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Reflection Quotes

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Reflection Quotes

“If we confine ourselves to a general and distant reflection on the ills of human life, that can have no effect to prepare us for them. If by close and intense meditation we render them present and intimate to us, that is the true secret for poisoning all our pleasures, and rendering us perpetually miserable.”

IfsLifeHumansDeathEvilPleasureSecretMeditationEffectsReflectionIntenseMiserableHuman LifeIntimateLife DeathPoisoningRenderingMiserable Life
Book:Delphi Complete Works of David Hume (Illustrated)
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“It seems certain, that though a man, in a flush of humour, after intense reflection on the many contradictions and imperfections of human reason, may entirely renounce all belief and opinion, it is impossible for him to persevere in this total scepticism, or make it appear in his conduct for a few hours.”

MenHumansMayReasonSeemsCertainBeliefHoursOpinionImpossibleHumourHe ManReflectionIntenseContradictionImperfectionSkepticismPersevereRenounceScepticismHuman Reason
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
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“The mention of one apartment in a building naturally introduces an enquiry or discourse concerning the others: and if we think ofa wound, we can scarcely forbear reflecting on the pain which follows it.”

IfsThinkingPainBuildingReflectionWoundsIntroducingApartmentDiscourseReflectingEnquiry
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
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“There is, indeed a more mitigated scepticism or academical philosophy, which may be both durable and useful, and which may, in part, be the result of this Pyrrhonism, or excessive scepticism, when its undistinguished doubts are corrected by common sense and reflection.”

MayPhilosophyResultsCommonDoubtReflectionCommon SenseSkepticismScepticism
Book:An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding ; [with] A Letter from a Gentleman to His Friend in Edinburgh ; [and] An Abstract of a Treatise of Human Nature
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“There is an universal tendency among mankind to conceive all beings like themselves, and to transfer to every object, those qualities, with which they are familiarly acquainted, and of which they are intimately conscious. We find human faces in the moon, armies in the clouds; and by a natural propensity, if not corrected by experience and reflection, ascribe malice or good-will to every thing, that hurts or pleases us.”

IfsHumansFacesNaturalHurtQualityMankindObjectsPleaseMoonReflectionConsciousUniversalArmyCloudsTendenciesProjectionGood WillMaliceTransfersPropensityHuman FacesConceivingAnthropomorphism
Book:The Natural History of Religion
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“Water. Its sunny track in the plain; its splashing in the garden canal, the sound it makes when in its course it meets the mane ofthe grass; the diluted reflection of the sky together with the fleeting sight of the reeds; the Negresses fill their dripping gourds and their red clay containers; the song of the washerwomen; the gorged fields the tall crops ripening.”

TogetherSongCoursesSoundWaterNatureSkyFieldsReflectionRedGardenRiversSightTrackGrassTallFleetingClayCropsSunnyReedsCanalsDrippingContainersRipeningSplashingGourds
Author:Jacques Roumain
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“There is nothing “still” in the remarkably visceral poems of Alexander Long's third collection, Still Life, and nothing is at rest in these restless and edgy poems. Conversational and kinetic, these poems chart the traces left by the shifting overlays of the templates of literature, rock-and-roll, and contemporary culture. As each poem in Still Life attempts to fix a focus upon a scene or subject, the protean natures under view draw the poet into the eddies and complexities of reflection. This is a powerful and moving collection of poems.”

LongStillsMovingCultureLiteratureLeftViewsPowerfulFocusSubjectsRocksPoetSceneDrawsReflectionThirdsContemporaryComplexityCollectionsRock And RollRestlessShiftingEdgyVisceralStill Life
Author:David St. John
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“I fear, the inevitable conclusion we must all come to is, that in the world happiness is quite indefinable. We can no more grasp it than we can grasp the sun in the sky or the moon in the water. We can feel it interpenetrating our whole being with warmth and strength; we can see it in a pale reflection shining elsewhere; or in its total absence, we, walking in darkness, learn to appreciate what it is by what it is not.”

WorldFeelsWholeWaterDarknessSunSkyWalkingMoonReflectionAppreciateShiningAbsenceConclusionInevitableWarmthElsewherePaleIndefinableLearn To Appreciate
Author:Dinah Maria Murlock Craik
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“I would rather have a young fellow too much than too little dressed; the excess on that side will wear off, with a little age and reflection; but if he is negligent at twenty, he will be a sloven at forty, and stink at fifty years old. Dress yourself fine where others are fine, and plain where others are plain; but take care always that your clothes are well made and fit you, for otherwise they will give you a very awkward air.”

IfsGivingYearsWellsLittlesMadeCareAgeYoungSidesToo MuchAirFineFitClothesReflectionTwentiesDressesFellowsTake CareFiftyFortyExcessAwkwardStinkFifty Year Olds
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
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“Never yield to that temptation, which, to most young men, is very strong, of exposing other people's weaknesses and infirmities, for the sake either of diverting the company, or of showing your own superiority. You may get the laugh on your side by it for the present; but you will make enemies by it for ever; and even those who laugh with you then, will, upon reflection, fear, and consequently hate you.”

PeopleMenMayYoungHateStrongSidesCompanyEnemyLaughingReflectionWeaknessCriticismSakeTemptationYoung ManYieldVery StrongSuperiorityHate YouRidiculeYour SideExposingInfirmity
Book:Lord Chesterfield's Letters
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“Love enters the heart unawares: takes precedence of all the emotions--or, at least, will be second to none--and even reflection becomes its accomplice. While it lives, it renders blind; and when it has struck its roots deep only itself can shake them. It reminds one of hospitality as practiced among the ancients. The stranger was received upon the threshold of the half-open door, and introduced into the sanctuary reserved for the Penates. Not until every attention had been lavished upon him did the host ask his name; and the question was sometimes deferred till the very moment of departure.”

LoveHeartSometimesMomentsAsksNamesEmotionAttentionHalfDoorsReflectionRootsBlindStrangerShakesHostHospitalitySanctuaryReservedThresholdDeparturePrecedenceAccomplices
Author:Sophie Swetchine
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“We have more poets than judges and interpreters of poetry. It is easier to write an indifferent poem than to understand a good one. There is, indeed, a certain low and moderate sort of poetry, that a man may well enough judge by certain rules of art; but the true, supreme, and divine poesy is equally above all rules and reason. And whoever discerns the beauty of it with the most assured and most steady sight sees no more than the quick reflection of a flash of lightning.”

MenWritingWellsMayArtReasonEnoughPoetryCertainDivinePoetJudgingEasierLowsReflectionSightSupremeSteadyFlashLightningIndifferentAssuredModeratesInterpreter
Book:Works, Comprising His Essays, Letters, and Journey Through Germany and Italy: With Notes from All the Commentators, Biographical and Bibliographical Notices &c., &c
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“In England, wit is at least a profession, if not an art. everything becomes professional there, and even the rogues of that islandare pedants. So are the "wits" there too. They introduce into reality absolute freedom whose reflection lends a romantic and piquant air to wit, and thus they live wittily; hence their talent for madness. They die for their principles.”

IfsArtRealityDiesPrinciplesAirTalentReflectionMadnessEnglandAbsolutesProfessionWitIntroducingRoguesAbsolute FreedomPedants
Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
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“How admirable and beautiful is the simplicity of the Evangelists! They never speak injuriously of the enemies of Jesus Christ, of His judges, nor of His executioners. They report the facts without a single reflection. They comment neither on their Master's mildness when He was smitten, nor on His constancy in the hour of His ignominious death, which they thus describe: "And they crucified Jesus.”

FactsBeautifulJesusSpeakChristHoursEnemyJudgingMastersReflectionBibleJesus ChristSimplicityReportsCommentAdmirableConstancyExecutionersEvangelistsSmittenMildness
Author:Jean Racine
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“Kindly politeness is the slow fruit of advanced reflection; it is a sort of humanity and kindliness applied to small acts and every day discourse: it bids man soften towards others, and forget himself for the sake of others: it constrains genuine nature, which is selfish and gross.”

MenHumanityForgetReflectionFruitSakeSelfishGenuineDiscourseGrossPolitenessConstrainSmall ActsForget HimKindliness
Book:History of English Literature
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“A broken leg can be remembered and located: "It hurt right below my knee, it throbbed, I felt sick at my stomach." But mental pain is remembered the way dreams are remembered-in fragments, unbidden realizations, like looking into a well and seeing the dim reflection of your face in that instant before the water shatters.”

WayWellsDreamPainFacesFeltWaterHurtSeeingBrokenDepressionReflectionSickIllnessLegsMental IllnessRealizationRememberedKneesInstantYour FaceStomachIt HurtsFragmentsBroken LegMental Pain
Author:Tracy Thompson
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