A mind full of preconceived ideas, subjective intentions, or habits is not open to things as they are.

Too often we get stuck in “functional fixedness,” a mindset where we see in things only their intended use, rather than their potential use.

As long as you have certain desires about how it ought to be you can't see how it is.

Believe in one thing too much and you have no room for new ideas.

Our notions about happiness entrap us. We forget that they are just ideas. Our idea of happiness can prevent us from actually being happy. We fail to see the opportunity for joy that is right in front of us when we are caught in a belief that happiness should take a particular form.

"As long as we continue to live as if we are what we do, what we have, and what other people think about us, we will remain filled with judgments, opinions, evaluations, and condemnations. We will remain addicted to putting people and things in their "right" place."

People use the past as the excuse to remain stuck in habits and attitudes that keep them from growing.

people often become attached to best practices. The risk is that once we’ve declared a routine the best, it becomes frozen in time.

there is no good in frequently seeing objects which may one day lead to your captivity, or in making trial of things which you would find it hard to do without.

Our propensity to impose meaning and concepts blocks our awareness of the details making up the concept.

When you are tightly boxed in or cornered — all too often by your own stubborn and fixed adherence to some unconsciously worshipped assumptions — all there is to help you is what you have not yet learned.

"We believe there are certain things people "have," certain things people "do," and even certain things people "are." These beliefs do not necessarily reflect the structure of reality they simply reflect an habitual way of talking about reality."

Once your intellect gets identified with something, it gets chained to the identifications, and leaves you with a completely distorted experience of the world.

They had certain Fixed Ideas implanted by Moreau in their minds which absolutely bounded their imaginations. They really were hypnotized, had been told certain things were impossible, and certain things were not to be done, and these prohibitions were woven into the texture of their minds beyond any possibility of disobedience or dispute.