Quotes About Contemplation

Bodhidharma said, "In order to see a fish you must watch the water.

The Mirror may have many uses however sooner or later one uses it for introspection!!!!

She raised her head and stared at the birds with him, caught in a web of awe and loneliness.

Boredom helps one to make decisions.

Look for a long time at what pleases you, and for a longer time at what pains you.

I sit in my room at my desk, looking out the window to the yard and waiting for a plot to come to me, to rise slowly in my mind.

I have always been considerably addicted to my own company.

And my last words shall be these – that it is only from the inmost silences of the heart that we know the world for what it is, and ourselves for what the world has made us.

If I ever thought of myself as a man of thirty-five it was a visualization of dreary decrepitude.

Sitting here I glance over my right shoulder at the little row of books, red and green and blue, which stand waiting for my hand, offering their accumulated riches. I think of the years that may be in store for me, and of all the pages I may turn.

writing poetry is like prayer, and prayer isn't something you have to share with other people.

only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and heard.

Maybe all the trees were God.--A Parchment of Leaves

I wondered if the trees were God. They were like God in many respects: they stood silent, and most people only noticed them when the need arose.

Ho pensato che se tu avessi parlato con Arseni, io ti avrei certo ucciso, ecco Ernestina. Ma con una calma grande, l'ho pensato, forse, neanche di questo mondo, devi credermi. Ho pensato al silenzio degli alberi, dell'acqua, e avrei voluto che anche tu fossi tutta silenzio, come loro...

The wildness that comes in the waiting. In the sitting.

Since there is no telling in advance where it may lead, reflection can be seen as dangerous.

The word 'philosophy' carries unfortunate connotations: impractical, unworldly, weird.

We think about what to do, and muster considerations and arguments in favor of one course or another. How are we to think about that?

the unexamined life is not worth living. It has insisted on the power of rational reflection to winnow out bad elements in our practices, and to replace them with better ones.

Reflection matters because it is continuous with practice. How you think about what you are doing affects how you do it, or whether you do it at all.

I spend long, long time in shoe box.

Don't you think I haven't already?' Miriam said wearily. 'I think about it every day, and always I ask myself what Jehoshua would have done . . .

Winter is for dreaming