Quotes About Contemplation

Nothing. An idea that has just occurred to me. I must go home and think things out thoroughly. Do you know, I believe I have been extremely stupid—almost incredibly so." "I find that hard to believe," I said gallantly

Rhoda Dawes came out of Debenham's and stood meditatively upon the pavement.

He said at last, when Miss Gilchrist had twittered into silence:

You never really get caught up in things, do you, Ann?" "No," said Ann thoughtfully, "I don't think I do. I think I'm one of those people who is a born observer. More like a commentator on the radio.

there was a good deal going on underneath the quietness.

In the heart of the desert or in the heart of a crowd—what does it matter? The inmost core of man is solitary—alone. I have always been —a lonely soul....

She paused for a moment, turning things over in her mind.

Well, you know, breakfast isn't always a chatty meal.

When I think of art I think of beauty. Beauty is the mystery of life. It is not in the eye it is in the mind. In our minds there is awareness of perfection.

Maybe we should always start everything from the inside and work to the outside, and not from the outside to the inside. What d'you think?

Poetic knowledge is born in the great silence of scientific knowledge.

I didn't mind the quiet stretches. It was like we were trying out the idea of being side by side.

But I think it's the quiet way you settle into the crook of a tree trunk, the still and slowdown of your heart in a world that wants us to be quick and to move onto the next thing.

through the navy blue pause just moments after twilight.

All you need to do is follow the instructions: Sit down, shut up, watch, and don't get involved. Gradually, the meditation experience will open up all by itself.

If we want to go further, then instead of being silently aware of whatever comes into the mind, we choose silent present-moment awareness of just one thing.

The hardest part of anything in life is thinking about it.

Contemplate thy powers, contemplate thy wants and thy connections so shalt thou discover the duties of life, and be directed in all thy ways.

There is no happiness. There is only concentration.

We do not want to count; we want to think the count.

Baudelaire proclaimed the delight he felt when at last, in the evening, he was alone in the haven of his bedroom. There, he wrote, citing La Bruyère, he escaped 'the great woe of not being able to be alone', by contrast with those who lose themselves in the crowd, 'probably afraid they couldn't tolerate themselves'.

When you look at the Moon, you think, "I'm really small. What are my problems?" It sets things into perspective. We should all look at the Moon a bit more often.

To read is to withdraw.To make oneself unavailable. One would feel easier about it if the pursuit inself were less...selfish.

But I smell the roses not just to remind myself of how lucky I am, but also to wonder how on earth it all happened. I smell the roses to try and figure out how I came to be in the garden at all.