Pico Iyer Quotes

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

My goal is to get quieter as I get older.

We have so committed ourselves in different ways that we have hardly any time for self-reflection, to observe, to study.

Its never too late to take a moment to look.

To read your own mind is to look at your self and read your soul. Hatred becomes love and that is the path I am working on

Going nowhere isn’t about turning your back on the world; it’s about stepping away now and then so that you can see the world more clearly and love it more deeply.

Meditation is like the cloak of the good thief. You find a corner or somewhere where you can actually entertain your own self and your own soul, and understand what your work [is] here.

When the act of reflection takes place in the mind, when we look at ourselves in the light of thought, we discover that our life is embosomed in beauty.

I caught up on a lot of just domestic normal everyday stuff, and grew up a lot, and went to therapy, and did a lot of contemplating and figuring things out. I needed to just strip everything away and figure out who I am and get to know myself, as cheesy as that sounds.

I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself.

In my personal life, I am very contemplative.

I've kept a diary since I was 11. It's a way of taking stock, almost meditative, trying to make sense of stuff because life is chaotic.

It's very important for people to know what gives them meaning. But it's hard for people to figure out if you're not connecting with yourself and taking the time to just be introspective and daydream.

Solitude helps you reflect.

To develop our real selves, we need time alone for thought and meditation. To be always giving out and never pumping in, the well runs dry.

If you do not go within, you without

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.

Action and contemplation are very close companions; they live together in one house on equal terms. Martha and Mary are sisters.

Gently resist the temptation to chase your dreams into the world; pursue them in your heart until they disappear into the Self, and leave them there.

Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.

Strive to close the eyes of the body and open those of the soul and look into your own heart.

I sometimes pray not for self-knowledge in general but for just so much self knowledge at the moment as I can bear and use at the moment; the little daily dose.

When you feel the desire for power, you should stay in solitude for some time

It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness; to sit on a rock in the forest and to ask of himself, 'Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I going?'...If one is not careful, one allows diversions to take up one's time-the stuff of life

The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.