The following quotations on stillness resonate for those seeking to quiet the mind and heart on the quest for higher states of consciousness.
“Stillness means the shedding of all thoughts, even those which are divine; otherwise, through giving them our attention because they are good, we will lose what is better.” Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia
“Feel your reality, in the stillness, in the quietness, when there is no mind, no thoughts, no words. Who are you then? You just are.” Hindu Texts
“What I would really like is to escape into great silence.” Etty Hillesum, Holocaust victim
“Third state makes people quiet.” Robert Earl Burton
“I know myself now, and I feel within me a peace above all earthly dignities, a still and quiet conscience. ” William Shakespeare
“Sometimes, by letting go we allow some grace to enter by another channel, which all our mental efforts have hitherto kept out. Stillness is a quality of the heart.” Rodney Collin
“Men do not mirror themselves in running water – they mirror themselves in still water. Only what is still can still the stillness of other things.” Zhuangzi
“I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope, for hope would be hope for the wrong thing;
Wait without love, for love would be love of the wrong thing;
There is yet faith, but the faith and the love are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.” T.S. Eliot
“In order to understand the dance, one must be still. And in order to truly understand stillness one must dance.” Rumi
“When the mind has learned to say nothing, presence shines of itself.” Dionysius the Areopagite.
For more quotations on stillness, we recommend reading from the Philokalia and Zen Buddhist texts.