Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes

You have two choices: to control your mind or to let your mind control you.

Your mind . . . can be your best friend or your worst enemy, but it's your choice to make.

The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure instead of having pain and pleasure use you. If you do that, you're in control of your life. If you don't, life controls you.

I'm probably more persuasive than the next person if I want to be, but do I want to be? In my head, I just don't go there.

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

You either control your mind or it controls you.

The mind commands the body and is instantly obeyed. The mind commands itself and meets resistance. The mind commands the hand to move, and it so easy that one hardly distinguishes the order from its execution. Yet mind is mind and hand is body. The mind orders the mind to will. The recipient of the order is itself, yet it does not perform it.

The mind commands the body, and it obeys forthwith; the mind commands itself, and is resisted. The mind commands the hand to be moved, and such readiness is there that the command is scarce to be distinguished from the obedience. Yet the mind is mind, and the hand is body. The mind commands the mind to will, and yet, though it be itself, it obeyeth not. Whence this monstrous thing? and why is it?

Anything that controls my state of mind I never really want to do because I always want to be under control. That might be part of me being a Virgo. I never want to do something that stops me from being in control of who I am and my actions.

When people have a willpower failure, it's because they haven't anticipated a situation that's going to come along.

Sometimes we need to tell ourselves that we're not going to do certain things, just in order to stay sane.

When I lose my temper it's because I decide to. If I do something it's because I want to do it.

Between stimulus and response, there is a space where we choose our response.

You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them.

Just being aware of what you are about to do greatly diminishes the tendency to do what you don't want to. You will pull your hand back from that pizza slice, tell the waitress that you are passing on dessert, put on your gym shoes instead of going under the comforter, and take several deep breaths instead of screaming at your daughter.

You possess a potent force that you either use, or misuse, hundreds of times every day.

You can't control the world, but when you control your thoughts, you bring order.

The art of living consists in knowing which impulses to obey and which must be made to obey.

When a man is a prey to his emotions, he is not his own master, but lies at the mercy of fortune: so much so, that he is often compelled, while seeing that which is better for him, to follow that which is worse.

There's this idea that, 'All I have at the end of the day is my mind.' That's the only thing you can control. I believe that.

We can't determine our emotions, but we can choose our attitudes and actions.

Anybody can play decent golf like me, but people trip on their own minds. They need to create a little distance between what they think and what they do.

You know how some people get worked up about things? That's a very human thing to do. Sometimes, I don't know - like, I feel like I don't want to waste my energy doing stuff like that. I think about this on the court, too.

If we become aware of what's happening before we act, behaviour becomes a function of choice rather than a result of an impulse or trigger. You begin to control your world more as opposed to the outside world controlling you.

The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.