Quotes about Contemplation

The chief trait of any given poet is always the spirit he brings to the observation of Humanity and Nature—the mood out of which he contemplates his subjects.

Here I sit gossiping in the early candle-light of old age—and my book—casting backward glances over our travel'd road.

I think I will do nothing for a long time but listen, / And accrue what I hear into myself....and let sounds contribute / toward me.

Some nights in the midst of this loneliness I swung among the scattered stars at the end of the thin thread of faith alone.

Some of the best things I have ever thought of I have thought of during bad sermons.

Sabbath observance invites us to stop. It invites us to rest. It asks us to notice that while we rest, the world continues without our help. It invites us to delight in the world's beauty and abundance.

He wasn't much of a listener, not a great payer of attention to things outside his head.

Do you do that with all your friends?" "What's that?" "Prepare them for the worst." She nodded. "If the worst is a possibility, then you keep it on the table. Don't hide from it. Don't run. It can happen. And if and when it does, you need to have thought about it ahead of time. That way you're not crushed when your worst thought becomes reality.

See it?" ... "Yeah." ... "How in the world did you see that in the first place?" "Don't know." "It's hard to make out." "Give it about ten minutes..." So we waited. Trying not to look at it so much that it lost all meaning. Like a word you say over and over until you're only hearing what it sounds like and you've forgotten what it means.

Tea should be taken in solitude...

The weather being fine and dry... he sent his valise on by the coach, and set out to walk.... in the healthful exercise and the pleasant road. It is not easy to walk alone in the country without musing upon something. And he had plenty of unsettled subjects to meditate upon, though he had been walking to the Land's End.

Ah, well, I am a great and sublime fool. But then I am God's fool, and all His work must be contemplated with respect.