Paul Simon Quotes

I think you need to have the guts to not use comedy. Often, the people that work in comedy use a joke to avoid contemplation.

The old grey donkey, Eeyore stood by himself in a thistly corner of the Forest, his front feet well apart, his head on one side, and thought about things. Sometimes he thought sadly to himself, "Why?" and sometimes he thought, "Wherefore?" and sometimes he thought, "Inasmuch as which?" and sometimes he didn't quite know what he was thinking about.

They only babble who practise not reflection.

I like melancholy. I like to pretend that I'm alone in the world and I'm just sort of abandoned.

There is something sinister, something quite biographical about what I do - but that part is for me. It's my personal business. I think there is a lot of romance, melancholy. There's a sadness to it, but there's romance in sadness. I suppose I am a very melancholy person.

To think of shadows is a serious thing.

I wasn't an easy, happy-go-lucky girl because I used to think about everything so much, and I think I probably still do.

The winding down of summer puts me in a heavy philosophical mood.

Melancholy is a state that I very much enjoy being in, actually. It's not the same as feeling sad. It's a more complex emotion; it derives from a tragic view of the world, a tragic view of art.

I sit at my window gazing The world passes by, nods to me And is gone.

We have everything we need, in fact, except the most important thing of all — time to think and the habit of thought.

We skim over the surface thoughtlessly. But we must acknowledge that thinking well is a time-consuming process. We can't expect instant results. We have to slow down a bit, and take the time to contemplate, meditate, and even pray. It is the only route to a more meaningful and efficient existence.

Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.

Most persons who indulge in second thought don't do much thinking when the subject is presented for first thought.

The observations and encounters of a devotee of solitude and silence are at once less distinct and more penetrating than those of the sociable man; his thoughts are weightier, stranger, and never without a tinge of sadness. Images and perceptions which might otherwise be easily dispelled by a glance, a laugh, an exchange of comments, concern him unduly, they sink into mute depths, take on significance, become experiences, adventures, emotions.

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

Time given to thought is the greatest time saver of all.

Oh look at how she listens She says nothing of what she thinks She just goes stumbling through her memories Staring out on to Grey Street

Some nights are made for torture, or reflection, or the savoring of loneliness.

I had a thought, on the way home from the rock field, that the things we don't know about a person are the things that make them human, and it made me feel sad to think that, but sad in that reassuring way that some sadness has, a sadness that says welcome home in twelve different languages.

Whenever I'm out-of-doors and find myself wanting to have a first-rate think, I fling myself down on my back, throw my arms and legs out so that I look like an asterisk, and gaze at the sky.

The ground of all great thoughts is sadness.

Only the thinking man lives his life, the thoughtless man's life passes him by.

There is one art of which people should be masters - the art of reflection.

When to the sessions of sweet silent thought I summon up remembrance of things past, I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought.