Quotes About Contemplation

We try to abolish intervals by our manic insistence on keeping busy, on doing something. And as a result, all we succeed in doing is destroying all hope of tranquility. ... . You have to learn to immerse yourself in the silences between.

Looking back at that evening was almost better than experiencing it the first time, because it did not go faster than I could manage it, I did not have to worry about my part, and I was not distracted by doubt, because I knew how it would come out. I relived it so often, it might have happened just so that I could relive it later.

I was tired of so much thinking, which was what I did most in those days. I did other things, but I went on thinking while I did them. I might feel something, but I would think about what I was feeling at the same time. I even had to think about what I was thinking and wonder why I was thinking it.

After that night, which was in late December, I was completely worn out. I did not walk as often, and when I walked did not see what was around me: though I looked up at the housefronts, at the sky, again and again I found myself watching the pavement that rolled out under my feet.

Beyond the hand holding this book that I'm reading, I see another hand lying idle and slightly out of focus—my extra hand.

He says to us: They don't really do anything. Then he adds: But of course there is not a lot for them to do.

If your eyeballs move, this means that you're thinking, or about to start thinking. If you don't want to be thinking at this particular moment, try to keep your eyeballs still.

Então meu amado foi se fechando com seu cachimbo e seu Proust, solidão de bicho de caramujo, pode bater que não abro.

Ela deixou pender os braços desamparados dentro das mangas do hábito, inclinou a cabeça e ficou pensativa, olhando para dentro de si mesma. E o que vê não deve ser animador.

A penny for your thought.

Hate engenders hate. Hate spreads to nations, and from this cause we have devastating wars. In the contemplation of these wars and their origins there is something humiliating to our human race. No Hymn of Hate can ever be a paean of humanity.

Seasons of life can make a big difference. Sometimes people are great believers while in college, but when they're young parents with their second baby and they're working sixty or eighty hours a week and their wife's sick all the time and the boss is on their back-they simply don't have time to reflect. And I don't think faith can develop without some contemplative time. If they don't make room for that, their faith is not going to grow and doubts will creep in.

quiet. Did she dare to imagine a future that didn't

The most profound statements are often said in silence.

out over the sea," he said. When it

Lying in the shadow of books, I brood on my reading habit. What is it all about? What am I doing it for? And the classic addict's question, What is it doing for me?

The more we read God's truths and let truth fill our minds, the less time we'll spend contemplating untruths.

Our minds and hearts are like dry sponges. What we focus on is what will soak in and saturate us. If it is something foolish, we will make foolish decisions. If it is wise, we will make wise decisions.

Don't set into motion what needs to remain still.

The mind feasts on what it focuses on.

In light of my past experience, and my future hopes and dreams, what's the wise thing to do?

In the quiet, we feel safe enough to humble ourselves.

Night, to the earnest soul, opens the Bible of the Universe, and on the leaves of Heaven is written--"God is everywhere!"

To the thinker, the most trifling external object often suggests ideas, which, like Homer's chain, extend, link after link, from earth to heaven.