Contemplation Quotes - Page 27

• This severe, ascetic music, calm and horizontal as the line of the ocean, monotonous by virtue of its serenity, anti-sensuous, and yet so intense in its contemplativeness that it verges sometimes on ecstasy.

  Charles Gounod

  Music, Ocean, Serenity

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• The octave formed a circle and gave our noble earth its form.

  Pythagoras

  Inspiration, Circles, Noble

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• The serenity produced by the contemplation and philosophy of nature is the only remedy for prejudice, superstition, and inordinate self-importance, teaching us that we are all a part of Nature herself, strengthening the bond of sympathy which should exist between ourselves and our brother man. . .

  Luther Burbank

  Brother, Nature, Philosophy

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• Then the soul, freed from vice, purged by studies of true philosophy, versed in spiritual life, and practised in matters of the intellect, devoted to the contemplation of her own substance, as if awakened from deepest sleep, opens those eyes which all possess but few use, and sees in herself a ray of that light which is the true image of the angelic beauty communicated to her, and of which she then communicates a faint shadow to the body.

  Baldassare Castiglione

  Spiritual, Philosophy, Sleep

  Baldassare Castiglione (2003). “The Book of the Courtier”, p.300, Courier Corporation

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• The study of letters is the study of the operation of human force, of human freedom and activity; the study of nature is the study of the operation of non-human forces, of human limitation and passivity. The contemplation of human force and activity tends naturally to heighten our own force and activity; the contemplation of human limits and passivity tends rather to check it. Therefore the men who have had the humanistic training have played, and yet play, so prominent a part in human affairs, in spite of their prodigious ignorance of the universe.

  Matthew Arnold

  Education, Ignorance, Science

  Matthew Arnold (1868). “Schools and Universities on the Continent”, p.260, Macmillan

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• Some are slaves of ambition or money, but others are interested in understanding life itself. These give themselves the name of philosophers , and they value the contemplation and discovery of nature beyond all other pursuits.

  Pythagoras

  Philosophy, Ambition, Discovery

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• ... Arthur Gride, whose bleared eyes gloated only over the outward beauties, and were blind to the spirit which reigned within, evinced - a fantastic kind of warmth certainly, but not exactly that kind of warmth of feeling which the contemplation of virtue usually inspires.

  Charles Dickens

  Character, Eye, Interesting

  Charles Dickens (1854). “The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ... With a Frontispiece from a Painting by T. Webster”, p.374

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• I live not in dreams but in contemplation of a reality that is perhaps the future.

  Rainer Maria Rilke

  Dream, Reality

  Rainer Maria Rilke (1969). “Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910”, p.101, W. W. Norton & Company

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• ... the greatest menace to our capacity for contemplation is the incessant fabrication of tawdry empty stimuli which kill the receptivity of the soul.

  Josef Pieper

  Philosophy, Thinking, Soul

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• All great art contains at its center contemplation, a dynamic contemplation.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Great Art

  Susan Sontag (2012). “As Consciousness Is Harnessed to Flesh: Journals and Notebooks, 1964-1980”, p.50, Macmillan

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• Gardening is a labour full of tranquility and satisfaction; natural and instructive, and as such contributes to the most serious contemplation, experience, health and longevity.

  John Evelyn

  Education, Learning, Knowledge

  John Evelyn (1729). “Silva: or, a discourse of forest-trees, and the propagation of timber in His Majesty's dominions”

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• Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.

  Francis Bacon

  Knowledge, Science, Causes

  Francis Bacon, Rose-Mary Sargent (1999). “Selected Philosophical Works”, p.90, Hackett Publishing

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• Seeking the face of God in everything, everyone, all the time, and his hand in every happening; This is what it means to be contemplative in the heart of the world. Seeing and adoring the presence of Jesus, especially in the lowly appearance of bread, and in the distressing disguise of the poor.

  Mother Teresa

  Jesus, Heart, Mean

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• The aim of life is no more to control the mind, but to develop it harmoniously; not to achieve salvation here after, but to make the best use of it here below; and not to realise truth, beauty and good only in contemplation, but also in the actual experience of daily life; social progress depends not upon the ennoblement of the few but on the enrichment of democracy; universal brotherhood can be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity - of opportunity in the social, political and individual life.

  Bhagat Singh

  Opportunity, Political, Brotherhood

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• For we are so preciously loved by God that we cannot even comprehend it. No created being can ever know how much and how sweetly and tenderly God loves them. It is only with the help of his grace that we are able to persevere in spiritual contemplation with endless wonder at his high, surpassing, immeasurable love which our Lord in his goodness has for us.

  Julian of Norwich

  Spiritual, Grace, Able

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• In daily practice, reflect on the benefits of love, compassion and kindness, then reflect on the disadvantages of anger. Such continuous contemplation, the growing appreciation of love, has the effect of reducing our inclination towards hatred and increasing our respect for love. By this means even anger can be diminished.

  Dalai Lama

  Appreciation, Inspirational Love, Kindness

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• Contemplation is nothing else but a secret, peaceful, and loving infusion of God, which, if admitted, will set the soul on fire with the Spirit of love.

  John of the Cross

  Spiritual, Fire, Soul

  Saint John of the Cross (2007). “The Collected Works of St John of the Cross: The Dark Night of the Soul, Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ, the Liv”, p.39, Cosimo, Inc.

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• The highest goal of music is to connect one's soul to their Divine Nature, not entertainment

  Pythagoras

  Inspiration, Goal, Soul

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• The Cosmos is all that is or was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us -- there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation, as if a distant memory, of falling from a height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries.

  Carl Sagan

  Memories, Fall, Voice

  Carl Sagan (2011). “Cosmos”, p.25, Ballantine Books

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• I used to visit and revisit it a dozen times a day, and stand in deep contemplation over my vegetable progeny with a love that nobody could share or conceive of who had never taken part in the process of creation. It was one of the most bewitching sights in the world to observe a hill of beans thrusting aside the soil, or a rose of early peas just peeping forth sufficiently to trace a line of delicate green.

  Nathaniel Hawthorne

  Summer, Taken, Garden

  Nathaniel Hawthorne (2015). “Complete Short Stories of Nathaniel Hawthorne (Illustrated Edition): Over 120 Short Stories Including Rare Sketches From Magazines of the Renowned American Author of “The Scarlet Letter”, “The House of Seven Gables” and “Twice-Told Tales””, p.703, e-artnow

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• The contemplation of celestial things will make a man both speak and think more sublimely and magnificently when he descends to human affairs.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Science, Men, Thinking

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• There is something in the nature of tea that leads us into a world of quiet contemplation of life.

  Lin Yutang

  Tea, World, Quiet

  Lin Yutang (1937). “The Importance of Living”

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• If there is a special Hades for writers is would be in the forced contemplation of their own works.

  John Dos Passos

  Special, Would Be, Hades

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• The Library is an open sanctuary. It is devoted to individual intellectual inquiry and contemplation. Its function is to provide free access to ideas and information. It is a haven of privacy, a source of both cultural and intellectual sustenance for the individual reader. Since it is thus committed to free and open inquiry on a personal basis, the Library must remain open, with access to it always guaranteed.

  Robert G. Vosper

  Ideas, Intellectual, Library

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• Place your mind before the mirror of eternity! Place your soul in the brilliance of glory! And transform your entire being into the image of the Godhead Itself through contemplation.

  Clare of Assisi

  Faith, Inspiration, Mirrors

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