Quotes About Contemplation

It is the internal force - this intimate interrupter - whose tracks I would follow. the world sheds, in the energetic way of an open and communal place, its many greetings, as a world should. What quarrel can there be with that? But that the self can interrupt the self - and does - is a darker and more curious matter.

The one thing he is adamant about is that we should look - we must look - for that is the liquor of life, that brooding upon issues, that attention to thought even as we weed the garden or milk the cow.

Believe me these are not just words talking. This is my life, thinking of the darkness to follow. — Mary Oliver, from "Sand Dabs, Three," West Wind: Poems and Prose Poems (Houghton Mifflin, 1997)

Let me     keep my mind on what matters, which is my work, which is mostly standing still and learning to be     astonished.

How often now I just sit, with my elbows on the desk and my hands holding my face bold and upright, and stare into the past.

I walk, all day, across the heaven-verging field.

Perhaps some things should remain mysteries and are better kept in our hearts. We should not try to explain them. (p. 86)

Instead, I quietly excused myself and went to the bar, to commune with spirits I know how to relate to.

Not that there's anything wrong with just lying around on your back. In it's way, rotting is interesting too, as we will see. It's just that there are other ways to spend your time as a cadaver.

It's amazing what sometimes gets accomplished via an initially jarring but ultimately harmless shift in thinking. Is cutting the organs out of a dead man and stitching them into someone else barbaric and disrespectful, or is it a straightforward operation to save multiple lives? Does crapping into a Baggie while sitting 6 inches away from your crewmate represent a collapse of human dignity or a unique and comic form of intimacy?

I've enjoyed hanging around in rooms doing nothing much, and look, I get to do it after I die.

One wondering thought pollutes the day

My own mind began to grow, watchful with anxoius thoughts.

At these moments I took refuge in the most perfect solitude. I passed whole days on the lake alone in a little boat, watching the clouds, and listening to the rippling of the waves, silent and listless.

The night passed away, and the sun rose from the ocean; my feelings became calmer, if it may be called calmness when the violence of rage sinks into the depths of despair. I left the house, the horrid scene of the last night's contention, and walked on the beach of the sea, which I almost regarded as an insuperable barrier between me and my fellow creatures.

shore of the lake, at the distance of rather more than a league

pues no hay nada mejor para tranquilizar la mente que un propósito constante, un punto donde el alma pueda fijar la mirada de su intelecto.

I remember thinking with a queer detached portion of my mind that here was someone wringing her hands. One reads about it and one never sees it, and now here it was.

I assure you, I've come to one of those natural breaks in the book, where one can walk away and let things go on working in the subconscious. It's true, don't look so unbelieving. It means I can afford to tear myself away from my view of the pigsties and go out on parole, as much as I like and you'll put up with.

sat, chin on hand, thinking, my eyes on the bright distance. I

A veces deseaba desterrar de mí todo pensamiento, todo afecto;

These reflections determined me, and I resolved to remain silent.

there is something at work in my soul, which I do not understand

Before researchers become researches they should become philosophers.