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Contemplation Quotes by Thomas Merton
- Let no one hope to find in contemplation an escape from conflict, from anguish or from doubt. On the contrary, the deep inexpressible certitude of…
- But it certainly is a wonderful thing to wake up suddenly in the solitude of the woods and look up at the sky and see…
- Contemplation is not and cannot be a function of this external self. There is an irreducible opposition between the deep transcendent self that awakens only…
- Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything or you look at your own…
- Action is the stream, and contemplation is the spring.
- Contemplation is the loving sense of this life, this presence and this eternity.
- Contemplation is life itself, fully awake, fully active, and fully aware that it is alive. It is spiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at the…
- You have got me walking up and down all day under those trees, saying to me over and over again, "Solitude, solitude." And You have…
- Our technological society has no longer any place in it for wisdom that seeks truth for its own sake, that seeks the fullness of being,…
- True contemplation is not a psychological trick but a theological grace. It can come to us ONLY as a gift, and not as a result…
- The Bible is not primarily a written or printed text to be scrutinized in private, in a scholar's study or a contemplative cell. It is…
- Contemplation in the age of Auschwitz and Dachau, Solovky and Karaganda is something darker and more fearsome than contemplation in the age of the Church…
- To enter into the realm of contemplation, one must in a certain sense die: but this death is in fact the entrance into a higher…
More Contemplation Quotes
- The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival. — Aristotle
- He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont… — Isaac Asimov
- I have often thought with wonder of the great goodness of God; and my soul has rejoiced in the contemplation of His… — Teresa of Avila
- Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience. — Randolph Bourne
- The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. — Jacob Bronowski
- It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation,… — Samuel Alexander
- Contemplation often makes life miserable. We should act more, think less, and stop watching ourselves live. — Nicolas Chamfort
- Our goodness comes solely from thinking on goodness; our wickedness from thinking on wickedness. We too are the victims of our own… — John Jay Chapman
- If we know the divine art of concentration, if we know the divine art of meditation, if we know the divine art… — Sri Chinmoy
- All women have a perception much more developed than men. So all women somehow, being repressed for so many millennia, they ended… — Paulo Coelho
- Better to illuminate than merely to shine, to deliver to others contemplated truths than merely to contemplate. — Thomas Aquinas
- The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind. — Diane Arbus