Are we imprisoned by our own process of thinking?

Such is the question that many skeptics ask and cynics fear to embrace to investigate, but just to leave you with a quote from James Allen - all that a man achieves and all that he fails to achieve is the direct result of his own thoughts. In a justly ordered universe, where loss of equipoise would mean total destruction, individual responsibility must be absolute.
Is this a fact or mere ramblings, you be the judge.

"doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths"