us, like they are in charge of us, and not the other way around. We forget that our thoughts and feelings are...

A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.

We sow a thought and reap an act; We sow an act and reap a habit; We sow a habit and reap a character; We sow a character and reap a destiny.