Quotes about Contemplation

Reflection makes men cowards.

Faith is not a product of reflection, nor is it even an attempt to penetrate the depths of my own being.

I hear people all the time say, well I read through the Bible last year. Well, so what? I'm all for reading through the Bible. But how much of that got on the inside, or did they just cover three more chapters today? I would never discredit reading the Scriptures, but it is important to meditate on it.

If ash-trays could speak, sir.' 'Indeed, yes.

So much in writing depends on the superficiality of one's days.

words like 'mystery' and 'soul' and 'the source of life' came in over and over again, as they sat on the bed talking, with nothing to do and nothing to believe and nowhere better to go.

Socrates said that the unexamined life is not worth living. I think it applies to faith as well. The unexamined faith is not worth believing.

The way to focus our minds in prayer, therefore, is to picture mentally the one to whom we pray and the matter about which we pray.

What a blessing it is to be alone with your thoughts when so many are alone with their inability to think.

Even when I'm alone I have real good company — dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I like to be alone now and then, just to think over things and taste them. But I love friendships — and nice, jolly little times with people.

She wanted to be alone - to think things out - to adjust herself, if it were possible, to the new world in which she seemed to have been transplanted with a suddenness and completeness that left her half bewildered to her own identity.

No. I don't think I've ever been really lonely in my life," answered Anne. "Even when I'm alone I have real good company — dreams and imaginations and pretendings. I LIKE to be alone now and then, just to think over things and TASTE them.