Quotes About Contemplation

You cannot stop the human mind from working.

Sometimes you need a humbling experience to think about a few things.

He hadn't abused alcohol, but had spent almost four years sitting in a chair drinking jug wine around the clock and looking, variously, at the wall, the window blind, and the TV screen.

What a relief to have nothing to say, the right to say nothing, because only then is there a chance of framing the rare, or ever rarer, the thing that might be worth saying.

The problem is no longer getting people to express themselves, but providing little gaps of solitude and silence in which they might eventually find something to say.

The hermit Anthony once told me that a monk is like a fish: take him out of his element and he dies. Silence is his element. In silence you can trade this shoddy world for Heaven.

How do you keep safe when your whole day is as wide and empty as the sky?

I often don't say things out loud, even when I should.

My brain is so busy with Nick thoughts, it's a swarm inside my head: Nicknicknicknicknick! And when I picture his mind, I hear my name as a shy crystal ping that occurs once, maybe twice, a day and quickly subsides. I just wish he thought about me as much as I do him. Is that wrong? I don't even know anymore.

I might as well have said dot dot dot aloud.

How do you keep safe when your whole day is as wide and empty as the sky? Anything could happen.

My life has begun to feel like an epilogue.

glum. It meant having the blues in a way that annoyed other people. Having the blues aggressively. "Well, why don't you take a week and do some thinking on it?

Sei pazza a pensare quel che stai pensando. Sei pazza a non pensarlo.

Whenever I hear that phrase

Sinto como se uma rajada de vento quente pudesse soprar em minha direção e me fazer desaparecer para sempre, nenhuma ponta de unha deixada para trás. Alguns dias acho essa ideia reconfortante; em outros, ela me dá arrepios.

Watching the river flow over fish-white feet, so intently, utterly self-possessed even as a child.

I feel like a warm gust of wind could exhale my way and I'd be disappeared forever, not even a sliver of fingernail left behind. On some days, I find this thought calming; on others it chills me.

I stared back—cows are the few animals that really seem to see you.

The Hanged Man stopped gesturing and struck a pose: man listening.

One who sees inaction in action and action in inaction- he is a wise man.

We must learn to soundproof the heart against the intruding noises of the public world in order to hear what God has to say.

Is it not better for a man never to have been born? Certaintly not The response was brisk. Just to be able to study the sky is reason enough to be alive. Unfortunately, I can't see the sky. Then listen to music.

is not all philosophy but preparation for a serene dying?