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I was browsing through some quotes about life and I found one which seems peculiar to me just because I don't quite get the meaning of it. Life is but thought. -Sara Teasdale Would you help me decipher the quote? Thank you in advance.
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"Life is but thought" means that your life is always as how you think about it. If you are facing some problem in your life and you think you can overcome it, you will certainly overcome it and vice versa. The way you think has a great impact on your life. That's why they always recommend to think positively and be optimistic! I remember a beautiful stanza related to the topic saying;
"Life's battles do not always go;
to the stronger or faster man;
But sooner or later, the man who wins;
is the man who thinks he can!"
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Raza,
Welcome to the forum!
What a lovely poem.
It reminds me of a childhood story about the little train that could.
'I think I can. I think I can'.
And he did.
'The Power of Positive Thinking' used to be a popular book. (Dale Carnegie also wrote
'How to Win Friends and Influence People')
There might also be a deeper meaning in your quote, that life for humans, maybe animals too,
would not be life as we know it without thinking.
How your life is, is a direct reflection of how you think.
Think how the world would be without people like Albert Einstein, Orville Wright,
and even Steve Jobs.
Anyone?
Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. Bernard M. Baruch 1870-1965
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I must admit I do not undedrstand that either. Life is much more than thought... or at least much more than our own thoughts. Life is reality and is often shaped by events over which we have no control.
It is a subjective point of view.
I have not read the poem and cannot find it on the net.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle
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Anthropocentric. Life is an universal phenomenon.
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Idealist philosophers might come up with such a remark. Whether she was a proponent of Bishop Berkeley or Hegel I could not guess. I couldn't find the source either so it would seem that Life was a one-off thought for Ms Teasdale .
"Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon" Suzanne Ertz
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http://acharyashubhendu.hubpages.com/hub/life-reflects-thoughtshttp://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/sarateasda118434.htmlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU2T0NWXbwo&feature=youtube_gdata_playerI do not know much about Sara Teasdale's philosophies. She was an American poet who committed suicide. Check her out on Wikipedia if interested. The above three sites are about the quote 'Life is But Thought'. It does not seem to be a poem. The idea is the basis for the modern theory of psychiatric treatments - whatever they call it now - used to be Behavior Modification when I went to school. Another Sara Teasdale Quote I have no riches but my thoughts. Yet these are wealth enough for me.
Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. Bernard M. Baruch 1870-1965
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I looked it up.
Behavior Modification is now called CBT - Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
You are what you think. (not eat). :-)
Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. Bernard M. Baruch 1870-1965
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Hope you said: You are what you think. (not eat). :-)
So fat folk are fat because they think they are fat and not because of what
they eat?
Right, so we can now tell the twenty stone fatty to think thin, and he will be.
Trust the psychiatric profession to come up with such silly ideas.
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle
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Calm down, pps.
Look at the smiley face.
I was making a joke!!
Do not put those silly (sic) words into my mouth or those of the psychiatric profession either.
i said nothing about fat or thin. Where did you come up with all that from one joke?
Edit: I assumed people would know the saying is 'you are what you eat' and I had changed it to think!
Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. Bernard M. Baruch 1870-1965
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Whether we agree or disagree with the author, doesn't matter.
I think she means our life's reality is in our thoughts, the mental and intellectual part of ourselves,
not the physical dimension. When we die our corpse will vanish but our consciousness will stay in noosphere.
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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KhaleeqaIDRUS wrote:I was browsing through some quotes about life and I found one which seems peculiar to me just because I don't quite get the meaning of it. Life is but thought. -Sara Teasdale Would you help me decipher the quote? Thank you in advance. I think what she means by this is that our perception of life, the universe, and everything™, is filtered by our thinking. While we cannot control all that goes on around us, we do have some choice in how we regard it and how we respond to it. The events we cannot control will happen whether we want them to or not, so from her point of view, the thought which we can direct is much more important.
"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits." - Satchel Paige
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Well said JJ and LA.
Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts. Bernard M. Baruch 1870-1965
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Some people believe our thoughts create our reality. It is also 'thought' that the physical is but the manifestation of vibrations--and to some, of the non physical world--our reality is a reflection, as if shadows were cast upon this plane.
If everything that exists is a vibration, and our thoughts have the power to create patterns, to link and separate energy--and 0ur thoughts are vibrations-- patterns of energy linked in certain ways--our reality is determined by these thought patterns.
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You can choose to be happy, less self centered, more caring of others and most of all you can choose to be a servivour instead of a victim.
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You can choose to be a survivor and then be struck down by a deadly desease... so much for ther power of thought. I am not dismissing the importance of healthy thinking... just showing its limitations
It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle
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If we are walking, talking and breathing, its a blessing.
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"All is well in life if you can taste the food and don't sweat when poop." - old joecoolean proverb 
I don't know half of you half as well as I should like; and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.
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To Percival: in reply to your post:
"You can choose to be a survivor and then be struck down by a deadly desease... so much for ther power of thought. I am not dismissing the importance of healthy thinking... just showing its limitations"
Yes, a very good point. As human beings we are limited, though I believe in some ways, segments of humanity are evolving to a higher awareness of consciousness. And what set of circumstances we come to this world with, and what 'fate' we are destined to experience, may be determined by some other force we have yet to understand.
Yet within this context,surrender and acceptance is part of what determines the quality of our reality. And our ability to create within its confines, to love and to feel happiness and joy, is dependent upon us and our attitude. I think the feeling of gratefulness, for example,is important. But to be a 'possibility thinker', one must believe in one's own power.
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