Contemplative Quotes

Mathematics is not a contemplative but a creative subject.

— G. H. Hardy

Could the purr be anything but contemplative?

— Irving Townsend

In my personal life, I am very contemplative.

— Antonio Banderas

We should all without shame enrol in the school of contemplative prayer.

— Richard J. Foster

Witty, brooding, contemplative, explosive: take your pick.

— Margo Jefferson

“All artist of some measure contemplative.”

— Evelyn Underhill

“Would death be like that: Endless liquid silence?”

— Nick Cutter

“So I played one of the Goldberg Variations, which made me quiet and contemplative.”

— André Aciman

“I think anything like that- which is contemplative, silent, shows a person alone- people always feel sad. Is it because we've lost…

— Andrew Wyeth

“Perhaps... these days of less sunlight are opportunities for more contemplative time, more looking deeply to see what can only be seen…

— Sylvia Boorstein

Science is a contemplative possession of reality through exclusion of all illusion, error and ignorance.

— Georges Canguilhem

This mystical stream [contemplative prayer] is the Western bridge to Far Eastern spirituality.

— Tilden Edwards

“Life is a deep and contemplative story stuck on repeat. love, loss, self-destruction, self-discovery”

— Pete Wentz

A contemplative life has more the appearance of a life of piety than any other; but it is the divine plan to…

— Lord David Cecil

Compassion will no longer be seen as a spiritual luxury for a contemplative few; rather it will be viewed as a social…

— Duane Elgin

“...I am better Thoughtful Prince than King. Potential holds appeal since in its castle walls One is protected from the awful shame…

— Mike Bartlett

I guess when we're happy, it's easier to go with the flow, and when that happiness or joy is interrupted, that's when…

— Jeremy Fisher

When the contemplative mind is a French mind, it is content, for the most part, to contemplate France. When the contemplative mind…

— Agnes Repplier

This wife you have, Bird said at last, deeply contemplative, did you pay a great deal for her? She cost me almost…

— Diana Gabaldon

One of the first things to learn if you want to be a contemplative is to mind your own business. Nothing is…

— Thomas Merton

He was somebody who made me think, I suppose, about the contemplative life. I've always been a city fellow, but I've often…

— Derek Jacobi

Flyfishing does have its social aspects - on some of our crowded trout streams it can get too social - but esentially…

— John Gierach

Those who are more adapted to the active life can prepare themselves for contemplation in the practice of the active life, while…

— Thomas Aquinas

Bassist Steve Uccello's Symmetria is filled with cool and unique sounds, textures, and musical ideas, evoking an imagined atmosphere of open spaces…

— Bryan Beller

“Contemplative love seeks a heroic deed that can be accomplished without delay and in full view of everyone. Indeed, some people are…

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Sometimes people will think, I need to have pre-sanctioned spiritual joy. Getting joy from my contemplative meditation practice or getting joy from…

— Moby

Each person comes to have this musical experience, this moment with us, where they get to sink into our world for a…

— Gillian Welch

“BUT as long as you pretend to live in pure autonomy, as your own master, without even a god to rule you,…

— Thomas Merton

The most dangerous man in the world is the contemplative who is guided by nobody. He trusts his own visions. He obeys…

— Thomas Merton

“The fact that the universe is illuminated where you stand—that your thoughts and moods and sensations have a qualitative character in this…

— Sam Harris

The natural historian is not a fisherman who prays for cloudy days and good luck merely; but as fishing has been styled…

— Henry David Thoreau

I just think of interesting roles to play. I guess that I have matured, I guess growing up and becoming a man,…

— Josh Hartnett

“But as important as time set aside specifically for prayer, is learning to sit when you are not sitting. By this I…

— Martin Laird

“By becoming clearly contemplative in a matter of weeks, my prayer had been given a particular and novel cast; and this was…

— Jean Déchanet

“We say that the body is a temple, because we know that it’s nothing but mortal architecture without the self-regard of consciousness…

— Valerie Jeremijenko

“ The Cloud of Unknowing was written by someone who was exceedingly tough-minded in the sense in which William James used the…

— Ira Progoff

“Henrietta, at heart a contemplative person, enjoyed alarums and excursions for a short while only. For her a background of quiet was…

— Elizabeth Goudge

“When we lose the contemplative mind, or non-dual consciousness, we invariably create violent people. The dualistic mind is endlessly argumentative, and we…

— Richard Rohr

“He looks out the window at the falling snow, then turns and takes his wife in his arms, feeling grateful to be…

— Jay McInerney

“Thomas Merton wrote, “there is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an…

— Annie Dillard