Two of life’s most difficult lessons are learning to be still and quiet. How good are you at these?
For centuries and millennia, the wise people of every culture under the sun have sought the counsel of silence. Pythagoras, the Greek philosopher and mathematician, wrote: “Learn to be silent. Let your quiet mind listen and absorb.”
Writing about the importance of silence and solitude, Blaise Pascal, the seventeenth-century French philosopher, scientist, mathematician, and writer, wrote: “All of man’s miseries derive from not being able to sit quietly in a room alone.”
Franz Kafka, the Czech-Jewish novelist, philosopher, and poet, wrote: “You need not leave your room. Remain sitting at your table and listen. You need not even listen, simply wait. You need not even wait, just learn to become quiet, and still and solitary. The world will freely offer itself to you to be unmasked. It has no choice; it will roll in ecstasy at your feet.”
Learn to be quiet. Learn to be still. These are among the most valuable lessons in our journey.
Matthew Kelly
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