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Contemplation Quotes

Browse 1219 quotes about Contemplation.

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Contemplation Quotes

“Many scientists think that philosophy has no place, so for me it's a sad time because the role of reflection, contemplation, meditation, self-inquiry, insight, intuition, imagination, creativity, free will, is in a way not given any importance, which is the domain of philosophers.”

ThinkingWaySelfPhilosophyGivenImaginationRolesCreativityMeditationReflectionScientistImportancePhilosopherInsightIntuitionContemplationFree WillInquiryDomainImagination CreativitySad Times
Author:Deepak Chopra
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“You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude." And You have turned around and thrown the world in my lap. You have told me, "Leave all things and follow me," and then You have tied half of New York to my foot like a ball and chain. You have got me kneeling behind that pillar with my mind making a noise like a bank. Is that contemplation?”

WorldMindWisdomBehindsHalfTreeFeetNew YorkWalkingSolitudeAll ThingsBallsNoiseChainsContemplationThrownTiedLapUp And DownPillarsFollow MeKneeling
Book:The Seven Storey Mountain
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“What was more needed by this old man who divided the leisure hours of his life, where he had so little leisure, between gardening in the daytime, and contemplation at night? Was not this narrow enclosure, with the sky for a background, enough to enable him to adore God in his most beautiful as well as in his most sublime works? Indeed, is not that all, and what more can be desired? A little garden to walk, and immensity to reflect upon. At his feet something to cultivate and gather; above his head something to study and meditate upon: a few flowers on the earth, and all the stars in the sky.”

MenWellsLittlesEnoughEarthBeautifulNightStarsHoursWalksStudyFeetSkyFlowerNeededReflectionGardenBackgroundsContemplationOld ManDividedLeisureGardeningSublimeAdoreDaytimeImmensityStars In The SkyEnclosure
Author:Victor Hugo
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“Our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the fullness of being, that seeks to rest in an intuition of the very ground of all being. Without wisdom, the apparent opposition of action and contemplation, of work and rest, of involvement and detachment, can never be resolved.”

TruthActionSakeIntuitionContemplationOppositionTechnologicalFullnessInvolvementDetachment
Book:Choosing to Love the World: On Contemplation
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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.”

MeanCompassionPracticeKindnessGrowingEffectsBenefitsHatredAppreciationContemplationInspirational LoveDiminishInclinationReflectingReducingDisadvantagesKindness And Compassion
Author:Dalai Lama
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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.”

PeopleMindSoulCharacterFeelingsSchoolCertainCreationSolitudeQuietIntellectualConsciousClaimsLaysCreatorContemplationNobilityLoftySereneStatureStrength Of CharacterEndowmentSeclusionVexation
Book:Goethe's world view: presented in his reflections and maxims
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“The artist's mission is to make the soul perceptible. Our scientific, materialist culture trains us to develop the eyes of outer perception. Visionary art encourages the development of our inner sight. To find the visionary realm, we use the intuitive inner eye: The eye of contemplation; the eye of the soul. All the inspiring ideas we have as artists originate here.”

ArtIdeasSoulUseEyeArtistCultureDevelopmentPerceptionSightTrainMissionsRealmsContemplationIntuitiveVisionaries
Author:Alex Grey
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“When we become incorruptible and immortal, and attain to the blessed state of conformity with Christ, we will be ever with the Lord (as Scripture says), gaining fulfillment in the purest contemplations of His visible theophany which will illuminate us with its most brilliant rays, just as it illuminated the disciples at the time of the most divine Transfiguration.”

SaidStatesLightChristianChristLordOpinionDivineBlessedSaintBrilliantFulfillmentContemplationVisibleRevelationsImmortalOrthodoxConformityRaysDiscipleOrthodox ChristianTransfiguration
Author:Gregory Palamas
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“We must, with God's help, eradicate the deadly poison of the demon of anger from the depths of our souls. So long as he dwells in our hearts and blinds the eyes of the heart with his somber disorders, we can neither discriminate what is for our good, nor achieve spiritual knowledge, nor fulfill our good intentions, nor participate in true life; and our intellect will remain impervious to the contemplation of the true, divine light; for it is written, 'Man's anger does not bring about the righteousness of God' (Jms. 1:20).”

MenHeartLongDoeSoulHelpingLightEyeChristianSpiritualWrittenAchieveDivineIntentionDepthIntellectContemplationPoisonDemonOrthodoxRighteousnessDisorderGood IntentionsTrue LifeSomberImperviousSpiritual KnowledgeDivine Light
Author:John Cassian
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“I cleanse the windows of my mind, that it may become a mirror reflecting inspiration from the most High. I do this, not with strenuous effort, but through quiet contemplation, through gently reaching and affirming an inward recognition. I know exactly what to do in every situation. There is an inspiration within me which governs every act, every thought, with certainty, with conviction and in peace.”

KnowsMindMayInspirationEffortSituationQuietWindowMirrorsConvictionCertaintyRecognitionContemplationReachingInwardReflectingOf My MindAffirming
Book:This Thing Called You
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“I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world may still know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when a man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way - an honorable way - in such a position man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment.”

KnowsMenWorldWayMayStillsMomentsActionSufferingLeftUnderstandingAchievePositionThis WorldAchievementUnderstoodEndureFulfillmentBelovedBlissContemplationCarrieHonorableRight WayDesolationSearch For MeaningMans Search For MeaningBrief Moments
Book:Man's Search For Meaning, Gift Edition
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“The bicycles go by in twos and threes - There's a dance in Billy Brennan's barn to-night, And there's the half-talk code of mysteries And the wink-and-elbow language of delight. Half-past eight and there is not a spot Upon a mile of road, no shadow thrown That might turn out a man or woman, not A footfall tapping secrecies of stone. I have what every poet hates in spite Of all the solemn talk of contemplation. Oh, Alexander Selkirk knew the plight Of being king and government and nation. A road, a mile of kingdom, I am king Of banks and stones and every blooming thing.”

MenGovernmentMightPastNightHateTurnsLanguageNationsHalfMysteryPoetKingsShadowStonesDelightEightMilesKingdomsSpotsCodeContemplationSpiteThrownSecrecySolemnJulyBicycleElbowsBarnsBloomingPlightTapping
Book:Selected poems
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“He who studies it [Nature] has continually the exquisite pleasure of discerning or half discerning and divining laws; regularities glimmer through an appearance of confusion; analogies between phenomena of a different order suggest themselves and set the imagination in motion; the mind is haunted with the sense of a vast unity not yet discoverable or nameable.”

MindDifferentRunningLawScienceOrderNatureImaginationPleasureHalfStudyGrowingMysteryObjectsUnityAppearanceConfusionContemplationExquisitePresentingAnalogiesGazingDiscerningRegularity
Author:John Robert Seeley
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“The whole of life is a journey toward youthful old age, toward self-contemplation, love, gaiety, and, in a fundamental sense, the most gratifying time of our lives. . . . "Old age" should be a harvest time when the riches of life are reaped and enjoyed, while it continues to be a special period for self-development and expansion.”

ShouldSelfWholeAgeLife IsOur LivesJourneySpecialDevelopmentPeriodsFundamentalsAgingRichesOld AgeEnjoyedContemplationExpansionHarvestSelf DevelopmentLife Is A JourneyGaietyHarvest Time
Author:Ashley Montagu
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“So it follows that those who have reason have freedom to will or not to will, although this freedom is not equal in all of them. [...] human souls are more free when they persevere in the contemplation of the mind of God, less free when they descend to the corporeal, and even less free when they are entirely imprisoned in earthly flesh and blood.”

MindHumansSoulReasonBloodEqualFleshContemplationHuman SoulPersevereFlesh And Blood
Book:The Consolation of Philosophy
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“[K]now that however ugly the parts appear the whole remains beautiful. A severed hand Is an ugly thing, and man dissevered from the earth and stars and his history... for contemplation or in fact... Often appears atrociously ugly. Integrity is wholeness, the greatest beauty is Organic wholeness, the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty of the universe.”

MenWholeFactsHandsEarthBeautifulUniverseStarsBeautyDivineIntegrityRemainsUglyContemplationWholenessUgly ThingsDivine Beauty
Book:The Collected Letters of Robinson Jeffers: With Selected Letters of Una Jeffers
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“In societies where modern conditions of productions prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into representation. The images detached from every aspect of life fuse in a common stream in which the unity of this life can no longer be re-established. Reality considered partially unfolds, in its own general unity as a pseudo-world apart, an object of mere contemplation . . . The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

PeopleWorldRealitySocialCommonSocietyModernConditionsObjectsAspectRelationMovedUnityMereProductionsThis LifeContemplationStreamsCollectionsImmenseRepresentationAccumulationDetachedPseudoAspects Of LifeFuseSpectaclesSocial RelationsWorlds Apart
Book:Society Of The Spectacle
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“No generation is interested in art in quite the same way as any other; each generation, like each individual, brings to the contemplation of art its own categories of appreciation, makes its own demands upon art, and has its own uses for art.”

WayArtUseIndividualGenerationsDemandAppreciationContemplationCategories
Book:The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism: Studies in the Relation of Criticism to Poetry in England
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