Selected reflection quotes

1. Just as rust, which arose from the iron itself, wears out the iron, likewise, performing an action without examination would destroy us by projecting us into a negative state of existence.

2. Spend some time alone every day.

3. How blessings brighten as they take their flight!

4. Day by day we should weigh what we have granted to the spirit of the world against what we have denied to the spirit of Jesus, in thought and especially in deed.

5. I just want to live each moment, but it's kind of hard to do that when you are asked to analyze yourself constantly. But it's also good in that you are forced to think about things that you don't ordinarily think about. I think it's strange.

6. O tell me, friends, while yet we part, And heart can yet be heard of heart, O tell me then, for what is it Our early plan of life we quit; From all our old intentions range, And why does all so wholly change? O tell me, friends, while yet we part!

7. I've always made a point of not wasting my life, and every time I come back here I know that all I've done is to waste my life.

8. I'm not always depressed: only when I think and feel.

9. I too am a member of the human race, (but admittedly not a very active member).

10. It's surprising how much memory is built around things unnoticed at the time.

11. I bet you think an egg is something you casually order for breakfast when you can't think of anything else. Well, so did I once, but that was before the egg and I.

12. Here is a list of fearful things: The jaws of sharks, a vulture's wings, The rabid bite of the dog's of war, The voice of one who went before. But most of all the mirror's gaze, which counts us out our numbered days.

13. Praise the invisible sun burning beyond the white cold sky, giving us light and the chimney's shadow.

14. Those who are offended by something are most often those who deserve to be offended by it.

15. Literature is analysis after the event.

16. Better Counsel comes overnight.

17. In reading some books we occupy ourselves chiefly with the thoughts of the author; in perusing others, exclusively with our own.

18. To read without reflecting is like eating without digesting.

19. A soul without reflection, like a pile Without inhabitant, to ruin runs.

20. By all means use some time to be alone.

21. They only babble who practise not reflection.

22. Tomorrow is a satire on today, And shows its weakness.

23. We awaken in others the same attitude of mind we hold toward them.

24. As a rule, all heroism is due to a lack of reflection, and thus it is necessary to maintain a mass of imbeciles. If they once understand themselves the ruling men will be lost.

25. Only when one has lost all curiosity about the future has one reached the age to write an autobiography.

26. When I reached C Company lines, which were at the top of the hill, I paused and looked back at the camp, just coming into full view below me through the grey mist of early morning.

27. Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.

28. You'd learn more about the world by lying on the couch and drinking gin out of a bottle than by watching the news.

29. Only a fool has no regrets and I'm not a fool.

30. Searching nature I taste self but at one tankard, that of my own being.

31. A woman's exterior beauty is a reflection of her internal peace and happiness.

32. I was appalled that the San Francisco ethic didn't mushroom and envelope the whole world into this loving community of acid freaks. I was very naive.

33. I like the evening in India, the one magic moment when the sun balances on the rim of the world, and the hush descends, and ten thousand civil servants drift homeward on a river of bicycles, brooding on the Lord Krishna and the cost of living.

34. I can't deny I'm a better ex-president than I was a president.

35. If you mean to know yourself, interline such of these aphorisms as affect you agreeably in reading, and set a mark to such as left a sense of uneasiness with you; and then show your copy to whom you please.

36. I don't have any romanticism about any part of my past. I think of it only inasmuch as it gave me pleasure or helped me grow psychologically. That is the only thing that interests me about yesterday. I don't believe in yesterday, by the way. You know I don't believe in yesterday. I am only interested in what I am doing now.

37. In my books I might hold the mirror to my own face. If others would like to borrow the mirror, they're welcome. The books aren't there to accuse others - merely to raise issues and keep the debates alive.

38. This monster of a land, this mightiest of nations, this spawn of the future, turns out to be the macrocosm of microcosm me.

39. At night I sit in my chamber and read the bible. Far in the distance roars the sea. Then I lie down and think for a long time about the calm and pale man from Nazareth.

40. Life is made up of constant calls to action, and we seldom have time for more than hastily contrived answers.

41. O joy! that in our embers Is something that doth live, That nature yet remembers What was so fugitive! The thought of our past years in me doth breed Perpetual benediction: not indeed For that which is most worthy to be blest; Delight and liberty, the simple creed Of Childhood, whether busy or at rest, With new-fledged hope still fluttering in his breast:- Not for these I raise The song of thanks and praise; But for those obstinate questionings Of sense and outward things, Fallings from us, vanishings; Blank misgivings of a Creature Moving about in worlds not realised, High instincts before which our mortal Nature Did tremble like a guilty Thing surprised: But for those first affections, Those shadowy recollections, Which, be they what they may, Are yet the fountain-light of all our day, Are yet a master-light of all our seeing; Uphold us, cherish, and have power to make Our noisy years seem moments in the being Of the eternal Silence: truths that wake, To perish never; Which neither listlessness, nor mad endeavor, Nor Man nor Boy, Nor all that is at enmity with joy, Can utterly abolish or destroy!

42. Live a good, honorable life. Then when you get older and think back, you'll be able to enjoy it a second time.

43. Reason is to the philosopher what grace is to the Christian. Grace causes the Christian to act, reason the philosopher. Other men are carried away by their passions, their actions not being preceded by reflection: these are the men who walk in darkness. On the other hand, the philosopher, even in his passions, acts only after reflection; he walks in the dark, but by a torch. The philosopher forms his principles from an infinity of particular observations. Most people adopt principles without thinking of the observations that have produced them, they believe the maxims exist, so to speak, by themselves. But the philosopher takes maxims from their source; he examines their origin; he knows their proper value, and he makes use of them only in so far as they suit him. Truth is not for the philosopher a mistress who corrupts his imagination and whom he believes to be found everywhere; he contents himself with being able to unravel it where he can perceive it. He does not confound it with probability; he takes for true what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is only probable. He does more, and here you have a great perfection of the philosopher: when he has no reason by which to judge, he knows how to live in suspension of judgment... The philosophical spirit is, then, a spirit of observation and exactness, which relates everything to true principles...

44. The latter part of a wise man's life is taken up in curing the follies, prejudices, and false opinions he had contracted in the former.

45. The evening of a well-spent life brings its lamps with it.

46. When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior. After that I studied morning and evening searching for the principle, and came to realise the Way of strategy when I was fifty. Since then I have lived without following any particular Way. Thus with the virtue of strategy I practise many arts and abilities - all things with no teacher. To write this book I did not use the law of Buddha or the teachings of Confucius, neither old war chronicles nor books on martial tactics. I take up my brush to explain the true spirit of this Ichi school as it is mirrored in the Way of heaven and Kwannon. The time is the night of the tenth day of the tenth month, at the hour of the tiger.

47. Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence.

48. It is supposed that there has been progress in the science of textual criticism, and the most frivolous pretender has learned to talk superciliously about 'the old unscientific days'. The old unscientific days are everlasting; they are here and now; they are renewed perennially by the ear which takes formulas in, and the tongue which gives them out again, and the mind which meanwhile is empty of reflexion and stuffed with self-complacency.

49. Two things inspire me to awe: the starry heavens and the moral universe within.

50. When in the spring the withered gray of the pastures gives place to green, this is due to the millions of young shoots which sprout up freshly from the old roots. In like manner the revival of thought which is essential for our time can only come through a transformation of the opinions and ideals of the many brought about by individual and universal reflection about the meaning of life and of the world.

51. I am a believer in unconscious cerebration. The brain is working all the time, though we do not know it. At night it follows up what we think in the daytime. When I have worked a long time on one thing, I make it a point to bring all the facts regarding it together before I retire; I have often been surprised at the results... We are thinking all the time; it is impossible not to think.

52. From the bank and from the river He flashed into the crystal mirror, 'Tirra lirra,' by the river Sang Sir Lancelot.

53. Never, tho' my mortal summers to such length of years should come As the many-winter'd crow that leads the clanging rookery home.

54. I am no professional politician-which is perhaps why I am continually obsessed by the question as to the purpose served by the work done by my friends and myself, as well as its final result.

55. If we look at our work immediately after completing it, we are still too involved; if too long afterwards, we cannot pick up the thread again. (381)

56. That first novel of mine, Non-Stop, is directly attributable to Heinlein. His 'Common Sense' seemed to me such a good story, but bereft of any human feelings. I thought long about that story, and then I thought how wonderful it would be to write about a spaceship in which people have been imprisoned for generations and to put in something of the human feeling. So that novel is directly attributable to Heinlein. I thought, in my youthful arrogance, that I could do it better - I didn't! I thought I could do it differently, and I think I did do it differently. And I suppose that on the whole, I've concentrated on doing things differently ever since.

57. That vague kind of penitence which holidays awaken next morning.

58. Oh god, that was like f--king 1112 years ago. Do you miss it?

59. Kids...you're lookin at a dead man. I should not be in front of you today. Drugs and alcohol have ruined my life.'...'Me and my friends would go home every day afer school and smoke marijuana. Can you kids say marijuana?

60. [After being asked about why he writes about death so much.] 'It's more about awareness, you know? Because without death, life would be meaningless, don't you think?'

61. Previously I did not understand why I got no answer to my question; today I do not understand how I could believe I was capable of asking. But I didn't really believe, I only asked.

62. Now we were standing close to the summit's rim, gazing out into the endless East.

63. If you want to know yourself, Just look how others do it; If you want to understand others, Look into your own heart.

64. It will take her years to understand the things she's said tonight.

65. Cette petite composition qui est, helas, le dernier peche mortel de ma vieillesse.

66. As she listened to him, Madame Bovary marveled at how old she was: all those re-emerging details made her life seem vaster as though she had endless emotional experiences to look back on.

67. After the deed is done, one always becomes clever and philosophical.

68. Je prefere la pensee a l'action, une idee a une affaire, la contemplation au mouvement.

69. Think twice before pointing a finger to any one as other three fingers are always pointing towards you.

70. It's not that I don't feel bad about it. It's just that I don't feel worse today than what I felt yesterday.

71. Jade: 'They look like dorks.' (When shown a picture of AFI from 1996)

72. Nothing touches my heart more quickly than a tribute of honor to a great and noble character; but as I sat in my seat and witnessed this demonstration, this assemblage seemed to me a human ocean in tempest. I have seen the sea lashed into fury and tossed into spray, and its grandeur moves the soul of the dullest man; but I remember that it is not the billows, but the calm level of the sea, from which all heights and depths are measured. When the storm has passed and the hour of calm settles on the ocean, when the sunlight bathes its peaceful surface, then the astronomer and surveyor take the level from which they measure all terrestrial heights and depths.

73. Fellow-Citizens: We stand to-day upon an eminence which overlooks a hundred years of national life - a century crowded with perils, but crowned with the triumphs of liberty and law. Before continuing the onward march let us pause on this height for a moment to strengthen our faith and renew our hope by a glance at the pathway along which our people have traveled.

74. The water is calm and still below, For the winds and waves are absent there, And the sands are bright as the stars that glow In the motionless fields of upper air.

75. He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more then his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men, he should have knowne no more than other men.

76. There was no point. It's already done. Let's leave that alone. I mean, if you're not going to come there with something new, then just leave it alone.

77. Some of the old songs I sing often, because they help me to reflect on where I've been and that's important for me to do - so I don't lose track of where I am going.

78. 'I recognize now how much I remained a Marxist.' (1997)

79. In my middle years, I have exchanged the position of the fetus for the position of a corpse.

80. Surely by now I should know I can control My highs and my lows By questioning all that I do, Examining every move, Trying to get back to the rudiments.

81. I won't open boxes That I am told not to. I'm not a Pandora. I'm much more like That girl in the mirror. Between you and me She don't stand a chance of getting anywhere at all.

82. I'll be sitting in your mirror. Now is the place where the crossroads meet. Will you look into the future?

83. Quite often a man goes on for years imagining that the religious teaching that had been imparted to him since childhood is still intact, while all the time there is not a trace of it left in him.

84. He seems To have seen better days, as who has not Who has seen yesterday?

85. My how fast the months go - and the calendars!

86. In a successful attempt to thwart a seduction I had ended up with two whores and a whore house. And I was just eighteen.

87. I am walking up the face of the mountain. Counting every step I climb. Remembering the names of the constellations. Forgotten is a long, long time.

88. The body is placed under the earth, and after a certain period there remains no vestige even of its form. This is that contemplation of inexhaustible melancholy, whose shadow eclipses the brightness of the world. The common observer is struck with dejection of the spectacle. He contends in vain against the persuasion of the grave, that the dead indeed cease to be. The corpse at his feet is prophetic of his own destiny. Those who have preceded him, and whose voice was delightful to his ear; whose touch met his like sweet and subtle fire: whose aspect spread a visionary light upon his path - these he cannot meet again.

89. Saw my reflection, covered in glass. How It reminds me of you. ~ 'Turn Of The Century'

90. O white and midnight sky, O starry bath, Wash me in thy pure, heavenly crystal flood: Cleanse me, ye stars, from earthly soil and scath- Let not one taint remain in spirit or blood!

91. I wish sometimes I wasn't as conscientious as I am.

92. Here is a symbol in which Many high tragic thoughts Watch their own eyes.

93. Why make excuses close to the truth, especially when now I am presuming to try to grasp in my old age what I did not gain in my youth because my sins prevented me from making what I had read my own? But who will believe me, even though I should say it again? A young man, almost a beardless boy, I was taken captive before I knew what I should desire and what I should shun.

94. He that would pass the latter part of life with honour and decency, must, when he is young, consider that he shall one day be old; and remember, when he is old, that he has once been young.

95. I had one little glimpse in the mirror and it was like an electric shock. Horrifying. It took me three or four days to get over it. On air, the plastic surgeon said: 'Would you have anything done?' Oh no, I said. 'Do you smoke?' No, never. Soon as the camera was off I took his card and had a cigarette.

96. I found it intellectually numbing, tedious in the extreme. All you were was a sort of high-powered social worker and perhaps not even a good one. So I won't miss that.

97. They cowards that's why they tried to set me up/Had bitch-ass niggaz on my team, so indeed, they wet me up/But I'm back reincarnated,-=-incarcerated had the time to contemplate what way that God made it...

98. A hat not much the worse for wear.

99. Reader, - This Enchiridion, I present thee with, is the Fruit of Solitude: A School few care to learn in, tho' None Instructs us better. Some Parts of it are the Result of serious Reflection: Others the Flashings of Lucid Intervals: Writ for private Satisfaction, and now publish'd for an Help to Human Conduct.

100. 'I seem to be breaking balls or something.' (from 'The Need to Dance')