Quotes about Contemplation

Everything has come into being for a purpose - a horse, say, a vine. Does this surprise you? Even the sun will say, 'I came into being for a purpose': likewise the other gods. For what purpose, then, were you created? For your pleasure? Just see whether this idea can be entertained.

Continually, and, if possible, in the case of every mental image, consider its nature, realize its emotional content, and judge it rationally.

But by all means bear this in mind, that within a very short time both thou and he will be dead; and soon not even your names will be left behind.

What death is, and the fact that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the abstractive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the things which present themselves to the imagination in it, he will then consider it to be nothing else than an operation of nature;

Nothing is so productive of greatness of mind as the ability to examine systematically and truthfully each thing we encounter in life, and to see these things in such a way as to comprehend the nature of the Cosmos.

How plain does it appear that there is not another condition of life so well suited for philosophising as this in which thou now happenest to be.

Consider each individual thing you do and ask yourself whether to lose it through death makes death itself any cause for fear.

Look within. Within is the fountain of Good, ready always to well forth if thou wilt alway delve.

There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind.

Just because there's a silence it doesn't mean that nothing is going on.

What is the real breath of a man — the breathing out or the breathing in?

When in doubt, when flat on your back, you can look at the ceiling. Who knows what you may see, up there? Funeral wreaths and angels, constellations of dust, stellar or otherwise, the puzzles left by spiders. There's always something to occupy the inquiring mind.