Quotes About Contemplation

We have to assume that the people whose dwelling-places, artefacts, lives even, we are dealing with were rational, integrated, sane and sensible human beings. Then we look around at our own contemporaries and wonder how this belief can possibly be sustained.

I am constantly telling my own story to myself, and these days that's about all the narrative flow I can handle.

He was a monk in an order of one.

I pray for the gift of silence, Of emptiness and solitude, Where everything I touch is turned into prayer:

He felt as if he were a character in Henry James; he began to suspect he was to be that man to whom nothing whatsoever was to happen.

Every August, I go away for four weeks to a place in Michigan. I work in the mornings, spend the month in shorts and flip-flops. It gives me time to think like an investor and come back in September for some heavy planning.

For me, the two weeks between Christmas and Twelfth Night have come to be reserved for desultory reading. The pressure of the holiday is over, the weather outside is frightful, there are lots of leftovers to munch on, vacation hours are being used up.

I decided to give up the idea of being a priest before I decided I wanted to be an actor. I considered it for a couple of weeks, really. I'm a young Catholic, do you know what I mean. You're going to consider it.

I could go days, weeks, without talking to another human being.

Weeks go by, and I don't talk to another living soul.

And when is there time to remember, to sift, to weigh, to estimate, to total?

I'm generally slow to anger, quick to forgive, and I take in information before making decisions. So no matter how controversial the decision, my general demeanour is to put on white lab coat and gloves and look at the evidence, weigh the arguments and see what makes sense.

You know how some people write every day at a certain point? I'm not like that. I carry something around for a long time. I weigh the words and the sentences. I weigh the paragraphs. The process is much more meditative for me.

Pondering, which means to weigh mentally, to deliberate, to meditate, can achieve the opening of the spiritual eyes of one's understanding.

With experience, you suddenly realise you know how to do things or that you've done something like this before. And I think as you get more confident, you can sit back and try and weigh up the options of doing something or not doing something.

I have never been shy about listening to the input of others and weighing it seriously.

I learned to basically pull my own weight, just do my own thing. I spent a lot of time alone and I loved it. It was actually really great because to the present day I love spending time alone. I go bicycling alone, go climbing alone and I just love being with myself and observing myself and learning something.

I'm someone who just likes being in my cave and thinking up weird stuff.

I don't listen to music. I know it's weird, and I have no explanation for that. But I never do.

I'm still very much an atheist, except that I don't necessarily see religion as being a bad thing. So, that's a weird thing that I'm struggling with that seems to be offending both atheists and people that are religious.

Like, my feelings on religion are starting to morph. I'm still very much an atheist, except that I don't necessarily see religion as being a bad thing. So, that's a weird thing that I'm struggling with that seems to be offending both atheists and people that are religious.

I like to go outside at night by myself and look at the sky and just appreciate it. I'm not that big of a weirdo, but - occasionally.

In my books I might hold the mirror to my own face. If others would like to borrow the mirror, they're welcome. The books aren't there to accuse others - merely to raise issues and keep the debates alive.

There's no real rush to answer the questions you face. To apply the best intellectual answer, you should clear your mind, stay calm, assess the question as well as you can to be comfortable, and then respond.