Quotes about Contemplation

That dreadful consciousness of a narrow and limiting I-hood which dogs our search for freedom and full life, is done away. For a moment, at least, the independent spiritual life is achieved. The contemplative is merged in it "like a bird in the air, like a fish in the sea": loses to find and dies to live.

Prayer, then, begins by an intellectual adjustment.

All artist of some measure contemplative.

Do not be content to skim through a chapter [of the Bible] merely to satisfy your conscience. Hide the Word of God in your heart.

Prayer should not be merely an act, but an attitude of life.

Nothing can calm our souls more or better prepare us for life's challenges than time spent alone with God.

The reason many... close their eyes while praying is to shut out the affairs of the world so that their minds can be completely concentrated on God... it certainly lends itself to the attitude of prayer.

Notwithstanding, in how many most petty and contemptible things is our curiosity daily tempted, and how often we give way, who can recount?

These philosophers, then, whom we see not undeservedly exalted above the rest in fame and glory, have seen that no material body is God, and therefore they have transcended all bodies in seeking for God.

For verses and poems I can turn to true food.

But I am unwilling to utter all that may occur to those who think of it, yet cannot be spoken without irreverence.

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.