Quotes about Contemplation

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

Prayer that craves a particular commodity—anything less than all good, is vicious. Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view. It is the soliloquy of a beholding and jubilant soul. It is the spirit of God pronouncing his works good. But prayer as a means to effect a private end is theft and meanness. It supposes dualism and not unity in nature and consciousness. As soon as the man is at one with God, he will not beg.

Let me admonish you, first of all, to go alone; to refuse the good models, even those most sacred in the imagination of men, and dare to love God without mediator or veil.

In the woods, we return to reason and faith.

Nothing divine dies. All good is eternally reproductive. The beauty of nature reforms itself in the mind, and not for barren contemplation, but for new creation.

Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, he that thinks most, will say least.

I see the spectacle of morning from the hill-top over against my house, from day-break to sun-rise, with emotions which an angel might share

The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson

If a person is constantly reading and absorbing the thoughts of others, their growth will be stunted. In order to fully develop, we need periods of solitude, self-inquiry, and recovery.

Silence is a solvent that destroys personality, and gives us leave to be great and universal.

We tend to start with Earth and reason up toward Heaven, when instead we should start with Heaven and reason down toward Earth.

Now think, my brother, you will be in Heaven very soon. Since last year a great number have gone home: before next year many more will have ascended to glory. Sitting up in those celestial seats, how shall we wish that we had lived below?" —Charles Spurgeon