Contemplative Quotes

• The best emotions to write out of are anger and fear or dread. The least energizing emotion to write out of is admiration. It is very difficult to write out of because the basic feeling that goes with admiration is a passive contemplative mood.

  Susan Sontag

  Art, Writing, Feelings

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• The pipe draws wisdom from the lips of the philosopher, and shuts up the mouth of the foolish; it generates a style of conversation, contemplative, thoughtful, benevolent, and unaffected.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Thoughtful, Smoking, Style

  William Makepeace Thackeray (1869). “The Book of Snobs: And, Sketches and Travels in London ; [Character Sketches]”, p.242

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• This may come as a surprise, given the nature of my job, but I am very guarded and contemplative. I'm not a naturally boisterous person.

  Ed Helms

  Jobs, Boisterous, May

  "20Q: Ed Helms". Interview with Eric Spitznagel, www.playboy.com. May 30, 2011.

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• Contemplative and bookish men must of necessity be more quarrelsome than others, because they contend not about matter of fact, nor can determine their controversies by any certain witnesses, nor judges. But as long as they go towards peace, that is Truth, it is no matter which way.

  John Donne

  Peace, Men, Long

  John Donne, Michael Rudick, M. Pabst Battin (1982). “Biathanatos”, New York : Garland Pub.

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• All of our great traditions, religious, contemplative and artistic, say that you must a learn how to be alone - and have a relationship with silence. It is difficult, but it can start with just the tiniest quiet moment.

  David Whyte

  Religious, Quiet Moments, Silence

  "Big Questions to Ask Yourself Throughout Your Life" by David Whyte, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 15, 2011.

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• If you were going to be attracted to a mystical faith which involved the contemplative life, Buddhism would be quite reasonable. But then, not everybody is a budding mystic. In fact, it's pretty certain that very few people are. So another kind of religion, one that was perhaps more pragmatic and service-oriented, might appeal to those others. So I think you have to take your values into account.

  Ninian Smart

  Buddhism, Thinking, Contemplative Life

  Source: www.scottlondon.com

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• How do you design it so that people can form a space of their own, and feel quiet and contemplative?

  Michael Arad

  Space, People, Design

  "Test Drive" by Paul Goldberger, www.newyorker.com. October 12, 2009.

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• I admire people who are suited to the contemplative life. They can sit inside themselves like honey in a jar and just be.

  Elizabeth Janeway

  Contemplative Life, People, Honey

  Elizabeth Janeway (1964). “Accident”

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• The national distrust of the contemplative temperament arises less from an innate Philistinism than from a suspicion of anything that cannot be counted, stuffed, framed or mounted over the fireplace in the den.

  Lewis H. Lapham

  Fire, Framed, Contemplation

  Lewis H. Lapham (1989). “Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion”

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• Every one should find some suitable time, day or night, to sink into his depths, each according to his own fashion. Not every one is able to engage in contemplative prayer.

  Johannes Tauler

  Fashion, Prayer, Night

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• Before, I just spewed whatever it was I thought about everything. I tend to be more contemplative now

  Anne Heche

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• Composing a piece of music is very feminine. It is sensitive, emotional, contemplative. By comparison, doing housework is positively masculine.

  Barbara Kolb

  Emotional, Pieces, Sensitive

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• The act of contemplation then creates the thing created.

  Isaac D'Israeli

  Contemplative Life, Contemplation

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  Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live.

  Nicolas Chamfort

  Inspiring, Travel, Thinking

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• The wise man knows how to run his life so that contemplation is possible.

  Gabriel Marcel

  Wise, Running, Men

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• Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while those who are more adapted to the contemplative life can take upon themselves the works of the active life so as to become yet.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Contemplative Life, Practice, Contemplation

  St Thomas Aquinas (2013). “Summa Theologica, Volume 4 (Part III, First Section)”, p.1940, Cosimo, Inc.

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• From the respect paid to property flow, as from a poisoned fountain, most of the evils and vices which render this world such a dreary scene to the contemplative mind.

  Mary Wollstonecraft

  Evil, Mind, World

  Mary Wollstonecraft, Philip Barnard, Stephen Shapiro (2013). “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Abridged with Related Texts”, p.60, Hackett Publishing

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• I admire people who are suited to the contemplative life. They can sit inside themselves like honey in a jar and just be. It's wonderful to have someone like that around, you always feel you can count on them. You can go away and come back, you can change your mind and your hairdo and your politics, and when you get through doing all these upsetting things, you look around and there they are, just the way they were, just being.

  Elizabeth Janeway

  Contemplative Life, People, Upset

  Elizabeth Janeway (1964). “Accident”

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• The meditative state is the highest state of existence. So long as there is desire, no real happiness can come. It is only the contemplative, witness-like study of objects that brings to us real enjoyment and happiness.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Real, Long, Desire

  Swami Vivekananda (2016). “Raja Yoga: Conquering the Internal Nature”, p.53, Advaita Ashrama

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• A wide and vague impression exists that so-called Eastern religion is more contemplative, innocuous, and humane than the proselytizing monotheisms of the West. Don't believe a word of this: try asking the children of Indochina who were dumped by their parents for inherited deformities that were attributed to sins in a previous 'life.

  Christopher Hitchens

  Atheist, Children, Believe

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• I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my province.

  Francis Bacon

  Taken, Knowledge, Science

  Francis Bacon, Basil Montagu (1834). “The Works of Francis Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England: A New Edition:”, p.274

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• The happy man needs nothing and no one. Not that he holds himself aloof, for indeed he is in harmony with everything and everyone; everything is "in him"; nothing can happen to him. The same may also be said for the contemplative person; he needs himself alone; he lacks nothing.

  Josef Pieper

  Men, May, Needs

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• Baseball endures at least in part because it is a contemplative sport that delights in nuances. Not a brazen game, eager to sell its thrills cheaply, but rather an understated affair that must be courted if its to be loved.

  Kenneth Turan

  Sports, Baseball, Games

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• Mathematics as an expression of the human mind reflects the active will, the contemplative reason, and the desire for aesthetic perfection. Its basic elements are logic and intuition, analysis and construction, generality and individuality. Though different traditions may emphasize different aspects, it is only the interplay of these antithetic forces and the struggle for their synthesis that constitute the life, usefulness, and supreme value of mathematical science.

  Richard Courant

  Struggle, Expression, Perfection

  Richard Courant, Herbert Robbins, Ian Stewart (1996). “What is Mathematics?: An Elementary Approach to Ideas and Methods”, p.23, Oxford University Press, USA

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