669 verses about Mind

And make the counsel of your heart to stand; For there is none more faithful to you than it.

For a man’s soul is sometime wont to bring him tidings, More than seven watchmen that sit on high on a watch-tower.

Let reason be the beginning of every work, And let counsel go before every action.

As a token of the changing of the heart,

There is one that is wise to his own soul; And the fruits of his understanding are trustworthy in the mouth.

For all things are not profitable for all men, Neither has every soul pleasure in every thing.

Give not your heart to sorrow: Put it away, remembering the last end:

He shall direct his counsel and knowledge, And in his secrets shall he meditate.

No thought escapes him; There is not a word hid from him.

Blessed is he that shall be exercised in these things; And he that lays them up in his heart shall become wise.

but we walked every man in the imagination of his own wicked heart, to serve strange gods, and to do that which is evil in the sight of the Lord our God.

For as it was your mind to go astray from God: so, return and seek him ten times more.

And they perverted their own mind, and turned away their eyes, that they might not look to heaven, nor remember just judgements.

And he was exceedingly perplexed in his mind, and he determined to go into Persia, and to take the tributes of the countries, and to gather much money.

Now when Jonathan heard the words of Apollonius, he was moved in his mind, and he chose out ten thousand men, and went forth from Jerusalem, and Simon his brother met him for to help him.

and how that the prophet charged those who were carried away, having given them the law, that they should not forget the statutes of the Lord, neither be led astray in their minds, when they saw images of gold and silver, and the adornment thereof.

And whoever saw the mien of the high priest was wounded in mind; for his countenance and the change of his color betrayed the distress of his soul.

Whereupon Ptolemy taking the king aside into a cloister, as it were to take the air, brought him to be of another mind:

And when they changed the good will they bare him a little before into ill will, because these words of his were, as they thought, sheer madness,

May you⌃ and your children fare well; and your affairs shall be to your mind. Having my hope in heaven,

Wherefore send some with speed, that we also may learn what is your mind.

And those who lived round about them helped them in all things with silver and gold, with horses and cattle, and with very many gifts that were vowed of a great number whose minds were stirred up thereto.

And they said to them, Declare to us your mind concerning the things you⌃ have written. Then began the first, who had spoken of the strength of wine,

it makes the mind of the king and of the fatherless child to be all one; of the bondman and of the freeman, of the poor man and of the rich:

it turns also every thought into jollity and mirth, so that a man remembers neither sorrow nor debt:

The king, receiving him, was astonished at his unwonted exit; and, overwhelmed with a spirit of oblivion about everything, enquired the object of this earnest preparation.

But this was the working of that Almighty God who had made him forget all his purpose.

The king was filled with fierce anger at these words; for, by the Providence of God regarding these things, his mind had become entirely confused. He looked hard at Hermon, and threatened him as follows:

His kinsmen, who were reclining with him, wondered at his instability, and thus expressed themselves:

The king, just like another Phalaris, a prey to thoughtlessness, made no account of the changes which his own mind had undergone, issuing in the deliverance of the Jews. He swore a fruitless oath, and determined forthwith to send them to hades, crushed by the knees and feet of the elephants.

And a cold shudder came over the person of the king, and oblivion paralysed the vehemence of his spirit.

In the thirties year after the ruin of the city, I Salathiel (the same is Esdras) was in Babylon, and lay troubled upon my bed, and my thoughts came up over my heart:

whereof if you can declare me one, I also will show you the way that you desire to see, and I will teach you wherefore the heart is wicked.

how then can your vessel comprehend the way of the Most High? and how can he that is already worn out with the corrupted world understand incorruption?

Then answered I and said, I beseech you, O Lord, wherefore is the power of understanding given to me?

Then I awaked, and an extreme trembling went through my body, and my mind was troubled, so that it fainted.

and my soul recovered the spirit of understanding, and I began to speak words before the Most High again,

And I said, Speak on, my Lord. Then said he to me, You are sore troubled in mind for Israel’s sake: love you that people better than he that made them?

and why have you not considered in your mind that which is to come, rather than that which is present?

And I answered and said, O you earth, wherefore have you brought forth, if the mind is made out of dust, like as all other created things?

For it were better that the dust itself had been unborn, so that the mind might not have been made therefrom.

But now the mind grows with us, and by reason of this we are tormented, because we perish and know it.

And now understand from your own words, for you have said that the mind grows with us.

The first order, because they have striven with great labor to overcome the evil thought which was fashoned together with them, that it might not lead them astray from life into death.

And I answered and said, Swallow down understanding then, O my soul, and let my heart devour wisdom.

attend to my words, for so long as I live I will speak, and so long as I have understanding I will answer.

Then let I my thoughts go wherein I was occupied, and turned me to her,

and said to her, Why do you weep? and why are you grieved in your mind?

And she said to me, Let me alone, my Lord, that I may bewail myself, and add to my sorrow, for I am sore vexed in my mind, and brought very low.

What aileth you? and why are you so disquieted? and why is your understanding troubled, and the thoughts of your heart?

Or is my sense deceived, or my soul in a dream?

Behold, I am yet weary in my mind, and very weak in my spirit; nor is there the least strength in me, for the great fear wherewith I was affrighted this night.

and you shall teach them to the wise of your people, whose hearts you know are able to comprehend and keep these secrets.

And there shall come astonishment of mind upon those who dwell on the earth.

Lay up in your heart the signs that I have showed, and the dreams that you have seen, and the interpretations which you have heard:

and let go from the mortal thoughts, cast away from you the burdens of man, put off now your weak nature,

Therefore if so be that you⌃ will rule over your own understanding, and instruct your hearts, you⌃ shall be kept alive, and after death you⌃ shall obtain mercy.

And I took it, and drank: and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit retained its memory:

for in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge.

Behold, the Lord knows all the works of men, their imaginations, their thoughts, and their hearts.

surely he knows your imagination, and what you⌃ think in your hearts. Woe to those who sin, and would fain hide their sin!

As I am going to demonstrate a most philosophical proposition, namely, that religious reasoning is absolute master of the passions, I would willingly advise you to give the utmost heed to philosophy.

For reason is necessary to every one as a step to science: and more especially does it embrace the praise of prudence, the highest virtue.

If, then, reasoning appears to hold the mastery over the passions which stand in the way of temperance, such as gluttony and lust,

it surely also and manifestly has the rule over the affections which are contrary to justice, such as malice; and of those which are hindrances to manliness, as wrath, and pain, and fear.

How, then, is it, perhaps some may say, that reasoning, if it rule the affections, is not also master of forgetfulness and ignorance? They attempt a ridiculous argument.

For reasoning does not rule over its own affections, but over such as are contrary to justice, and manliness and temperance, and prudence; and yet over these, so as to withstand, without destroying them.

I might prove to you, from many other considerations, that religious reasoning is sole master of the passions;

The question, therefore, is, whether reasoning be absolute master of the passions.

Let us determine, then, What is reasoning? and what passion? and how many forms of the passions? and whether reasoning bears sway over all of these?

Reasoning is, then, intellect accompanied by a life of rectitude, putting foremost the consideration of wisdom.

The leading one of these is prudence; by whose means, indeed, it is that reasoning bears rule over the passions.

Of the passions, pleasure and pain are the two most comprehensive; and they also by nature refer to the soul.

And there are many attendant affections surrounding pleasure and pain.

Wrath is an affection, common to pleasure and to pain, if any one will pay attention when it comes upon him.

In the soul it is arrogance, and love of money, and vaingloriousness, and contention, and faithlessness, and the evil eye.

As pleasure and pain are, therefore, two growth of the body and the soul, so there are many offshoots of these passions.

And reasoning, the universal husbandman, purging, and pruning these severally, and binding round, and watering, and transplanting, in every way improves the materials of the morals and affections.

For reasoning is the leader of the virtues, but it is the sole ruler of the passions. Observe then first, through the very things which stand in the way of temperance, that reasoning is absolute ruler of the passions.

But of the lusts, some belong to the soul, others to the body: and over each of these classes the reasoning appears to bear sway.

For whence is it, otherwise, that when urged on to forbidden meats, we reject the gratification which would ensue from them? Is it not because reasoning is able to command the appetites? I believe so.

Hence it is, then, that when lusting after water-animals and birds, and four-footed beasts, and all kinds of food which are forbidden us by the law, we withhold ourselves through the mastery of reasoning.

For the affections of our appetites are resisted by the temperate understanding, and bent back again, and all the impulses of the body are reined in by reasoning.

on this ground, therefore, the temperate Joseph is praised in that by reasoning, he subdued, on reflection, the indulgence of sense.

For, although young, and ripe for sexual intercourse, he abrogated by reasoning the stimulus of his passions.

And it is not merely the stimulus of sensual indulgence, but that of every desire, that reasoning is able to master.

Now, then, since it is the law which has forbidden us to desire, I shall much the more easily persuade you, that reasoning is able to govern our lusts, just as it does the affections which are impediments to justice.

Since in what way is a solitary eater, and a glutton, and a drunkard reclaimed, unless it be clear that reasoning is lord of the passions?

And should a man be parsimonious, he is ruled by the law acting through reasoning; so that he does not glean his harvest crops, nor vintage: and in reference to other points we may perceive that it is reasoning that conquers his passions.

And think it not a strange assertion that reasoning can in behalf of the law conquer even enmity.

And reason appears to be master of the more violent passions, as love of empire and empty boasting, and slander.

For the temperate understanding repels all these malignant passions, as it does wrath: for it masters even this.

Thus Moses, when angered against Dathan and Abiram, did nothing to them in wrath, but regulated his anger by reasoning.

For the temperate mind is able, as I said, to be superior to the passions, and to transfer some, and destroy others.

For if reasoning did not possess the power of subduing angry affections, he would not have spoken thus.

For at the time when God created man, He implanted within him his passions and moral nature.

And at that time He enthroned above all the holy leader mind, through the medium of the senses.

And He gave a law to this mind, by living according to which it will maintain a temperate, and just, and good, and manly reign.

How, then, a man may say, if reasoning be master of the passions, has it no control over forgetfulness and ignorance?

The argument is exceedingly ridiculous: for reasoning does not appear to bear sway over its own affections, but over those of the body,