Jerry Spinelli Quotes

I am burdened with what the Buddhists call the 'monkey mind' -- the thoughts that swing from limb to limb, stopping only to scratch themselves, spit and howl.

My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it.

I have discovered that all human evil comes from this, man's being unable to sit still in a room.

Nothing is so intolerable to man as being fully at rest, without a passion, without business, without entertainment, without care.

Thou seest how sloth wastes the sluggish body, as water is corrupted unless it moves.

A body that doesn't move mentally or physically dies.

It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do

Restlessness is a fickle catalyst; it can drive you to achieve or it can coax your demise, and sometimes the choice isn't yours

An observer can't tell if a person is silent and still because inner life has stalled or because inner life is transfixingly busy.

The mind is continuously running around. It never sits, it can't sit. Sitting seems to be death to it, and in a way it is.

My mind has been the most discontented and restless one that ever was put into a body too small for it.... I never felt my mind repose upon anything with complete and undistracted enjoyment- upon no person but you. When you are in the room my thoughts never fly out of window: you always concentrate my whole senses

I can be very in my head, but I don't trust my head all that much. My head is crazy. My head will talk to itself all day and all night if I let it. And my heart is less nutty, but it's kind of like an overexcited child. I don't trust my heart all that much either. My body is like a good horse. I trust my body.

A mind that is characterized by unrest will not be tranquil even in the presence of great calm.

O Lord! I don't know which is the worst of the country, the walking or the sitting at home with nothing to do.

It's never come easy for me. I don't think my mind allows me to rest ever. I have, I think, a chip on my shoulder, and some deep scars that I don't think were healed.

Sit a man on his ass with nothing to do but eat and the first thing that goes is his mind. It never fails.

Language is surely too small a vessel to contain these emotions of mind and body that have somehow awakened a response in the spirit.

Sloth is sluggishness of the mind which neglects to begin good...it is evil in its effect, if it so oppresses man as to draw him away entirely from good deeds.

Restlessness is the hallmark of existence.

The more mind is filled with chattering, more sex has appeal.

In the mind of a woman for whom no place is home the thought of an end to all flight is unbearable.

Exercise of body and exercise of mind are supplementary, and both may be made recreative and educative.

My mind is always racing with ideas or things I should be doing.

How could I know a famished heart will eat its mind? Can kill its body?