Most of the evil committed by people is not done out of ill will, but out of a widespread false belief that is taken for granted.
Material results are but a delayed manifestation of invisible forces. The bullet was fired long before the sound of the shot reaches us. Decisive events take place in thought.
— Amiel
For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies.
— Matthew 15:19
Our actions are not as good or evil as our desires.
— Vauvenargues
The thoughts that result in bad deeds are much worse than the deeds themselves. We can avoid repeating a bad deed and repent of it, but bad thoughts give birth to bad deeds. A bad deed lays the path to more bad deeds, but bad thoughts irresistibly draw us along it.
Immaterial intentions are rushing ahead, moving quietly, deeply hidden; the one who subdues and masters them will deliver himself of temptation.
— The Dhammapada
Think well and your thoughts will ripen into good deeds.
Thoughts are everything. A thought is the beginning of everything. And thoughts are something that we can control. Consequently, the chief task of self-perfection is to work on our thoughts.
When misfortune befalls you, seek its cause not so much in your actions as in the thoughts that prompted you to commit them. Likewise, when external events make you sad or upset, seek their causes not in people’s actions that preceded them, but in the preceding thoughts that have caused their actions.
