Quotes about Reflection

I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

When I read a good book, I wish my life were three thousand years long.

The student is to read history actively not passively.

A person will worship something, have no doubt about that. We may think our tribute is paid in secret in the dark recesses of our hearts, but it will come out. That which dominates our imaginations and our thoughts will determine our lives, and our character. Therefore, it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping, we are becoming.

The Gods we worship write their names on our faces; be sure of that. And a man will worship something ... That which dominates will determine his life and character. Therefore it behooves us to be careful what we worship, for what we are worshipping we are becoming.

We mark with light in the memory the few interviews we have had with souls that made our souls wiser, that spoke what we thought, that told us what we knew, that gave us leave to be what we inly are.

All men plume themselves on the improvement of society, and no man improves.

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character.

Never read a book that is not a year old.

Years teach much which the days never knew.

The days come and go but they say nothing, and if we do not use the gifts they bring, they carry them as silently away.

Our moods do not believe in each other. To-day I am full of thoughts and can write what I please. I see no reason why I should not have the same thought, the same power of expression, to-morrow. What I write, whilst I write it, seems the most natural thing in the world: but yesterday I saw a dreary vacuity in this direction in which now I see so much; and a month hence, I doubt not, I shall wonder who he was that wrote so many continuous pages.