Quotes About Contemplation

I'm somewhere else entirely, thinking about my letter to Peter, wondering if it was heartfelt enough, and how and when I'm going to give it to him, and what he'll say, and what it will mean.

maybe it's good to exist in a place of unsureness for a while.

What Rilke said: I want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.

For fifteen, maybe twenty minutes, she'd suspend her fierce judgment of the world and fall silent there. And when she did, a tiny space would clear in my head and I could think again.

What Simone Weil said: Attention without object is a supreme form of prayer.

The husband sets up their old telescope. There is almost no light pollution here. The wife looks up at the sky. There are more stars than anyone could ever need.

What the Yoga People say: None of this is banal, if only you would attend to it.

But she is tired all the time now. She can feel how slowly she is walking, as if the air itself is something to be reckoned with.

A visitor asked the old monks at Mount Athos what they did all day and was told: We have died and we are in love with everything.

The Unitarians never kneel. But I want to kneel. Later, I do at home by my bed. The oldest and best of prayers: Mercy.

I closed my eyes and listened to it. Who is this person? I wondered.

She thinks before she acts. Or more properly, she thinks instead of acts. A character flaw, not a virtue.

Jacobsen once jestingly compared himself to the sloth (det beromte Dovendyr Ai-ar) which needed two years to climb to the top o f a tree. It was necessary for him to withdraw absolutely from the world and to retire, as it were, within the character he wished to portray before he could set pen to paper. Hanna Astrup Larsen (Introduction to Marie Grubbe, New York 1917)

The only time I think about life beyond F1 is when I contemplate becoming a dad. But there's no way that's going to happen while I'm still racing. To be successful in F1 you need to be very selfish in lots of ways and you're away from home for long periods. That's not the kind of father I want to be.

Wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.

All things considered, wisdom requires not only the investigation of many things, but contemplation of the mystery.

I am an introvert, but I hate solitude. I do now, at least. The quiet of it. My inner voice, without external input, can get lost in chaos.

Without moving from my position by the tree, I unzip my pants.

Meditation is the tongue of the soul and the language of our spirit.

Let us go back a little farther and read on until we come to these words, for we must not seek to learn the whole meaning of the section, from the concluding parts of it, or, if I may so say, from the tail of the chapter.

He weighs the volume in his hand; this one has been the center of the whirlwind. Then DRUMMOND notices the Bible on the JUDGE's bench. He picks up the Bible in his other hand; he looks from one volume to the other, balancing them thoughtfully, as if his hands were scales. He half-smiles, half-shrugs. Then DRUMMOND slaps the two books together and jams them in his brief case, side by side. Slowly, he climbs to the street level and crosses the empty square.

Outside museums, in noisy public squares, people look at people. Inside museums, we leave that realm and enter what might be called the group-mind, getting quiet to look at art.

Many museums are drawing audiences with art that is ostensibly more entertaining than stuff that just sits and invites contemplation. Interactivity, gizmos, eating, hanging out, things that make noise - all are now the norm, often edging out much else.

The earth is speaking to us, but we can't hear because of all the racket our senses are making. Sometimes we need to erase them, erase our senses. Then - maybe - the earth will touch us. The universe will speak. The stars will whisper.