Pope Benedict XVI Quotes

Inspiration comes to us slowly and quietly . prime it with a little solitude.

Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.

Silence is the element in which great things fashion themselves together.

Writing in my closet, it's a small space but it made a lot of room in my mind.

Sometimes it's better to just be quiet, to not think of anything at all. Out of silence comes the greatest creativity.

I need more and more silence, it feels. Poems don't leap into my mind when I'm distracted, turned outward, with other people, listening to music.

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.

It's kind of ridiculous that I find inspiration in just getting away from everything. But when you've gone through it, you realize that it's the enemy. It's a distraction from what you're really doing. You've got to keep moving. Like a shark.

Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think....In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.

You grow your best thoughts in silence, solitude, and meditation. When you relax and think deeply, you are giving your inmost powers their best opportunity to disclose themselves.

I have my best ideas when I am alone.

Silence is the sleep that nourishes wisdom.

You want to read a book? That requires introspection. It requires time away from people and time away from the constant need to communicate and to connect.

I don't meditate in any formal way, but I often lie in bed or find myself in nature and enter into that state of quiet where I get images, feelings, or melodies.

The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind.

When you walk 10 hours, 11 hours a day by yourself, you are doing a walking meditation.

Sit with silence a lot - real silence, where nothing is happening - because you learn so much in those moments of quiet.

I love just being in the sphere of nothingness looking inwards.

Silence is the necessary soil for any thought to flourish.

Sometimes the only kind of innovation comes when you have some solitude; when you step away.

I wonder about silence. Also about darkness. I love the idea that city lights are a "conspiracy" against higher thoughts.

Quiet time and solitude are vital to helping me keep perspective. I consider myself fortunate to have so much quiet built into my profession. I spend long hours by myself at my easel. And while I work, I think-of the future, of my loved ones, of God's goodness and the many exciting opportunities that surround me. I ponder the challenges I face, the needs of others, the direction my life is going.

What harrowing is after sowing, the same is meditation after hearing--it hides the word.

What I dislike least in my former self are the moments of prayer.

To think is to confine yourself to a single thought that one day stands still like a star in the world's sky.