Quotes About Contemplation

By doing rather than merely studying, we create a culture. Newcomers and the young feed on that culture. They watch. They do. They, too, are changed. Our culture expands. You Americans create a system of thought. The most you ask is that people contemplate new ideas. You might ask them to give or to sometimes attend meetings, but no contagious culture is created.

Pure prayer begins at the threshold of silence. It says nothing, asks for nothing. It is a kind of listening. The deeper the listening, the less we listen for, until silence itself becomes the voice of God.

Search your own heart with all diligence for out of it flow the issues of life.

Someone inquired of a Hindu who had a great serenity and peace about him, no matter what pressures were put upon him, "How do you maintain that serenity and peace?" His answer: "I never leave my place of meditation." Every morning he meditated for thirty minutes. Then in his mind and heart he never left it—he maintained the spirit of that place all during his public life and pressures.

he periodically set aside an entire week to unplug for reading and reflection, a Think Week. He also developed a penchant for reading biographies; at one point he told Brent Schlender of Fortune, "It's amazing how some people develop during their lives

He looked into his own head and thought he saw the world

Even during the most intense years building Microsoft, he periodically set aside an entire week to unplug for reading and reflection, a Think Week.

Can you look at yourself almost as though you were someone else?

He did not want to talk to anyone until he had had more time to think. But at the same time he did not want to be alone. The threat of madness was always at its worst when he was alone.

Nothing like a spider in the mouth to get you thinking.

Without being conscious of death, you can't be fully aware of the gift of life.

Voltaire said that no problem could withstand the assault of sustained thinking. And he was right.

Or is it that I think too much?

It's so beautiful where I am today that it makes me wonder where I am.

These experiences have caused him to think very hard about what he is doing and where he is going. And the result of all this thinking is that he now understands that he doesn't know what he is doing or where he is going.

Just because you're at the office is no reason to stop thinking.

When was the last time you sat for an hour of pure, unadulterated thinking?

Few people think more than two or three times a year," Shaw reportedly said.

The absurdly talented George Bernard Shaw—a world-class writer and a founder of the London School of Economics—noted this thought deficit many years ago. "Few people think more than two or three times a year," Shaw reportedly said. "I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week." We too try to think once.

Shaw reportedly said. "I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.

Rilke knew what was up. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will gradually, without noticing it, one distant day, live right into the answer. What's truer than that...

Members of this school insist that the only way to find an opening to our underground world is to seek out a quiet and secluded spot. Close your eyes. Concentrate your attention inward. Descend.

There is something about the water - that solitary kind of peaceful feeling. You're on earth but not quite.

My desire is that my Lord would give me broader and deeper thoughts, to feed myself with wondering at His love.