Contemplative Quotes

“There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God; those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it.
”
― brother lawrence

“I’ve always loved the night, when everyone else is asleep and the world is all mine. It’s quiet and dark—the perfect time for creativity.”
― Jonathan Harnisch, Porcelain Utopia

“I am so tired.
I have grown old from being serious.
I have grown ill from being serious.
I want to laugh at myself.
I want to forget myself.
I am so tired.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“Let us destroy, but don't let us pretend that we are commiting an act of virtue.”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

“It's these little things, they can pull you under
Live your life filled with joy and wonder
I always knew this altogether thunder
Was lost in our little lives”
― R.E.M Sweetness Follows

“The Cloud of Unknowing was written by someone who was exceedingly tough-minded in the sense in which William James used the phrase. He was most unsentimental, matter of fact, and down to earth; and he regarded this habit of mind as a prerequisite for the work in which he was engaged. He proceeded upon the belief that when an individual undertakes to bring his life into relation to God, he is embarking upon a serious and demanding task, a task that leaves no leeway for self-deception or illusion. It requires the most rigorous dedication and self-knowledge. The Cloud of Unknowing is therefore a book of strong and earnest thinking. It makes a realistic appraisal of the problems and weaknesses of individual human beings, for it regards man's imperfections as the raw material to be worked with in carrying out the discipline of spiritual development.”
― Ira Progoff, The Cloud of Unknowing

“Opportunities are rare in this life, and fairness, rarer still. So, when you discover a fair opportunity, go after as if it were your last because it very well might be.”
― Joel T. McGrath

“He looks out the window at the falling snow, then turns and takes his wife in his arms, feeling grateful to be here even as he wonders what he is going to do with his life in strictly practical terms. For years he had trained himself to do one thing, and he did it well, but he doesn't know whether he wants to keep doing it for the rest of his life, for that matter, whether anyone will let him. He is still worrying when they go to bed.

Feeling his wife's head nesting in the pillow below his shoulder, he is almost certain that they will find ways to manage. They've been learning to get by with less, and they'll keep learning. It seems to him as if they're taking a course in loss lately. And as he feels himself falling asleep he has an insight he believes is important, which he hopes he will remember in the morning, although it is one of those thoughts that seldom survive translation to the language of daylight hours: knowing that whatever plenty befalls them together or separately in the future, they will become more and more intimate with loss as the years accumulate, friends dying or slipping away undramatically into the crowded past, memory itself finally flickering and growing treacherous toward the end; knowing that even the children who may be in their future will eventually school them in the pain of growth and separation, as their own parents and mentors die off and leave them alone in the world, shivering at the dark threshold.”
― Jay McInerney, Brightness Falls

“I thought about life, about my life, the embarrassments, the little coincidences, the shadows of alarm clocks on bedside tables. I thought about my small victories and everything I'd seen destroyed, I'd swum through mink coats on my parents' bed while they hosted downstairs, I'd lost the only person I could have spent my only life with, I'd left behind a thousand tons of marble, I could have released sculptures, I could have released myself from the marble of myself. I'd experienced joy, but not nearly enough, could there be enough? The end of suffering does not justify the suffering, and so there is no end to suffering, what a mess I am, I thought, what a fool, how foolish and narrow, how worthless, how pinched and pathetic, how helpless. None of my pets know their own names, what kind of person am I?”
― jonathan safran foer

“I want to be an artist," he told me, like we were both admitting that we weren't human. We didn't understand how normal this was, to be young, to believe that you were destined to make beautiful things.”
― Kevin Wilson, Now Is Not the Time to Panic

“Experience is the byproduct of agony.”
― Joel T. McGrath

“Oak gave up his room so they could sleep there, and although the bed is small, Cardan cannot mind when he takes Jude in his arms.

'You're probably missing your fancy palace right about now,' she whispers to him in the dark.

He traces the edge of her lip, runs his finger over the soft human hair of her cheek, pausing on a freckle and comes to rest on a tiny scar, a line of pale skin drawn there by some blade.

He considers explaining how much he despised the palace as a child, how he dreamed of escaping Elfhame. She knows most of that already. Then he considers reminding her that the fancy palace is now as much hers as his. 'Not in the least,' he says instead, and feels her smile against his skin.

But once he starts recalling his desire to leave Elfhame, he can't help but also recall how desperately she wanted to stay. And how difficult that had been, how hard she had fought, how hard she was still fighting, even now that she didn't have to.

'Why didn't you hate everyone?' he asks. 'Everyone, all the time.'

'I hated you,' Jude reassures him, bringing her mouth to his.”
― Holly Black, How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories

“He told me to call him Dazar Frihet. He said that our days are freedom. All of these days, the ones our feet carry us through, any one of them we can choose to be free, we just have to be willing to make it happen. He was such a sad young man, but he wasn’t sad for himself, he was the freest person I ever knew. No, he was sad for all the people he saw who were never free. All the people walking around thinking they were free, but were bonded to so many possessions and responsibilities, so much dispassion and anger, that freedom had become a mirage, like a mythical figure or a god, something they worshiped and followed, but never truly understood.”
― Daniel J. Rice, THIS SIDE OF A WILDERNESS: A Novel

“If you watch a contemplative person from afar, you'll start contemplating too!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan

“Noise is the thing that keeps us from hearing what the silence exists to tell us.”
― Craig D. Lounsbrough

“I glance back and see that he has stopped moving. He's sitting on the ground, looking at his hand. Looking at his ring. 'He despised me.' His voice sounds light, conversational. Like he's forgotten where he is.

'Balekin?' I ask, thinking of what I saw at Hollow Hall.

'My father.' Cardan snorts. 'I didn't much know the others, my brothers and sisters. Isn't that funny? Prince Dain- he didn't want me in the palace, so he forced me out.'

I wait, not sure what to say. It's disturbing to see him like this, behaving as though he might have emotions.

After a moment, he seems to come back to himself. His eyes focus on me, glittering in the dark. 'And now they're all dead.”
― Holly Black, The Cruel Prince

“Why did I feel so disappointed? I was being so weird tonight.”
― Sariah Wilson, The Seat Filler

“Society whispered, ‘Disagree with grace.’
Solitude shouted, ‘Question your own space.”
― Amogh Swamy, On My Way To Infinity: A Seeker's Poetic Pilgrimage

“Tiny Titans: A Haiku

Ants toil with intent,
Embrace chores they loathe and love,
Unified spirits.”
― Amogh Swamy, On My Way To Infinity: A Seeker's Poetic Pilgrimage

“Charlie, we accept the love we think we deserve.”
― Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

“Guardavo il paesaggio bianco e nero dell'Altipiano e compresi che "tristezza" è una parola importante per definire il mondo. Sta alla base di tutto, è il quinto elemento, la quintessenza.”
― Olga Tokarczuk, Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead

“Loneliness companions me, in the emptiness, I reside.”
― Samantha Lynn Murray , Tales of Secrets Untold

“The radiance of eternal beauty shines over this vast universe and in moments of contemplation we can see the Eternal in things that pass away. This is the message of the great spiritual seers; and all poetry and art and beauty is only an infinite variation of this message.”
― Juan Mascaró

“Contemplation is seeing the Sacred in all things, all the time”
― Mark L Lockwood, The Power of Contemplative Intelligence (CQ): The Science of finding your Spiritual Self

“Have you ever wondered why the brain itself looks so much like a labyrinth?
If we must truly come to 'know ourselves'
we must find a way to navigate the labyrinth.
Contemplative Intelligence is our compass.”
― Mark L Lockwood

“Your ability to rise beyond your thinking is the Highest form of Intelligence”
― Mark L Lockwood, The Power of Contemplative Intelligence (CQ): The Science of finding your Spiritual Self

“In the contemplative field there is no
separation. No duality.
No races. No genders.
No religions. No believers.
No wars. No defence.
No ego. No judgement.
The contemplative
Mind is the End of Two!”
― Mark L Lockwood, The Power of Contemplative Intelligence (CQ): The Science of finding your Spiritual Self

“To be contemplative is to be truly intelligent.
It is a lost art. Everyone jumps at their first thoughts, without considering a second thought, or their feelings, which are the short-hand scripts for the mind”
― Mark L Lockwood

“The weight of memories, they are difficult to escape.”
― Daniel Varona, Shadows of Reality

“Would death be like that: Endless liquid silence?”
― Nick Cutter, The Troop