Quotes about reflection
A collection of quotes on the topic of reflection, other, use, life.
Quotes about reflection
“We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.”
John Dewey (1859–1952) American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer
Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician
Teacher
“Our interactions with one another reflect a dance between love and fear.”
Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now
“Many of the faults you see in others, dear reader,
are your own nature reflected in them.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
Rumi Daylight (1990)
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) Prussian geographer, naturalist and explorer
Equinoctial Regions of America (1814-1829)
“I'm reflective only in the sense that I learn to move forward. I reflect with a purpose.”
Kobe Bryant (1978–2020) American basketball player
Thomas Sankara (1949–1987) President of Upper Volta
Source: Women's Liberation and the African Freedom Struggle
Edward Jenner (1749–1823) English physician, scientist and pioneer of vaccination
The Life of Edward Jenner M.D. Vol. 2 (1838) by John Baron, p. 447
“The beauty you see in me is a reflection of you.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
Appears in Rewards of Passion (Sheer Poetry) (1981), "The Beauty"
Also attributed to Rumi (persian mystic and poet).
Rewards of Passion (Sheer Poetry) (1981)
Alexandra Kollontai (1872–1952) Soviet diplomat
About the first World War.
The Autobiography of a Sexually Emancipated Communist Woman (1926)
John Williams (1932) American composer, conductor and pianist
John Williams, conductor laureate, Boston Pops Orchestra, Leroy Anderson Square Dedication, Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 17, 2003.
Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/07.17/12-anderson.html
H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author
Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters
Scipio Africanus (-235–-183 BC) Roman general in the Second Punic War
Context: I am mindful of human weakness, and I reflect upon the might of Fortune and know that everything that we do is exposed to a thousand chances. But, just as I should admit that I were acting with arrogance and violence if, before I had crossed over to Africa, I were to reject you when you were voluntarily withdrawing from Italy and, while your army was already on shipboard, you were coming in person to sue for peace, so now, when I have dragged you to Africa, resisting and shifting ground as we almost came to blows, I am under no obligation to respect you. Therefore, if to the terms upon which peace was formerly about to be made, as it seemed, you are adding some kind of compensation for the ships loaded with supplies that were taken by force during the armistice, and for violence done to my envoys, I have reason to bring it before the council. But if that addition also seems too severe, prepare for war, since you have been unable to endure a peace [bellum parate, quoniam pacem pati non potuistis].<br><br>Reply to Hannibal's attempt to set terms for peace, prior to the Battle of Zama, as quoted in Livy. Books XXVIII-XXX With An English Translation (1949), Book 30, Ch. 31 http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0159%3Abook%3D30%3Achapter%3D31<br>Variant translation:<br>I am aware of the frailty of man, I think about the power of fortune, and I know that all our actions are at the mercy of a thousand vicissitudes. Now I admit that it would have been arrogant and headstrong reaction on my part if you had come to sue for peace before I crossed to Africa, and I had rejected your petition when you were yourself voluntarily quitting Italy, and had your troops embarked on your ships. But, as it is, I have forced you back to Africa, and you are reluctant and resisting almost to the point of fighting, so that I feel no need to show you any consideration. Accordingly, if something is actually added to the terms on which it seems probable that a peace could be concluded — some sort of indemnity for the forceful appropriation of our ships, along with their cargoes, during truce and for the violation of our envoys — then I have something to take to my council. But if you consider even that to be excessive, prepare for war, for you have found peace intolerable.<br>Hannibal's War : Books Twenty-one to Thirty by Livy, as translated by John Yardley (2006), p. 600<br>Prepare to fight — for, evidently, you have found peace intolerable.<br>Let us make war, since evidently, you have found peace intolerable.
“You can't help it. An artist's duty, as far as I'm concerned, is to reflect the times.”
Nina Simone (1933–2003) American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist
“Reflect as if you have all of time, even when time is short.”
Tamora Pierce book First Test
Source: First Test
“Calm —indeed the calmest— reflection might be better than the most confused decisions”
Franz Kafka book The Metamorphosis
Source: The Metamorphosis
“One does not meet oneself until one catches the reflection from an eye other than human.”
Loren Eiseley (1907–1977) US philosopher (1907-1977)
Henri Poincaré book Science and Hypothesis
Douter de tout ou tout croire, ce sont deux solutions également commodes, qui l'une et l'autre nous dispensent de réfléchir.
Preface, Dover abridged edition (1952), p. xxii
Science and Hypothesis (1901)
“It is good to be firm by temperament and pliant by reflection.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) French writer, a moralist
Source: Reflections and Maxims (1746), p. 176.
Jopie Huisman (1922–2000) Dutch painter
translation, Fons Heijnsbroek, 2018
version in original Dutch / citaat van Jopie Huisman, in het Nederlands: Door de jaren heen heb ik van alles en nog wat bewaard aan dingen en voorwerpen die ik in mijn leven in de handel tegenkwam, als ze gevoelswaarde voor me hadden. Altijd eenvoudig gebruiksgoed en gereedschap van de boer, de smid, de timmerman, de bakker enzovoorts. Dingen waarin ik de strijd om het bestaan het duidelijkst weerspiegeld zag vond ik het mooist.. ..afgetrapte oude schoenen, broeken, jassen, hoeden en kindervestjes, die ik in de vodden vond, vaak tot in den treure versteld en opgelapt.
Source: Jopie de Verteller' (2010) - postumous, p. 19
Jean-Paul Marat (1743–1793) politician and journalist during the French Revolution
Letter to Camille Desmoulins (1792-06-24) in Œuvres de Desmoulins p. 76ff
Augusto Pinochet (1915–2006) Former dictator of the republic of Chile
Statement (8 November 1998)
1990s
“In silence and movement you can show the reflection of people.”
Marcel Marceau (1923–2007) French mime and actor
US News & World Report (23 February 1987)
Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (1938), XXIX Precepts of the Painter
Milkha Singh (1935) Indian track and field athlete
The Race of My Life: An Autobiography Milkha Singh (2013)
“The ability to write reflects on one’s capacity to think clearly.”
Miguna Miguna (1962) lawyer, author and columnist
Facebook post, https://www.facebook.com/GovernorMigunaMiguna/posts/562705787252139, 2016 <br class="br">2016
“Life is chaotic, dangerous, and surprising. Buildings should reflect that.”
Frank Gehry (1929) Canadian-American (b.1929)
Source: Jason K. Miller, Susan Lauzau (2002) Frank Gehry. p. 6.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Romantic composer
Letter to Leopold Mozart (4 April 1787), from The Mozart-Da Ponte Operas by Andrew Steptoe [Oxford University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-198-16221-9], p. 84.
Galileo Galilei book Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
Sagredo<br>Variant translation: I cannot without great wonder, nay more, disbelief, hear it being attributed to natural bodies as a great honor and perfection that they are impassable, immutable, inalterable, etc.: as conversely, I hear it esteemed a great imperfection to be alterable, generable, and mutable. It is my opinion that the earth is very noble and admirable by reason of the many and different alterations, mutations, and generations which incessantly occur in it. And if, without being subject to any alteration, it had been one great heap of sand, or a mass of jade, or if, since the time of the deluge, the waters freezing which covered it, it had continued an immense globe of crystal, wherein nothing had ever grown, altered, or changed, I should have esteemed it a wretched lump of no benefit to the Universe, a mass of idleness, and in a word superfluous, exactly as if it had never been in Nature. The difference for me would be the same as between a living and a dead creature. I say the same concerning the Moon, Jupiter, and all the other globes of the Universe.<br>The more I delve into the consideration of the vanity of popular discourses, the more empty and simple I find them. What greater folly can be imagined than to call gems, silver, and gold noble, and earth and dirt base? For do not these persons consider that if there were as great a scarcity of earth as there is of jewels and precious metals, there would be no king who would not gladly give a heap of diamonds and rubies and many ingots of gold to purchase only so much earth as would suffice to plant a jessamine in a little pot or to set a tangerine in it, that he might see it sprout, grow up, and bring forth such goodly leaves, fragrant flowers, and delicate fruit? It is scarcity and plenty that makes things esteemed and despised by the vulgar, who will say that there is a most beautiful diamond, for it resembles a clear water, and yet would not part from it for ten tons of water. 'These men who so extol incorruptibility, inalterability, and so on, speak thus, I believe, out of the great desire they have to live long and for fear of death, not considering that, if men had been immortal, they would not have come into the world. These people deserve to meet with a Medusa's head that would transform them into statues of diamond and jade, that so they might become more perfect than they are.<br>Part of this passage, in Italian, I detrattori della corruptibilitá meriterebber d'esser cangiati in statue., has also ben translated into English as "Detractors of corruptibility deserve being turned into statues."<br> Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo. (PDF) http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/g/galilei/le_opere_di_galileo_galilei_edizione_nazionale_sotto_gli_etc/pdf/le_ope_p.pdf, Le Opere di Galileo Galilei vol. VII, pg. 58.<br>Compare Maimonides "If man were never subject to change there could be no generation; there would be one single being..." Guide for the Perplexed (c. 1190) <br class="br">Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems (1632) <br class="br">Context: I cannot without great astonishment — I might say without great insult to my intelligence — hear it attributed as a prime perfection and nobility of the natural and integral bodies of the universe that they are invariant, immutable, inalterable, etc., while on the other hand it is called a great imperfection to be alterable, generable, mutable, etc. For my part I consider the earth very noble and admirable precisely because of the diverse alterations, changes, generations, etc. that occur in it incessantly. If, not being subject to any changes, it were a vast desert of sand or a mountain of jasper, or if at the time of the flood the waters which covered it had frozen, and it had remained an enormous globe of ice where nothing was ever born or ever altered or changed, I should deem it a useless lump in the universe, devoid of activity and, in a word, superfluous and essentially non-existent. This is exactly the difference between a living animal and a dead one; and I say the same of the moon, of Jupiter, and of all other world globes.<br>The deeper I go in considering the vanities of popular reasoning, the lighter and more foolish I find them. What greater stupidity can be imagined than that of calling jewels, silver, and gold "precious," and earth and soil "base"? People who do this ought to remember that if there were as great a scarcity of soil as of jewels or precious metals, there would not be a prince who would not spend a bushel of diamonds and rubies and a cartload of gold just to have enough earth to plant a jasmine in a little pot, or to sow an orange seed and watch it sprout, grow, and produce its handsome leaves, its fragrant flowers, and fine fruit. It is scarcity and plenty that make the vulgar take things to be precious or worthless; they call a diamond very beautiful because it is like pure water, and then would not exchange one for ten barrels of water. Those who so greatly exalt incorruptibility, inalterability, etc. are reduced to talking this way, I believe, by their great desire to go on living, and by the terror they have of death. They do not reflect that if men were immortal, they themselves would never have come into the world. Such men really deserve to encounter a Medusa's head which would transmute them into statues of jasper or of diamond, and thus make them more perfect than they are.
Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876) Russian revolutionary, philosopher, and theorist of collectivist anarchism
Variant translations:
A natural society, in the midst of which every man is born and outside of which he could never become a rational and free being, becomes humanized only in the measure that all men comprising it become, individually and collectively, free to an ever greater extent.
Note 1. To be personally free means for every man living in a social milieu not to surrender his thought or will to any authority but his own reason and his own understanding of justice; in a word, not to recognize any other truth but the one which he himself has arrived at, and not to submit to any other law but the one accepted by his own conscience. Such is the indispensable condition for the observance of human dignity, the incontestable right of man, the sign of his humanity.
To be free collectively means to live among free people and to be free by virtue of their freedom. As we have already pointed out, man cannot become a rational being, possessing a rational will, (and consequently he could not achieve individual freedom) apart from society and without its aid. Thus the freedom of everyone is the result of universal solidarity. But if we recognize this solidarity as the basis and condition of every individual freedom, it becomes evident that a man living among slaves, even in the capacity of their master, will necessarily become the slave of that state of slavery, and that only by emancipating himself from such slavery will he become free himself.
Thus, too, the freedom of all is essential to my freedom. And it follows that it would be fallacious to maintain that the freedom of all constitutes a limit for and a limitation upon my freedom, for that would be tantamount to the denial of such freedom. On the contrary, universal freedom represents the necessary affirmation and boundless expansion of individual freedom.
This passage was translated as Part III : The System of Anarchism , Ch. 13: Summation, Section VI, in The Political Philosophy of Bakunin : Scientific Anarchism (1953), compiled and edited by G. P. Maximoff
Man does not become man, nor does he achieve awareness or realization of his humanity, other than in society and in the collective movement of the whole society; he only shakes off the yoke of internal nature through collective or social labor... and without his material emancipation there can be no intellectual or moral emancipation for anyone... man in isolation can have no awareness of his liberty. Being free for man means being acknowledged, considered and treated as such by another man, and by all the men around him. Liberty is therefore a feature not of isolation but of interaction, not of exclusion but rather of connection... I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows... I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation.
Man, Society, and Freedom (1871)
Context: The materialistic, realistic, and collectivist conception of freedom, as opposed to the idealistic, is this: Man becomes conscious of himself and his humanity only in society and only by the collective action of the whole society. He frees himself from the yoke of external nature only by collective and social labor, which alone can transform the earth into an abode favorable to the development of humanity. Without such material emancipation the intellectual and moral emancipation of the individual is impossible. He can emancipate himself from the yoke of his own nature, i. e. subordinate his instincts and the movements of his body to the conscious direction of his mind, the development of which is fostered only by education and training. But education and training are preeminently and exclusively social … hence the isolated individual cannot possibly become conscious of his freedom.
To be free … means to be acknowledged and treated as such by all his fellowmen. The liberty of every individual is only the reflection of his own humanity, or his human right through the conscience of all free men, his brothers and his equals.
I can feel free only in the presence of and in relationship with other men. In the presence of an inferior species of animal I am neither free nor a man, because this animal is incapable of conceiving and consequently recognizing my humanity. I am not myself free or human until or unless I recognize the freedom and humanity of all my fellowmen.
Only in respecting their human character do I respect my own....
I am truly free only when all human beings, men and women, are equally free. The freedom of other men, far from negating or limiting my freedom, is, on the contrary, its necessary premise and confirmation.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister
Source: Letter to Isaac Disraeli (September 1826), quoted in William Flavelle Monypenny and George Earle Buckle, The Life of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield. Volume I. 1804–1859 (1929), p. 107
“He who does not reflect his life back to God in gratitude does not know himself.”
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Source: Reverence for Life: The Words of Albert Schweitzer
Myles Munroe (1954–2014) Bahamian Evangelical Christian minister
Source: Waiting and Dating
Jean Paul Sartre book The Transcendence of the Ego
The Transcendence of the Ego: An Existentialist Theory of Consciousness
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
Variant: When you see a man of worth, think of how you may emulate him. When you see one who is unworthy, examine yourself.
“Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.”
John Locke (1632–1704) English philosopher and physician
Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author
Big Lies in Politics http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2012/05/22/big_lies_in_politics/page/full, 22 May 2012. <br class="br">2010s
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) Soviet and Russian film-maker, writer, film editor, film theorist, theatre and opera director
“How people treat other people is a direct reflection of how they feel about themselves.”
Paulo Coelho book The Winner Stands Alone
Source: The Winner Stands Alone
“The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.”
Thomas Paine (1737–1809) English and American political activist
“Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.”
Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker
Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)
“Art calls for complete mastery of techniques, developed by reflection within the soul.”
Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
Extract from the Orderly Book of the army under command of Washington, dated at Head Quarters, in the city of New York (3 August 1770); reported in American Masonic Register and Literary Companion, Volume 1 https://www.thefederalistpapers.org/founders/washington/george-washington-the-foolish-and-wicked-practice-of-profane-cursing-and-swearing (1829), p. 163 <br class="br">1770s
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society
Source: Wozu noch Philosophie? [Why still philosophy?] (1963), p. 9
Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society
Culture Industry Reconsidered (1963)
Steve Maraboli (1975)
Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 46
Isaac Newton book Opticks, or a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections and Colours of Light
Query 18
Opticks (1704)
Wangari Maathai (1940–2011) Kenyan environmental and political activist
Nobel lecture http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/2004/maathai-lecture.html (10 December 2004)
Warren Bennis (1925–2014) American leadership expert
Warren G. Bennis (2009) On Becoming a Leader. p. 190
2000s
Jack Welch (1935) American executive: General Electric CEO
Source: Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001), Ch. 9.