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

“How could men get fat by being bad and starve by being good? I thought and thought about my vision, and it made me very sad.”
― John G Neihardt, Black Elk Speaks: The Complete Edition

“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

“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

“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

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

“And then, there is the falling. We are not taught to fall well. From childhood, falling has been wrapped in shame, in failure, in the fear of being seen weak. But the trees do not regret the letting go of their leaves. They release them in due season, and the falling becomes part of the dance.”
― Alma Camino

“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

“It was not something she cared for, relying on anyone else, hoping she got what she wanted.”
― Kevin Wilson, Run for the Hills: A Novel

“Listening. It's not something for which Protestants are usually well known. In our activist piety we have tended toward prophetic pronouncements rather than quiet listening. As Father Guy, one of the first monks I met, put it, "Samuel said, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening'; we more often say, 'Listen, Lord, for thy servant is speaking.”
― Dennis Okholm, Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants

“As Father Guy, one of the first monks I met, put it, "Samuel said, "Speak, Lord, for thy servant is listening'; we more often say, 'Listen, Lord, for thy servant is speaking.”
― Dennis Okholm, Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants

“When truth becomes unbearable, the earth holds it quietly in stone, in seed, in the long memory of water.”
― Lawrence Nault

“The more we rush toward the artificial, the more vital it becomes to remember what breathes without wires or code.”
― Lawrence Nault

“There is wisdom in the way the forest shares sunlight. No hoarding, no hurry—just enough for all to grow.”
― Lawrence Nault

“What is sacred is not what we build, but what we protect—quiet places, fragile species, tender truths.”
― Lawrence Nault

“The ground does not judge the weight of your steps. It only holds you.”
― Lawrence Nault

“Silence is not the absence of sound but an environment that amplifies what we usually ignore. When the external noise fades, the whispers inside grow louder. We might hear anxieties we’ve been avoiding, desires we haven’t acknowledged, or sorrow we thought we had neatly tucked away. Silence holds up a mirror, reflecting our inner world back at us without distortion”
― Ajmal, from the book "Borders of the Inner World"

“I'm painting pictures with words and giving images a voice.”
― Barbara J. Harry, "Oasis: Soul Refreshing"