Joseph Addison Quotes

I have a very busy head. I have inside voices that I have learned to contain.

I do have a self-censor; everybody does, or at least most who are not pathological do.

A little kingdom I possess, where thoughts and feelings dwell; And very hard the task I find of governing it well.

I thought a lot and I controlled my thoughts in my work - and I controlled my work through my thoughts.

Acquire a government over your ideas, that they may come down when they are called, and depart when they are bidden.

I often talk too much and don't listen enough.

If you can't control what you think, you will not be able to control what you do.

You only have control over three things in your life - the thoughts you think, the images you visualize, and the actions you take (your behavior). How you use these three things determines everything you experience. If you don't like what you are producing and experiencing, you have to change your responses.

You need to learn how to select your thoughts just the same way you select your clothes every day. This is a power you can cultivate. If you want to control things in your life so bad, work on the mind. That's the only thing you should be trying to control.

Often we combat our evil thoughts most effectively if we absolutely refuse to allow them to be expressed in words.

There are two things over which you have complete dominion, authority, and control – your mind and your mouth.

The Mind: a beautiful servant, a dangerous master.

I don't want to be at the mercy of my emotions. I want to use them, to enjoy them, and to dominate them.

When you believe yourself to be master of your thoughts, you become so.

Mr. Shepherd, ye cannot stop a bad thought from coming into your head. But ye need not pull up a chair and bide it sit down." - Mrs. Brown

She forced herself once more to think of nothing, to keep her consciousness immersed, as a little dog that one keeps under water until he has stopped struggling

Perhaps it is controlling the chaos within more than the chaos without.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun by nettles.

There is perhaps no psychological skill more fundamental than resisting impulse.

Though it is folly to suppose that happiness is a matter of volition, and that we can make ourselves content and cheerful whenever we choose - a theory that many poor hypochondriacs are taunted with till they are nigh driven mad - yet, on the other hand, no sane mind is ever left without the power of self-discipline and self-control in a measure, which measure increases in proportion as it is exercised.

Self-control is solely a matter of thought-control!

A man should remove not only unnecessary acts, but also unnecessary thoughts, for then superfluous activity will not follow.

You are the driver of your mind, so take charge and keep it busy with your instructions by telling it where you want it to go. Your mind only takes off on its own if you are not telling it what to do.

I will be calm. I will be mistress of myself.

I am sensible that my keenness of temper, and a vanity to be distinguished for the day, make me too often splash in life.... I amresolved to restrain myself and attend more to decorum.