Quotessence
Home / Topics / Empty Quotes

Empty Quotes

Browse 2805 quotes about Empty.

Related topics

IfsSpacePeopleMindThinkingKnowsMenWorldEmpty SpaceHeartFeelsEmptinessWayRoomsNeedsHalfGlassesWantGivingMayHalf EmptyFilledLittlesShouldFirstsDoeLooksFeelingsMeanSoulHandsStillsHouseSaidHumansLongLeftLightSeemsWellsTryingHomeMadeSpiritIdeasStomachBookEnoughEyePersonsSkyKindSelfBodyLifeMatterNightWaitingWould BeBigsEndsFeltHalf FullWaterDreamI CanLife IsFacesMomentsRealSilenceWritingSometimesChildrenCupsSoundUseBottlesTwoBelieveEmpty StomachWholeFactsMightBeautifulEarthFallHas BeensVesselAirDarkDoorsFoundInspirationalJoyRealityArtBrainDesireEmpty Roomsmore

Empty Quotes

“Not thinking about anything is zen. Once you know this, walking, standing, sitting, or lying down, everything you do is zen. To know that the mind is empty is to see the buddha.... Using the mind to reality is delusion. Not using the mind to look for reality is awareness. Freeing oneself from words is liberation.”

ThinkingKnowsMindLooksRealityLyingAwarenessWalkingSittingStandingEmptyOneselfLiberationDelusionLying Down
Book:The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
Create image

“The ecology of the valley was complex beyond our understanding, and it began to die as we went on manipulating it in ever more frantic ways. As it went dead and empty of the old life it became a place where no one wanted to live. In our right minds we want to seek out places that reek of complexity. Our drive to industrialize soured and undercut the intimacies that drew most people to country life in the first place.”

PeopleWayWantMindFirstsCountryWantedDiesUnderstandingLandEmptyComplexesIntimacyComplexityValleysEcologyFranticCountry LifeOld LifeUndercut
Author:William Kittredge
Create image

“Starting with approaching the spot where the painting is to be done, meanwhile realising the emptiness of the mind, up to the method of 'the flying white', of the rule of the singular stroke of the brush.. ..there is a proper tradition in which the artist is fully aware of the fact that only the pure and empty spontaneity enables him to embrace without hesitating all apparitions and to truly penetrate into the roots of things.”

MindDoneFactsArtistWhitePaintingPureTraditionRootsEmptyMethodEmbraceStartingFlyingSpotsEmptinessRealisingStrokesBrushesPenetrateSpontaneityApparitions
Author:Antoni Tapies
Create image

“Just let the artist sign an empty canvas or a frame, with the inscription, 'I had such and such a concept in mind' for this work. The artist then need not bother with producing the work, and therefore need not be worried about being dis-satisfied. All he or she needs to do is to sell it to a collector. The collector will have the guarantee that the artist thought about the work, even if momentarily, and therefore be satisfied.”

IfsNeedsMindArtistConceptsEmptySellsSatisfiedWorriedBotherGuaranteesCanvasCollectorsGuarantees ThatInscriptionsEmpty Canvas
Author:Semir Zeki
Create image

“It is in our own mind and not in exterior objects that we perceive most things; fools know scarcely anything because they are empty, and their heart is narrow; but great souls find in themselves a number of exterior things; they have no need to read or travel or to listen or to work to discover the highest truths; they have only to delve into themselves and search, if we may say so, their own thoughts.”

IfsKnowsNeedsMindHeartMaySoulNumbersObjectsFoolHighestEmptyPerceiveExteriorGreat Souls
Author:Luc de Clapiers
Create image

“I know the woman has no soul, I know The woman has no possibilities Of soul or mind or heart, but merely is The masterpiece of flesh: well, be it so. It is her flesh that I adore; I go Thirsting afresh to drain her empty kiss. I know she cannot love: it is not this My vanquished heart implores in overthrow. Tyrannously I crave, I crave alone, Her splendid body, Earth's most eloquent Music, divinest human harmony; Her body now a silent instrument, That 'neath my touch shall wake and make for me The strains I have but dreamed of, never known.”

KnowsMindHumansWellsHeartSoulBodyEarthWomenKnownPossibilityKissingEmptyHarmonyInstrumentsSilentFleshAdoreMasterpieceStrainCraveSplendidDrainsEloquent
Book:Poems
Create image

“A life without an objective is much like a ship at sea with no port in mind. It drifts with the waves or storms, or with the whim of the captain. They are tempted to ask, amidst the battles of life, "Is the struggle worth-while?" That attitude lessens the joy of living. They who say that there is no purpose in life are not unhappy, but become dangerous to themselves and others, for they have no safe guide for their actions. Indeed, life has not objective save physical satisfactions, it is empty and valueless.”

MindActionLife IsJoyPurposeAsksAttitudeStruggleSeaDangerousBattleSafeEmptyWaveSatisfactionStormGuidesUnhappyObjectivesShipsPurpose Of LifeCaptainsTemptedPortWhimJoy Of LivingShips At SeaValuelessBattle Of Life
Author:John Andreas Widtsoe
Create image

“The practice of Zen mind is beginner's mind. The innocence of the first inquiry—what am I?—is needed throughout Zen practice. The mind of the beginner is empty, free of the habits of the expert, ready to accept, to doubt, and open to all the possibilities. It is the kind of mind which can see things as they are, which step by step and in a flash can realize the original nature of everything.”

MindFirstsKindNatureRealizingAcceptingStepsPracticeDoubtPossibilityReadyNeededHabitEmptyOriginalsInnocenceExpertsEmptinessFlashInquiryBeginners
Book:Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind
Create image

“When you have an empty mind, you are prepared for the next thing that happens. It's like to be part of a spiritual practice for me simply means that you are there now. Not waiting for the next moment, or not living in the moment before, but you're there now. And it's there now which can only be really breathed and lived if the mind is empty enough to receive it.”

IfsMindMeanEnoughMomentsHappensSpiritualNextWaitingPracticeEmptyPreparedLive In The MomentSpiritual PracticeEmpty Mind
Author:George Ogilvie
Create image

“The liberty of the press would be an empty sound, and no man would venture to write on any subject, however, pure his purpose, without an attorney at one elbow and a counsel at the other. From minds thus subdued by the fear of punishment, there could issue no works of genius to expand the empire of human reason.”

MenWritingMindHumansReasonWould BeLawPurposeSoundLibertyIssuesSubjectsMediaCrimeGeniusPureSpeechEmptyConstitutionPressesPunishmentEmpiresVenturePersecutionAttorneyElbowsHuman Reason
Author:Thomas Erskine, 1st Baron Erskine
Create image

“The valuable library of Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty years afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited the regret and indignation of every spectator whose mind was not totally darkened by religious prejudice. The compositions of ancient genius, so many of which have irretrievably perished, might surely have been excepted from the wreck of idolatry, for the amusement and instruction of succeeding ages.”

YearsMindHas BeensMightAgeReligiousHistoryRegretGeniusSucceedEmptyPrejudiceTwentiesLibraryAncientAppearanceExcitedValuableDestroyedInstructionCompositionShelvesAmusementSpectatorsWrecksIdolatryRoman EmpireIndignationAlexandriaReligious Prejudice
Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)
Create image

“There are many things worth telling that are not quite narrative. And eternity itself possesses no beginning, middle or end. Fossils, arrowheads, castle ruins, empty crosses: from the Parthenon to the Bo Tree to a grown man's or woman's old stuffed bear, what moves us about many objects is not what remains but what has vanished. There comes a time, thanks to rivers, when a few beautiful old teeth are all that remain of the two-hundred-foot spires of life we call trees. There comes a river, whose current is time, that does a similar sculpting in the mind.”

MenMindDoeTwoEndsBeautifulMovingTreeFeetMiddleObjectsBearsHundredRiversCrossesEmptyEternityRemainsCurrentsTeethRuinsThanksNarrativeFossilsCastlesThere Comes A TimeGrown ManSculptingAll That RemainsSpiresParthenon
Author:David James Duncan
Create image

“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine but an endless pilgrimage of the heart. Audacious longing, burning songs, daring thoughts, an impulse overwhelming the heart, usurping the mind--these are all a drive towards serving Him who rings our hearts like a bell. It is as if He were waiting to enter our empty, perishing lives.”

IfsMindHeartSongWaitingEmptyLongingRingsEndlessBurningImpulseServingOverwhelmingDaringBellsClingingPilgrimageShrinesAudaciousPerishing
Book:Man Is Not Alone: A Philosophy of Religion
Create image

“All empty souls tend to extreme opinion. It is only in those who have built up a rich world of memories and habits of thought that extreme opinions affront the sense of probability. Propositions, for instance, which set all the truth upon one side can only enter rich minds to dislocate and strain, if they can enter at all, and sooner or later the mind expels them by instinct.”

IfsWorldMindSoulSidesMemoriesOpinionRichHabitBuiltEmptyInstinctExtremesInstanceSooner Or LaterProbabilityPropositionsStrainAffrontEmpty Souls
Book:Autobiographies: The Collected Works of W.B. Yeats
Create image

“When a poor disconsolated drooping creature is terrified from all enjoyment,--prays without ceasing 'till his imagination is heated,--fasts and mortifies and mopes, till his body is in as bad a plight as his mind; is it a wonder, that the mechanical disturbancesof an empty belly, interpreted by an empty head, should be mistook for [the] workings [of God].”

ShouldMindBodyImaginationPoorWonderPrayingCreaturesEmptyEnjoymentTerrifiedBellyPlightEmpty Heads
Author:Laurence Sterne
Create image

“It was really sad Bobby Neuwirth's and my affair. The only true, passionate, and lasting love scene, and I practically ended up in the psychopathic ward. I had really learned about sex from him, making love, loving, giving. It just completely blew my mind it drove me insane. I was like a sex slave to this man. I could make love for forty-eight hours, forty-eight hours, forty-eight hours, without getting tired. But the minute he left me alone, I felt so empty and lost that I would start popping pills.”

MenGivingMindLostLeftSexFeltHoursMinutesSceneEmptyTiredSlaveAffairPassionateEightInsaneFortyLastingMaking LovePillsMe AloneLasting LoveReally SadPoppingGetting TiredPsychopathicHe Left MeForty Eight
Author:Edie Sedgwick
Create image

“The senses at first let in particular Ideas, and furnish the yet empty Cabinet: And the Mind by degrees growing familiar with some of them, they are lodged in the Memory, and Names got to them.”

MindFirstsIdeasScienceNamesUnderstandingMemoriesGrowingParticularDegreesEmptySensesFamiliarCabinets
Book:The Locke Reader: Selections from the Works of John Locke with a General Introduction and Commentary
Create image