Contemplation Quotes - Page 11

• We ascend to the heights of contemplation by the steps of action.

  Pope Gregory I

  Saint, Height, Steps

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• Between the ages of twenty and fifty, John Doe spends some twenty thousand hours chewing and swallowing food, more than eight hundred days and nights of steady eating. The mere contemplation of this fact is upsetting enough.

  M. F. K. Fisher

  Food, Night, Eight

  Joan Reardon, M.F.K. Fisher (2014). “The Art of Eating”, p.43, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• ...the physicist cannot simply surrender to the philosopher the critical contemplation of the theoretical foundations; for, he himself knows best, and feels more surely where the shoe pinches...Physical conceptions are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.

  Albert Einstein

  Science, Shoes, Mind

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• So in life, some enter the services of fame and others money, but the best choice is that of those few who spend their time in the contemplation of nature, and as lovers of wisdom.

  Pythagoras

  Choices, Lovers, Fame

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• Through humility, soul-searching, and prayerful contemplation we have gained a new understanding of certain dogmas. The church no longer believes in a literal hell where people suffer. This doctrine is incompatible with the infinite love of God. God is not a judge but a friend and a lover of humanity. God seeks not to condemn but only to embrace. Like the fable of Adam and Eve, we see hell as a literary device. Hell is merely a metaphor for the isolated soul, which like all souls ultimately will be united in love with God.

  Unknown

  Believe, Humility, Judging

  "Doomed to Hell Fire and Damn-the-Nation" by Joanna Perry-Folino, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 30, 2013.

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• Leaving behind the false, return to the true: make no discriminations between self and others. In contemplation, one's mind should be stable and unmoving, like a wall.

  Bodhidharma

  Wall, Self, Leaving

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• The highest form of praise you can offer to yourself, to God and to the world is to spend time each day expressing gratitude. It says to God that you are aware and appreciative of grace. It says to life that you are acknowledging its awesome presence in you. It says to yourself that you are worth the time it takes to be healed. Time spent in silence, contemplation and gratitude is time spent in devotion to a higher calling and a more loving state of being.

  Iyanla Vanzant

  Gratitude, Silence, Grace

  Iyanla Vanzant (2000). “Until Today!: Daily Devotions for Spiritual Growth and Peace of Mind”, p.2, Simon and Schuster

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• Childhood is only the beautiful and happy time in contemplation and retrospect: to the child it is full of deep sorrows, the meaning of which is unknown.

  George Eliot

  Beautiful, Children, Happy Times

  George Eliot (2016). “George Eliot's Life, Complete: Top Novelist Focus”, p.50, 谷月社

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• Self-contemplation is apt to end in self-conceit.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Self, Ends, Conceit

  Henry Ward Beecher, William Drysdale (1887). “Proverbs from Plymouth Pulpit”

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• A contemplation of God's works, a generous concern for the good of mankind, and the unfeigned exercise of humility only, denominate men great and glorious.

  Joseph Addison

  Humility, Exercise, Greatness

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• The mind is sicker than the sick body; in contemplation of its sufferings it becomes hopeless.
  [Lat., Corpore sed mens est aegro magis aegra; malique
  In circumspectu stat sine fine sui.]

  Ovid

  Sick, Mind, Suffering

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• Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation.

  Clarence Darrow

  Silence, Might, Profit

  Clarence Darrow (2015). “The Story of My Life”, p.110, Lulu.com

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• Probably the undertaker thinks less of death than almost any other man. He is so accustomed to it that his mind must involuntarily turn from its horror to a contemplation of how much he makes out of the burial.

  Clarence Darrow

  Men, Thinking, Mind

  Clarence Darrow (2015). “Crime: Its Cause and Treatment”, p.119, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• Good-nature is that benevolent and amiable temper of mind which disposes us to feel the misfortunes and enjoy the happiness of others, and, consequently, pushes us on to promote the latter and prevent the former; and that without any abstract contemplation on the beauty of virtue, and without the allurements or terrors of religion.

  Henry Fielding

  Mind, Virtue, Abstract

  Henry Fielding, Thomas Roscoe (1853). “The Works of Henry Fielding, Complete in One Volume”, p.645

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• Age, with shamefaced relief, has learned the solvent quality of Time. It is this quality which makes possible the contemplation of certain embarrassing heavenly reunions.

  Margaret Deland

  Age, Quality, Relief

  Margaret Deland (1969). “Dr. Lavendar's People”

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• That virtue therefore which is but a youngling in the contemplation of evil, and knows not the utmost that vice promises to her followers, and rejects it, is but a blank virtue, not a pure; her whiteness is but an excremental whiteness.

  John Milton

  Evil, Promise, Vices

  1644 Areopagitica: a speech for the liberty of unlicensed printing.

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• In this way, if you continue all the time in the way we have described from the beginning, it will become as easy and clear for you to remain in contemplation in your inward and recollected state, as to live in the natural state.

  Albertus Magnus

  Attachment, Inward, Way

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• As for solitude, I cannot understand how certain people seek to lay claim to intellectual stature, nobility of soul and strength of character, yet have not the slightest feeling for seclusion; for solitude, I maintain, when joined with a quiet contemplation of nature, a serene and conscious faith in creation and the Creator, and a few vexations from outside is the only school for a mind of lofty endowment.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Character, School, People

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1963). “Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims”

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• People who have read a good deal rarely make great discoveries. I do not say this in excuse of laziness, but because invention presupposes an extensive independent contemplation of things.

  Georg C. Lichtenberg

  Independent, Discovery, People

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• When you can discover where the fresh colors of the faded flower abide, or the music of the broken lyre, seek life among the dead. Such are the anxious and fearful contemplations of the common observer, though the popular religion often prevents him from confessing them even to himself.

  Percy Bysshe Shelley

  Flower, Color, Broken

  Percy Bysshe Shelley (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley (Illustrated)”, p.1814, Delphi Classics

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• To arrive at the simplest truth, as Newton knew and practiced, requires years of contemplation. Not activity Not reasoning. Not calculating. Not busy behaviour of any kind. Not reading. Not talking. Not making an effort. Not thinking. Simply bearing in mind what it is one needs to know.

  George Spencer-Brown

  Reading, Math, Thinking

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• 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.

  Arthur Alfred Lynch

  Hate, War, Race

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• With passions stilled and one's nature firm, all destinies are in harmony; When the full moon of contemplation is reached you will be pure.

  Wu Cheng'en

  Passion, Moon, Destiny

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• Concentration is the creation of the instrument; meditation is the right use of it; contemplation transcends it.

  Christmas Humphreys

  Meditation, Use, Creation

  Christmas Humphreys (2012). “Exploring Buddhism”, p.179, Routledge

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• When I make my work, I am making what I hope to be something functional - a space for individual contemplation and reflection. I want my art to be useful.

  Bill Viola

  Art, Reflection, Space

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