Quotes about Stillness

To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world, the most difficult and the most intellectual.

Archer reddened to the temples, but dared not move or speak: it was as if her words had been some rare butterfly that the least motion might drive off on startled wings, but that might gather a flock about it if it were left undisturbed

Uncontrolled, the hunger and thirst after God may become an obstacle, cutting off the soul from what it desires. If a man would travel far along the mystic road, he must learn to desire God intensely but in stillness, passively and yet with all his heart and mind and strength.

The opposite of contemplation is not action, it is reaction.

Old men ought to be explorers Here and there does not matter We must be still and still moving Into another intensity For another union, a deeper communion —T. S. ELIOT, "EAST COKER

Be still and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing. —T.S. ELIOT, "East Coker" from the Four Quartets

This is another day, O Lord... If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly.

If you have ever prayed in the dawn you will ask yourself why you were so foolish as not to do it always: it is difficult to get into communion with God in the midst of the hurly-burly of the day.

Souls who do not practice prayer are like people whose limbs are paralyzed.

The stillness of prayer is the most essential condition for fruitful action. Before all else, the disciple kneels down.

God's voice is still and quiet and easily buried under an avalanche of clamour.

Prayer unfolds in the stillness of the soul.