Contemplation

Contemplation is a thoughtful and searching reflection upon a topic. In religion, it is usually a type of prayer or meditation.

• “The kingdom of heaven is within you.” And concerning the inner man, it consists of nothing but contemplation. Therefore the kingdom of heaven must be contemplation.
  • Basil of Caesarea, Letters, translated by R. Deferrari (1926), p. 89

• One can not justify all that is by asserting that everything may equally be the object of contemplation, since man never contemplates: he does.
  • Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity. Philosophical Library. 1948. ISBN 978-0-8065-0160-4.  Part III: The Positive Aspect of Ambiguity

• About the twelfth century the possibility of sharing contemplation by means of preaching and other forms of apostolic activity began to be considered. This point of view was exemplified in the mixed life (contemplative and active) of the mendicant orders and was expressed in the formula: contemplata aliis tradere ("to transmit to others the fruits of contemplation").
  • Gustavo Gutiérrez, A Theology of Liberation (1971),p. 7

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 133.

• The act of contemplation then creates the thing contemplated.
  • Isaac D'Israeli, Literary Character, Chapter XII.

• But first and chiefest, with thee bring
  Him that yon soars on golden wing,
  Guiding the fiery-wheeled throne,
  The Cherub Contemplation.
  • John Milton, Il Penseroso (1631), line 51.

• In discourse more sweet,
  (For Eloquence the Soul, Song charms the sense,)
  Others apart sat on a hill retir'd,
  In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high
  Of Providence, Foreknowledge, Will and Fate,
  Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute;
  And found no end, in wand'ring mazes lost.
  • John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667; 1674), Book II, line 555.

• When holy and devout religious men
  Are at their beads, 'tis hard to draw them thence;
  So sweet is zealous contemplation.
  • William Shakespeare, Richard III (c. 1591), Act III, scene 7, line 92.

• Contemplation makes a rare turkey-cock of him: how he jets under his advanced plumes.
  • William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (c. 1601-02), Act II, scene 5, line 35.

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