Speaking in popular and unphilosophical terms, we may say that the content of a
thought is supposed to be something in your head when you think the
thought, while the object is usually something in the outer world.
"Then the children's illnesses, that everlasting apprehension; then bringing them up; evil propensities" (she
thought of little Masha's crime among the raspberries), "education, Latin--it's all so incomprehensible and difficult.
He
thought he sprang to his feet not even startled.
"It's nicer to think dear, pretty
thoughts and keep them in one's heart, like treasures.
On a Sunday morning when he could not sleep because of his
thoughts he arose and went to walk in the streets.
Yet when we write with ease and come out into the free air of
thought, we seem to be assured that nothing is easier than to continue this communication at pleasure.
I
thought it as well then to say what Strickland had suggested.
"I had only one pretty
thought for the book," she said, "I was to give it a happy ending." She said this so timidly that I was about to melt to her when she added with extraordinary boldness, "The little white bird was to bear an olive-leaf in its mouth."
"If that won't tell him the truth," she
thought, "nothing will."
And a great many voices all said together ('like the chorus of a song,'
thought Alice), 'Don't keep him waiting, child!
Featherstone grunted: he could not deny that an ordinary sort of girl like her might be expected to be useful, so he
thought of another rejoinder, disagreeable enough to be always apropos.
When she had
thought of this, she fastened up her hair and began to wash: it seemed more possible to her to go downstairs and try to behave as usual.
