Quotes About Reflection

Mozart liked to write letters while on the loo. He wrote, "I think it only fitting to write while shitting." This gave me the idea of, "I think it only fitting to read while ..." Who says men can't multitask?

For, if we shift our focus, it is possible to see that these ripples and ruptures within the text, far from counting against the work as something divinely inspired, are exactly what we would expect to find from that which is marked by and born out of the very depths of God.

What we think and say about God is still both important and unavoidable, for our words help us come to terms with the hallowed mystery and respond to it. However, this approach diligently maintains a conceptual distance between ourselves and God, one which approaches the divine mystery as something to be transformed by rather than solved.

It is in stillness, in the silence, that the word of God is to be heard.

For Christians it is a happening, an event, that we affirm and respond to, regardless of the ebbs and flows of our abstract theological reflections concerning the source and nature of this happening.

For the Word, if it exists at all, does not simply dwell in the ink that marks the pages of the Bible and cannot be isolated in a dissection of the story into its constituent parts.

The silence that is part of all God-talk is not the silence of banality, indifference or ignorance but one that stands in awe of God. This does not necessitate an absolute 'silencing', whereby we give up speaking of God, but rather involves a recognition that our language concerning the divine remains silent in its speech.

The primary problem with idolatry is not that it falsely claims to have a connection with God but rather that it falsely claims to understand the God that it is connected to. Yet this does not mean that our definitions of God are somehow unimportant – indeed, they remain vital – it is only that we must recognize the extent to which these reflections fall short of that which they attempt to define and always reflect something of the one who makes the claims.

Take this wine, my dear friend, and drink it up, for it is my very blood, and it is shed for you." All this makes you feel painfully uncomfortable, and so you shift in your chair and fumble in your pocket, all the time distracted by the silver that weighs heavy in your pouch.

In the aftermath of God's happening the true worshiper attempts to paint the most beautiful pictures imaginable to reflect that happening. It is this heartfelt endeavor to paint the most refined and beautiful conceptual images that speaks of God, not the actual descriptions we create

So much has happened since the first publication of The Six Sigma Way, and it has been rewarding to find that much of what was in the book then still holds true. At the same time, the opportunity to reflect on how organizations have used, or misused, Six Sigma had offered a lot of new insights. We're pleased that this updated book will offer some real benefit to individuals and organizations still focused on driving continuous improvement today.

Each of us needs an opportunity to be alone and silent, or even, indeed, to find space in the day or in the week, just to reflect and to listen to the voice of God that speaks deep within us. . . . In fact, our search for God is only our response to his search for us. He knocks at our door, but for many people, their lives are too preoccupied for them to be able to hear. — Cardinal Basil Hume

The critical issue on the journey with God is not "Am I happy?" but "Am I free?

Solitude is the practice of being absent from people and things to attend to God.

The vast majority of us go to our graves without knowing who we are.

We imitate God by stopping our work and resting.

Am I growing in the freedom God gave me?

Most leaders shipwreck or live inconsistent lives because of forces and motivations beneath the surface of their lives, which they have never even considered.

Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop.

Most of us never examine the scripts handed to us by our past.

ese día, sentados en la oficina del consejero y muy avergonzados por la situación de nuestro matrimonio, aprendimos una lección que nunca olvidaremos: aunque éramos cristianos comprometidos desde hacía casi veinte años, nuestra manera de relacionarnos reflejaba mucho más la de nuestra familia de origen, que la forma que Dios tenía pensada para su nueva familia en Cristo.

In what ways does my current pace of life and leadership enhance or diminish my ability to allow God's will and presence full scope in my life?

Our wisdom . . . consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.

Those who cannot learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.