“In actual fact, contemplation is not a form of inactivity but an exercise.”

— Antoni Tàpies

in his 1990 speech 'L'art modern, la mística i l'humor' ('Modern Art, Mysticism and Humour'), Barcelona: Editorial Empúries i Fundació Antoni Tàpies, 1993; as quoted in: 'Tàpies: From Within', June ─ November, 2013 - Presse Release, Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC), p. 13
1981 - 1990

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In actual fact, contemplation is not a form of inactivity but an exercise." by Antoni Tàpies?

Antoni Tàpies photo

Antoni Tàpies39

Catalan painter, sculptor and art theorist 1923–2012

Related quotes

“Nutbeem influenced a little by the lunar cycle. Had a touch of werewolf. At full moon he burst, talked himself dry, took exercise in the form of dancing and fighting at the Starlight Lounge, then slowly fell back to contemplation.”

Annie Proulx book The Shipping News

Source: The Shipping News (1993), P. 75

“A […] form of present-day secularism is activism, which discounts contemplation and all interiority.”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Part 2. "Teilhard and the Problems of Today", Ch. 5, pp. 254–255, n. 54
The Eternal Feminine (1968)

“For many of us, doing physical activity is a highly emotionally charged, even dangerous, undertaking. Sports and exercise are sites of intense ” forms of exercise.”

Kai Cheng Thom (1991) writer

What I learned, loved and lost as a trans Zumba addict (2018)

“Belief creates the actual fact.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

“The awe and dread with which the untutored savage contemplates his mother-in-law are amongst the most familiar facts of anthropology.”

James Frazer book The Golden Bough

Source: The Golden Bough (1890), Chapter 18, The Perils of the Soul.

“There is no difference between landscapes and other subjects: in general in painting I try to express the emotions that the contemplation of the form produces in me.”

Roger Fry (1866–1934) English artist and art critic

Letters by Roger Fry (496 - 497) Chatto and Windus ISBN 9780701115999
Art Quotes

“Thus action serves as anodyne, whereas contemplation is revealed as the most direct form of involvement, and therefore much shunned by men.”

Robert Sheckley book Mindswap

Source: Mindswap (1966), Chapter 24 (p. 112)

“In the actual state of social relationships, the forms ("formes", Fr.) of politeness are necessary as a subsitute to benevolence.”

African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher

Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 50.

“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”

Gustavo Gutiérrez (1928) Peruvian theologian

"to transmit to others the fruits of contemplation"
Source: A Theology of Liberation (1971), p. 7

“Thou mayest foresee... the things which will be. For they will certainly be of like form, and it is not possible that they should deviate from the order of things now: accordingly to have contemplated human life for forty years is the same as to have contemplated it for ten thousand years.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations (c. AD 121–180), Book VII, 49

Related topics