Quotes About Contemplation

A moment in the morning ere the cares of the day begin, Ere the heart's wide door is open for the world to enter in; Ah, then, alone with Jesus, in the silence of the morn, In heavenly sweet communion, let your happy day be born; In the quietude that blesses with a prelude of repose, Let your soul be soothed and softened as the dew revives the rose.

When it comes to true humility in the face of history, nothing beats complete silence.

Alone in his room, he smiled at his secret greatness.

he'd fantasized about having nothing to do except lie on his bed and sleep and stare into space, but now those empty hours were here, and they were getting old amazingly fast.

He just stared at his lap and waited for each successive second to impose itself on him in turn like an uninvited guest the way the previous one had.

I have given up reading books; I find it takes my mind off myself.

We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.

For my own part, I tend to find the doctrinal books often more helpful in devotion than the devotional books, and I rather suspect that the same experience may await others. I believe that many who find that "nothing happens" when they sit down, or kneel down, to a book of devotion, would find that the heart sings unbidden while they are working their way through a tough bit of theology with a pipe in their teeth and a pencil in their hand.

To the outside observer, deep thinking may appear methodically compulsive, but it is much more the product of a person's faith in himself and his emotional inclinations than the result of any objective discipline. Hence James' descriptive phrase: "the sentiment of rationality.

A day spent without the sight or sound of beauty, the contemplation of mystery, or the search of truth or perfection is a poverty-stricken day; and a succession of such days is fatal to human life.

Today, the degradation of the inner life is symbolized by the fact that the only place sacred from interruption is the private toilet.

I would love to have the faith to believe that the world was created in seven days... but I have thoughts... and that can really fuck up the faith thing, just ask any Catholic priest.

The answer, I propose, is that aging is an ideal time for the cultivation of the inner life: a time for spiritual practice. Why

What's the best use of this extra gift of time?

Gentlemen, the most important part of living is not the living but the pondering upon it. And the most important part of experimentation is not doing the experiment but making notes, ve-ry accurate quantitative notes -- in ink.

We all need poetry. The moments in our lives that are characterized by language that has to do with necessity or the market, or just, you know, things that take us away from the big questions that we have, those are the things that I think urge us to think about what a poem can offer.

Many of us have been running all our lives. Practice stopping.

Let us be silent, that we may hear the whispers of the gods.

Though man a thinking being is defined, Few use the grand prerogative of mind. How few think justly of the thinking few! How many never think, who think they do!

Never just run through a study because you happen to be familiar with it, but use it to see what you can get from it on this new day which has been granted you.

My old drama coach used to say, 'Don't just do something, stand there.' Gary Cooper wasn't afraid to do nothing.

I find it quite useful to be alone when I'm making music, but also in general, in life.

He was somebody who made me think, I suppose, about the contemplative life. I've always been a city fellow, but I've often had vague thoughts about 'checking out' and perhaps going into a monastery and just seeing what it was like.

My thoughts about God are vague and abstract. My connection with the energy of the universe is shaky.