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Contemplation Quotes

Browse 1219 quotes about Contemplation.

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Contemplation Quotes

“When I consider the multitude of associated forces which are diffused through nature - when I think of that calm balancing of their energies which enables those most powerful in themselves, most destructive to the world's creatures and economy, to dwell associated together and be made subservient to the wants of creation, I rise from the contemplation more than ever impressed with the wisdom, the beneficence, and grandeur, beyond our language to express, of the Great Disposer of us all.”

ThinkingWorldWantMadeTogetherEnergyLanguageForceNaturePowerfulEconomyCreationCreaturesCalmContemplationDestructiveMost PowerfulImpressedMultitudesGrandeurSubservientBeneficence
Author:Michael Faraday
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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.”

IdeasIndividualHavensInformationSourceReaderIntellectualFunctionBasesLibraryCommittedAccessContemplationPrivacyCensorshipDevotedInquiryFirst AmendmentSanctuarySustenanceFreedom To Read
Author:Robert G. Vosper
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“Existence was given us for action, rather than indolent and aimless contemplation; our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel. They greatly mistake who suppose that God cares for no other pursuit than devotion.”

FeelsCareActionGivenWorkEmotionExistenceMistakeFineDeedsDeterminedPursuitDevotionContemplationGood Deeds
Book:Proverbs for the people: or, Illustrations of practical godliness drawn from the Book of wisdom
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“But it certainly is a wonderful thing to wake up suddenly in the solitude of the woods and look up at the sky and see the utter nonsense of everything including all the solemn stuff given out by professional asses about the spiritual life; and simply to burst out laughing, and laugh and laugh, with the sky and the trees because God is not in words, and not in systems, and not in liturgical movements, and not in "contemplation" with a big "C," or in asceticism or in anything like that, not even in the apostolate.”

LooksBigsSpiritualGivenStuffLaughingWonderfulTreeSkyMovementSolitudeLaughterWake UpIncludingWoodsAssContemplationLook UpNonsenseSpiritual LifeWonderful ThingsSolemnAsceticism
Book:The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters
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“Nature in darkness groans and men are bound to sullen contemplation in the night: restless they turn on beds of sorrow; in their inmost brain feeling the crushing wheels, they rise, they write the bitter words of stern philosophy and knead the bread of knowledge with tears and groans.”

MenWritingPhilosophyFeelingsNightTurnsBrainDarknessTearsSorrowBedBoundsBreadOppressionBitterContemplationCrushWheelsOppressedRestlessTurn-onSullenBitter Words
Book:Complete writings: with variant readings
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“Mathematics alone make us feel the limits of our intelligence. For we can always suppose in the case of an experiment that it is inexplicable because we don't happen to have all the data. In mathematics we have all the data, brought together in the full light of demonstration, and yet we don't understand. We always come back to the contemplation of our human wretchedness. What force is in relation to our will, the impenetrable opacity of mathematics is in relation to our intelligence.”

FeelsHumansHappensForceCasesLimitsRelationMathematicsExperimentsDataContemplationInexplicableWretchedness
Author:Simone Weil
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“Taste is only to be educated by contemplation, not of the tolerably good but of the truly excellent. I therefore show you only the best works; and when you are grounded in these, you will have a standard for the rest, which you will know how to value, without overrating them.”

KnowsShowsValuesKnow HowTasteStandardsSensesEducatedExcellentContemplationGroundedBest Work
Book:Conversations of Goethe with Eckermann and Soret
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“Controlling the position of one's body and keeping a straight back are not contemplation, but can in fact become an obstacle to contemplation. ...when leaving the body 'uncontrolled' is spoken of, what is meant is simply allowing the body to remain in an authentic, uncorrected condition, in which it is not necessary to modify or improve anything. This is because, since all our attempts at correcting the body come from the reasoning mind, they are all false and artificial.”

MindFactsBodyConditionsPositionLeavingObstaclesContemplationReasoningAllowingArtificialCorrecting
Author:Namkhai Norbu
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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.”

FireAriseContemplationSuspicionDistrustTemperamentInnateFramedContemplativeDensFireplaces
Book:Money and Class in America: Notes and Observations on the Civil Religion
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“I've dealt with numbers all my life, of course, and after a while you begin to feel that each number has a personality of its own. A twelve is very different from a thirteen, for example. Twelve is upright, conscientious, intelligent, whereas thirteen is a loner, a shady character who won't think twice about breaking the law to get what he wants. Eleven is tough, an outdoorsman who likes tramping through woods and scaling mountains; ten is rather simpleminded, a bland figure who always does what he's told; nine is deep and mystical, a Buddha of contemplation.”

ThinkingWantFeelsDoeDifferentCharacterLawCoursesNumbersFiguresExamplePersonalityTenMountainToughIntelligentWoodsMathNineLikesMathematicalContemplationTwelveMysticalElevenLonerThirteenBlandThink TwiceShadyNumbers And MathBreaking The LawOutdoorsman
Author:Paul Auster
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“I found that I faced a highly complex situation, and that I couldnt hope to change it until I had armed myself with the necessary psychological and intellectual capacity. My contemplation of life and human nature in that secluded place had taught me that he who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any process.”

HumansRealityAbleFoundProcessSituationHuman NatureTaughtIntellectualCapacityComplexesPsychologicalContemplationFabricSecluded
Book:In Search of Identity: An Autobiography
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“Leave those vain moralists, my friend, and return to the depth of your soul: that is where you will always rediscover the source of the sacred fire which so often inflamed us with love of the sublime virtues; that is where you will see the eternal image of true beauty, the contemplation of which inspires us with a holy enthusiasm.”

SoulVirtueFireInspireSourceReturnHolyEternalMy FriendsSacredDepthEnthusiasmYour SoulVainContemplationSublimeTrue BeautyMoralistSacred Fire
Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau
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“. . . nothing could touch the strength of my love, and the thoughts of my beloved. Had I known then that my wife was dead, I think that I still would have given myself, undisturbed by that knowledge, to the contemplation of that image, and that my mental conversation with her would have been just as vivid and just as satisfying. "Set me like a seal upon thy heart, love is as strong as death."”

ThinkingHeartHas BeensStillsStrongGivenJusticeLove IsKnownWifeConversationMy WifeBelovedContemplationSatisfyingVividSealsHeart LoveSearch For Meaning
Book:Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition
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“When a man is stimulated by his own thoughts, full of desire and dwelling on what is attractive, his craving increases even more. He is making the fetter even stronger. But he who takes pleasure in stilling his thoughts, practising the contemplation of what is repulsive, and remaining recollected, now he will make an end of craving, he will snap the bonds of Mara. His aim is accomplished, he is without fear, rid of craving and without stain. He has removed the arrows of changing existence. This is his last body.”

MenEndsBodyLastsDesirePleasureExistenceIncreaseStrongerAimBuddhistAttractiveContemplationAccomplishedCravingArrowsDwellingSnapsStainsFetters
Author:Gautama Buddha
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“It is my dream that the entire Tibetan plateau should become a free refuge where humanity and nature can live in peace and in harmonious balance. It would be a place where people from all over the world could come to seek the true meaning of peace within themselves, away from the tensions and pressures of much of the rest of the world”

PeopleWorldShouldDreamWould BeHumanityBalancePressureContemplationTensionRefugeHarmoniousTibetanTrue MeaningPeace WithinHumanity And Nature
Author:Dalai Lama
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“Harmony sinks deep into the recesses of the soul and takes its strongest hold there, bringing grace also to the body & mind as well. Music is a moral law. It gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, a charm to sadness, and life to everything. It is the essence of order.”

GivingMindWellsSoulBodyInspirationLawOrderUniverseImaginationMoralGraceSadnessMusic IsEssenceHarmonyWingsFlightContemplationCharmStrongestMoral LawRecess
Author:Plato
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“If anyone should want to know my name, I am called Leah. And I spend all my time weaving garlands of flowers with my fair hands, t o please me when I stand before the mirror; my sister Rachel sits all the day long before her own, and never moves away. She loves to contemplate her lovely eyes; I love to use my hands to adorn myself: her joy is in reflection, mine in act.”

IfsKnowsWantShouldLongUseHandsEyeMovingJoyNamesMinesFlowerPleaseReflectionFairsMirrorsLovelyContemplationMy TimeMy SisterContemplatingWeavingGarlandsPlease MeLovely Eyes
Book:The Portable Dante
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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.”

PeopleWayFeelsMindLooksWonderfulMindfulnessAdmireUpsetContemplationGoing AwayHoneyJust BeingJarsContemplativeChanging Your MindHairdosContemplative Life
Book:Accident
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“One cannot long remain so absorbed in contemplation of emptiness without being increasingly attracted to it. In vain one bestows on it the name of infinity; this does not change its nature. When one feels such pleasure in non-existence, one's inclination can be completely satisfied only by completely ceasing to exist.”

FeelsLongDoeNamesPleasureExistenceSatisfiedVainContemplationEmptinessInfinityInclinationNon Existence
Book:Suicide: A Study in Sociology
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“One receives as reward for much ennui, despondency, boredom -such as a solitude without friends, books, duties, passions must bring with it -those quarter-hours of profoundest contemplation within oneself and nature. He who completely entrenches himself against boredom also entrenches himself against himself: he will never get to drink the strongest refreshing draught from his own innermost fountain.”

BookPassionHoursDutyDrinkSolitudeRewardsOneselfContemplationBoredomStrongestQuartersIntrospectionFountainRefreshingEnnuiDraughtDespondencyWithout Friends
Author:Friedrich Nietzsche
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