Quotes About Stillness

We are so used to "doing" that it may seem like a chore just to "be.

Waiting for something to happen in the deathly, unhappy silence.

I was never less alone than when by myself. Edward Gibbon

but there was no need. For at that

to be able to enter into the stillness that is one's own true nature, one must break up constantly the addiction and fascination with being something.

The only way to know yourself is to be, which means to forget all that you think you are. In the Bible, God says, "Be still and know that I am God." This is what I mean by simply 'be.' This statement could easily, without loss, be reduced to, "Be still and know," or just "Be still," or, as we have just said, "Be." Being is knowing, knowing is stillness, and this still knowing, which is being without limit, some people call God.

I would like to stay like this, lazy, warm, in the silence where only our regular breathing can be heard, without ever having to make gestures, speak words which sell us out and betray us; this moment is real and alive, I stretch it into eternity...

The river of my village doesn't make you think about anything. When you're at its bank you're only at its bank.

I'm in no hurry. What for? The sun and moon aren't in a hurry: they're right. Hurrying is believing people can get past their legs, Or that, jumping, they can land past their shadow. No; I don't know how to hurry.

We have to become still in the midst of the turmoil so we can observe clearly how our actions and the actions of others, past and present, fit together in the tapestry of life. In the timeless instant when we stop moving and simply witness the moment, the dust settles and the big picture emerges.

Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.

Someone in the garden is delaying the passing of time.

Si. Sola. Siempre sola. Lenta, muy lentamente.

The supreme quality of great men is the power of resting. Anxiety, restlessness, fretting are marks of weakness. —J. R. SEELEY

The supreme quality of great men is the power of resting. Anxiety, restlessness, fretting are marks of weakness.

There is a part of you, you see now, that is reckless. A part of you that still always wants to die but never really wants to go after it. So it makes mistakes instead. Or it says, when trouble comes in and has lemonade, I wonder what this will look like. If I sit still. If I do nothing.

The quiet around her seems to make the focus of her prettiness sharper, the air's stillness focuses her in the eye. As if talking might make it harder to see someone.

All mental hygiene is based on the core practice of doing nothing. Most of us are good at wasting time, staring at the wall while telling ourselves we should be working. We call this doing nothing, but our brains are furiously active. We think constantly, and our thinking is often rife with distress.

If you want to relax, watch the clouds pass by if you're laying on the grass, or sit in front of the creek; just doing nothing and having those still moments is what really rejuvenates the body.

Like water, we are truest to our nature in repose.

Complete peace equally reigns between two mental waves.

When everything is moving and shifting, the only way to counteract chaos is stillness. When things feel extraordinary, strive for ordinary. When the surface is wavy, dive deeper for quieter waters.

Don't pity me now, don't pity me never; I'm going to do nothing for ever and ever.

Usually when I'm on a plane, I try to enjoy the fact that I have to be still for eight hours and read a book.