Let’s start off by listing some famous quotes on thinking.

A man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.

Max R. Hickerson

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts: therefore, guard accordingly, and take care that you entertain no notions unsuitable to virtue and reasonable nature.

Marcus Aurelius

Rarely do we find men who willingly to engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

You become what you think about.

Earl Nightingale

A man is what he thinks about all day long.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

And now for a sidetrack:

Folks that are into personal development or success have been hearing and reading these quotes for years. There is one other quote that is almost always used when we read about thinking, and that comes from the bible.

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

Proverbs 23:7

As it ends up, that’s not really the whole verse. I recently came across an article that contradicts the common interpretation of this verse.

The Bible may or may not teach that you become what you think, but Proverbs 23:7 is of no value whatsoever in determining whether or not this is the case. It is talking about something completely different.

Ivan Maddox (article source)

I think that this conclusion would be a mistake. Here’s the whole verse with the surrounding verses:

Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats:

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

Proverbs 23:6-8

To me that says this: Don’t take anything from an evil person. His thoughts prove what he really is. He’s evil, and he’s going to tell you to take his goods anyway. Don’t be fooled, he’s thinking of doing you harm. If you take what he gives you, you’re going to get into trouble.

The important point is this: What the imagined evil man was thinking was the proof of his character.

I believe that what I think is the proof of who I am, and what you think is the proof of who you are. A positive person thinks positive thoughts, an evil person thinks evil thoughts, and a successful person thinks successful thoughts.

Therefore in my opinion, when you take the scripture in context, it means the same thing.