"We are in fact convinced that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself. It seems, to judge from the argument, that the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead and not in our lifetime."

Socrates | Knowledge | 1 bookmarks

"When human beings have been fascinated by the contemplation of their own hearts, the more intricate biological pattern of the female has become a model for the artist, the mystic, and the saint. When mankind turns instead to what can be done, altered, built, invented, in the outer world, all natural properties of men, animals, or metals become handicaps to be altered rather than clues to be followed."

Mead, Margaret | Body | 1 bookmarks

"Beauty in things exists in the mind which contemplates them."

Hume, David | Thoughts and Thinking | 1 bookmarks

"A pile of rocks ceases to be a rock when somebody contemplates it with the idea of a cathedral in mind."

Saint-Exupery, Antoine De | Ideas | 2 bookmarks

"That pleasure which is at once the most pure, the most elevating and the most intense, is derived, I maintain, from the contemplation of the beautiful."

Poe, Edgar Allan | Thoughts and Thinking | 2 bookmarks

"To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour."

Thoreau, Henry David | Self-improvement | 1 bookmarks

"The literary critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression, may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art he is contemplating appears to do the same."

James, Clive | Literary Criticism | 1 bookmarks

"In contemplation, if a man begins with certainties he shall end in doubts; but if he be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties."

Bacon, Francis | Doubt | 4 bookmarks

"The best emotions to write out of are anger and fear or dread. The least energizing emotion to write out of is admiration. It is very difficult to write out of because the basic feeling that goes with admiration is a passive contemplative mood."

Sontag, Susan | Writers and Writing | 2 bookmarks

"When a man does a household job, he goes through three periods: contemplating how it will be done; contemplating when it will be done; and contemplating."

Cox, Marcelene | Procrastination | 2 bookmarks