Contemplating Quotes

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  When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with continents and islands, flying through space with other stars all singing and shining together as one, the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty.

  John Muir

  Beauty, Nature, Stars

  Travels in Alaska, ch.1,'The Puget Sound and British Columbia' (published1915).

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• Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them.

  David Hume

  Positive, Beauty, Philosophical

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• A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.

  Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  Inspirational, Life, Creativity

  "Flight to Arras". Book by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1942.

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• Better to illuminate than merely to shine; to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Powerful, Thoughtful, Love Is

  "Summa Theologica". Book by Thomas Aquinas (Part II-II, Question 188), 1485.

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• In order to improve the mind, we ought less to learn, than to contemplate.

  Rene Descartes

  Learning, Caring, Order

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• In the mountain, stillness surges up to explore its own height In the lake, movement stands still to contemplate its own depth.

  Rabindranath Tagore

  Lakes, Mountain, Depth

  Rabindranath Tagore, Mohit Kumar Ray (2007). “Poems”, p.439, Atlantic Publishers & Dist

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• It takes an extraordinary intelligence to contemplate the obvious.

  Alfred North Whitehead

  Obvious, Extraordinary

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• Do something today that reflects who you are, what you are capable of, what you care about. Give yourself plenty of evidence of what you can do, and you will not doubt your abilities to do anything.

  David Niven

  Giving, Doubt, Care

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• Beauty is no quality in things themselves: It exists merely in the mind which contemplates them; and each mind perceives a different beauty.

  David Hume

  Beauty, Mind, Quality

  'Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary' (ed. T. H. Green and T. H. Grose, 1875) 'Of the Standard of Taste' (1757)

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  You do not need to leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. Do not even listen, simply wait, be quiet, still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked, it has no choice, it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.

  Franz Kafka

  Inspirational, Life, Wisdom

  "The Zürau Aphorisms". Book by Franz Kafka, 1931.

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• Look out into the universe and contemplate the glory of God. Observe the stars, millions of them, twinkling in the night sky, all with a message of unity, part of the very nature of God.

  Sai Baba

  Life, Stars, Night

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• It would not be foolish to contemplate the possibility of a far greater progress still.

  John Maynard Keynes

  Progress, Foolish, Possibility

  John Maynard Keynes, Royal Economic Society (Great Britain) (1972). “The Collected Writings of John Maynard Keynes: Essays in persuasion”

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• I limited myself to introduce a change in my way of thinking and the way I see things. When I look at my child, I do it in a different way then when Im contemplating a chair. They are different... the child is a living being, and the chair is an object.

  Meg Tilly

  Change, Children, Thinking

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• Talk about it only enough to do it. Dream about it only enough to feel it. Think about it only enough to understand it. Contemplate it only enough to be it.

  Jean Toomer

  Dream, Time, Thinking

  Jean Toomer (1980). “The Wayward and the Seeking: A Collection of Writings by Jean Toomer”, Washington : Howard University Press

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• I am not really retired, and may never be completely, but I can't think of a better place to contemplate retirement than New York City.

  Robert MacNeil

  Retirement, New York, Thinking

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• He greatly valued his possessions, chiefly because they were his, and derived genuine pleasure from contemplating a painting, a statuette, a rare lace curtain - no matter what - after he had bought it and placed it among his household gods.

  Kate Chopin

  Literature, Matter, Lace

  Kate Chopin (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Kate Chopin (Illustrated)”, p.222, Delphi Classics

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• And if citizens of New Orleans who are really contemplating coming back heard that we're really intent upon making the place secure again - regardless of whether the levees held or not - then I think a rebuilding process would really take shape.

  Billy Tauzin

  Thinking, New Orleans, Citizens

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• There is absolutely no inevitability, so long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.

  Marshall McLuhan

  Peace, Ubuntu, Long

  "The Medium is the Massage : An Inventory of Effects". Book by Marshall McLuhan and Quentin Fiore, 1967.

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• Every one knows, that the mind will not be kept from contemplating what it loves in the midst of crowds and business. Hence come those frequent absences, so observable in conversation; for whilst the body is confined to present company, the mind is flown to that which it delights in.

  Mary Astell

  Mind, Delight, Body

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• We see things in this material world, wherein our bodies dwell, only because our mind through its attention lives in another world, only because it contemplates the beauties of the archetypal and intelligible world which Reason contains.

  Nicolas Malebranche

  Mind, Attention, World

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• Let us be moral. Let us contemplate existence.

  Charles Dickens

  Life, Moral, Existence

  'Martin Chuzzlewit' (1844) ch. 9 (Mr Pecksniff)

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• I must stay alone and know that I am alone to contemplate and feel nature in full.

  Caspar David Friedrich

  Stay Strong, Order, Stay Positive

  "Authenticity and Fiction in the Russian Literary Journey, 1790-1840". Book by Andreas Schönle, p. 108, 2000.

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• To young men contemplating a voyage I would say go.

  Joshua Slocum

  Inspirational, Funny, Encouraging

  Joshua Slocum (1985). “The Voyages of Joshua Slocum”, p.381, Sheridan House, Inc.

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• I think it would be totally inappropriate for me to even contemplate what I am thinking about.

  Don Mazankowski

  Humorous, Thinking, Profound

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• We can only know one thing about God - that he is what we are not. Our wretchedness alone is an image of this. The more we contemplate it, the more we contemplate him.

  Simone Weil

  God, Wretchedness, Knows

  "Attention and Will (1947)". "Gravity and Grace". Book by Simone Weil, p. 216, 1947.

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