[onenite]

“Watch your thoughts, they become your words; watch your words, they become your actions; watch your actions, they become your habits; watch your habits, they become your character; watch your character, it becomes your destiny.”

- often (incorrectly) attributed to Lao Tzu

[akprasad]

A similar idea from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, ~7th century BCE

> 'And here they say that a person consists of desires. And as is his desire, so is his will; and as is his will, so is his deed; and whatever deed he does, that he will reap.

[ants_everywhere]

Lao Tzu didn't say this. It appears to date from the owner of a supermarket chain in the 1970s

[onenite]

D’oh! Should’ve done my research—It sounds so believable. Thank you for the correction.

[_mu]

Yes, it's a very ancient idea.

"As we think, so we become."

- Buddha

[onenite]

Thanks, i was about to share the first pair of verses of the Dhammapada (words of the Buddha. … allegedly), which perhaps would have been better than the misattributed quote in my initial comment:

Mind precedes all mental states.

Mind is their chief; they are mind-made.

If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts, suffering follows him like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

.

Mind precedes all mental states.

Mind is their chief; they are mind-made.

If with a pure mind a person speaks or acts, happiness follows him like his never-departing shadow.

Source: https://www.buddhanet.net/e-learning/buddhism/dp01/