Quotes About Contemplation

3. People try to get away from it all—to the country, to the beach, to the mountains. You always wish that you could too. Which is idiotic: you can get away from it anytime you like. By going within. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful—more free of interruptions—than your own soul.

Look within; within is the fountain of all good. Such a fountain, where springing waters can never fail, so thou dig still deeper and deeper.

For every action, ask: How does it affect me? Could I change my mind about it?

Nothing is so productive of greatness of mind as the ability to examine systematically and truthfully each thing we encounter in life, and to see these things in such a way as to comprehend the nature of the Cosmos.

Yo, al contrario, tras haber contemplado la naturaleza del bien y ver que es algo bello, y la del mal y ver que es algo vergonzoso, y la naturaleza del que yerra y ver que es de mi linaje, no por la misma sangre o simiente, sino por ser partícipe de la inteligencia[180] y fracción divina[181], tampoco puedo subir perjuicio por parte de alguno de ellos, porque nadie me cubrirá de vergüenza; tampoco puedo encolerizarme con el que es de mi linaje ni odiarlo. Hemos

Borra la imaginación detén el impulso de marioneta. Circunscríbete al momento presente. Comprende lo que te sucede a ti o a otro. Divide y separa el objeto dado en su aspecto causal y material. Piensa en tu hora postrera la falta cometida por aquel dejala allí donde se origino

A man cannot any whither retire better than to his own soul;

How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life so well suited for philosophising as this in which thou now happenest to be.

Of everything thou must consider from whence it came, of what things it doth consist, and into what it will be changed: what will be the nature of it, or what it will be like unto when it is changed; and that it can suffer no hurt by this change.

2.12 Es propio de la facultad inteligente fijarse en cómo desaparece rápidamente todo, las propias personas en el universo, los recuerdos de esas personas en el tiempo; en

No hay nada más desventurado que quien recorre todo en derredor, explora »lo que está debajo de la tierra«, dice[193], e investiga en las almas de los que están cerca mediante el uso de indicios[194], sin darse cuenta de que basta estar sólo ante el espíritu divino que está dentro de uno mismo y ser su servidor de verdad. Este

Doctors keep their scalpels and other instruments handy, for emergencies. Keep your philosophy ready too—ready to understand heaven and earth. In everything you do, even the smallest thing, remember the chain that links them. Nothing earthly succeeds by ignoring heaven, nothing heavenly by ignoring the earth.

And is there anything preferable to thought itself -- to logic, to understanding? Think of their surefootedness. Their fluent stillness.

How many of them who came into the world at the same time when I did, are already gone out of it? LII.

What is this, fundamentally? What is its nature and substance, its reason for being? What is it doing in the world? How long is it here for?

spend not thy time in thinking, what such a man doth, and to what end: what he saith, and what he thinks, and what he is about, and such other things or curiosities, which make a man to rove and wander from the care and observation of that part of himself, which is rational, and overruling

32. You can discard most of the junk that clutters your mind—things that exist only there—and clear out space for yourself: … by comprehending the scale of the world … by contemplating infinite time … by thinking of the speed with which things change—each part of every thing; the narrow space between our birth and death; the infinite time before; the equally unbounded time that follows.

as if you were dying right now, despise your flesh. A mess of blood, pieces of bone, a woven tangle of nerves, veins, arteries. Consider what the spirit is: air, and never the same air

Look inward. Don't let the true nature or value of anything elude you.

Fijar y describir siempre el objeto cuya imagen se presenta al espi­ritu, de suerte que se le ve placidamente, tal como es por naturaleza, desnudo, bajo diversos aspectos y decirse asi mismo su nombre y los nombres de los elementos que lo conforman y en los que se desintegrara. Nada en efecto contribuye a la grandeza del animo como poder comprobar con orden y exactitud cada uno de los objetos que representan la vida y verlos siempre de tal conformidad

What then is that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy.

Look in, let not either the proper quality, or the true worth of anything pass thee, before thou hast fully apprehended it.

Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.

Let a glance at thyself bring to mind one of the Caesars. Then let the thought strike thee: where are they now? Nowhere, or none can say where. For thus shalt thou habitually look upon human things as mere smoke and as naught; and more than ever so, if thou bethink thee that what has once changed will exist no more throughout eternity. Why strive then and strain?