Quotes About Reflection

Even the stoics agree that certainty is very hard to come at; that our assent is worth little, for where is infallibility to be found?

Reflect frequently upon the instability of things, and how very fast the scenes of nature are shifted. Matter is in perpetual flux. Change is always and everywhere at work; it strikes through causes and effects, and leaves nothing fixed and permanent.

Be mindful at all times of the following: the nature of the whole universe, the nature of the part that is me, the relation of the one to the other, the one so vast, the other so small.

Your manners will depend very much upon the quality of what you frequently think on; for the soul is as it were tinged with the colour and complexion of thought.

The controlling Intelligence understands its own nature, and what it does, and whereon it works.

You will quickly be reduced to ashes and skeleton. And it may be you will have a name left you, and it may be not. And what is a name? Nothing but sound and echo.

As surgeons keep their instruments and knives always at hand for cases requiring immediate treatment, so shouldst thou have thy thoughts ready to understand things divine and human, remembering in thy every act, even the smallest, how close is the bond that unites the two.

You will find rest from vain fancies if you perform every act in life as though it were your last.

Look within. Within is the fountain of the good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

It is a disgrace to let ignorance and vanity do more with us than prudence and principle.

Pray look upon the plants and birds, the ants, spiders, and bees, and you will see them all exerting their nature, and busy in their station. Pray, shall not a man act like a man?

Death--a stopping of impressions through the senses, and of the pulling of the cords of motion, and of the ways of thought, and of service to the flesh.

As if you had died and your life had extended only to this present moment, use the surplus that is left to you to live from this time onward according to nature.

Death smiles at us all, but all a man can do is smile back.

Either you're going to be depressed when your wish is not realized or foolishly pleased with yourself if it is, overjoyed for the wrong reasons.

Forget everything else. Keep hold of this alone and remember it: Each of us lives only now, this brief instant. The rest has been lived already, or is impossible to see. The span we live is small - small as the corner of the earth in which we live it. Small as the greatest renown, passed from mouth to mouth by short-lived stick figures, ignorant alike of themselves and those long dead.

He (God) remembers that we are but shadows and dust, therefore what we do in this life echoes in eternity.

He who has a vehement desire for posthumous fame does not consider that every one of those who remember him will himself also die very soon.

Here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not "This is misfortune," but "To bear this worthily is good fortune".

No man can escape his destiny, the next inquiry being how he may best live the time that he has to live.

Nowhere can a man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

Remind yourself that it is not the future or what has passed that afflicts you, but always the present.

The best answer to anger is silence.

You will give yourself relief, if you do every act of your life as if it were the last.