46 quotes for reflection in 2012

I HAVE AN EASIER TIME reflecting on my life when I’m outside of my everyday setting, whether that’s travel far from home, or just stepping into nature for an hour or two. It’s a gift to allow — even encourage — ourselves to be swept up in such reflective contemplation.

1

Angkor, Cambodia

"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." -Peter F. Drucker

Photo: MikeBehnken

2

Mabry Mill, USA

“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has many; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” -Charles Dickens

Photo: loco's photos

3

Lake Louise, Canada

“Our power lies in our small daily choices, one after another, to create eternal ripples of a life well lived.” -Mollie Marti

Photo: papalars

4

Amsterdam, Netherlands

“With some people solitariness is an escape not from others but from themselves. For they see in the eyes of others only a reflection of themselves.” -Eric Hoffer

Photo: on1stsite.

6

Melbourne, Australia

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” -Mark Twain

Photo: mugley

7

Lobos, Argentina

“A lake is a landscape's most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earth's eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature.” -Henry David Thoreau

Photo: lrargerich

8

Sikkim, India

“I stared at myself in the mirror, wondering what she saw that I didn’t.” -Sherri Lee Emmons

Photo: Sukanto Debnath

9

Huby, England

“One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.” -Lao Tzu

Photo: James Whitesmith

10

Florence, Italy

“A wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those dark, clustered houses encloses it.” -Charles Dickens

Photo: Chi King

11

Mavrovi Anovi, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia

“Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” -Margaret J. Wheatley

Photo: Rilind Hoxha

12

Honolulu, Hawaii

“A day is not always bright, and nights are not always dark. All that matters is what’s inside, because day and night are a reflection of you.” -Avantika

Photo: paul bica

13

Central Singapore

“I believe that our society is merely a reflection of what is going on inside each and every one of us.” -Seal

Photo: MikeBehnken

14

Chicago, USA

“Everybody is like a magnet. You attract to yourself reflections of that which you are. If you’re friendly then everybody else seems to be friendly too." -David R. Hawkins

Photo: Bert Kaufmann

15

Dalheim-Rödgen, Germany

“There are two distinct classes of what are called thoughts: those that we produce in ourselves by reflection and the act of thinking, and those that bolt into the mind of their own accord” -Thomas Paine

Photo: Bert Kaufmann

16

Groningen, Netherlands

“My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all.” -John Lennon

Photo: Bert Kaufmann

17

Gornergrat, Switzerland

“A moment of silence is actually a very loud moment.” -Nouf Alfadl

Photo: Jeff Pang

18

Taj Mahal, India

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” -Confucius

Photo: archer10 (Dennis)

19

Shanghai, China

"I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself." -Francois Truffaut

Photo: MikeBehnken

20

Lower Peirce Reservoir, Singapore

“Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us.” -Alan Cohen

Photo: williamcho

21

Morro Bay, USA

“We always see our worst selves. Our most vulnerable selves. We need someone else to get close enough to tell us we’re wrong. Someone we trust.” -David Levithan

Photo: mikebaird

22

Louvre, France

“When you really listen to another person from their point of view, and reflect back to them that understanding, it’s like giving them emotional oxygen.” -Stephen Covey

Photo: Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ

23

Pisa, Italy

“It is strange to reflect how much energy is thrown away in attempting to know the unknowable.” -Joseph Barber Lightfoot

Photo: the bbp

24

Parc de la Villette, France

“When I reflect on how things have changed, I can’t help but laugh.” -Alexis Korner

Photo: Panoramas

25

Bangkok, Thailand

"Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost." -John Quincy Adams

Photo: MikeBehnken

26

Agrigento, Italy

“Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.” -Indra Devi

Photo: tango-

27

Laval, France

“Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.” -Learned Hand

Photo: laverrue

28

Arteixo, Spain

“Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?” -Bill Watterson

Photo: jl.cernadas

29

Vancouver, Canada

"As social beings we live with our eyes upon our reflection, but have no assurance of the tranquillity of the waters in which we see it." -Charles Horton Cooley

Photo: jonrawlinson

30

Paris, France

“What is the good of experience if you do not reflect?” -Frederick II

Photo: runner310

31

Okmulgee County, USA

“No matter what we have come through, or how many perils we have safely passed, or how many imperfect and jagged – in some places perhaps irreparably – our life has been, we cannot in our heart of hearts imagine how it could have been different. As we look back on it, it slips in behind us in orderly array, and, with all its mistakes, acquires a sort of eternal fitness, and even, at times, of poetic glamour.” -Randolph Silliman Bourne

Photo: FreeWine

32

Yorkshire, England

“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Photo: Paul Stevenson

34

Mississauga, Canada

“We are what our thoughts have made us; so take care about what you think. Words are secondary. Thoughts live; they travel far.” -Swami Vivekananda

Photo: MSVG

35

London, England

“Anybody who has gone through a life-changing experience will tell you there is a different understanding of what is real and what is important, and when you are going through different moments, you can reflect and go, ‘I have been through worse.’” -Delta Goodrem

Photo: fabbio

36

Copenhagen, Denmark

“There’s so many young women today who look so lost. And I feel like, of course they’re lost. They have no one around them to give them real, authentic reflection.”-Courtney Thorne Smith

Photo: Sigfrid Lundberg

37

Nottingham, England

"It is not by muscle, speed or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character and judgment." -Marcus Tullius Cicero

Photo: blinkingidiot

38

Ghuzlani Warrior Training Center, Iraq

“It is always the first and last steps that are the hardest to take. We walk away and try not to turn back, or we stand just outside the gates, terrified to find what’s waiting for us now that we’ve returned. In between, we stumble blindly from one place and life to the next. We try to do the best we can. There are moments like this, however, when we are neither coming nor going, and all we have to do is sit and look back on the life we have made.” -Dinaw Mengestu

Photo: The U.S. Army

39

Sydney, Australia

“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

Photo: Tim J Keegan

40

Cincinnati, USA

“If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.” -Rev. Jesse Jackson

Photo: racingthesun

41

Cornwall, Canada

“If we would only give, just once, the same amount of reflection to what we want to get out of life that we give to the question of what to do with a two weeks’ vacation, we would be startled at our false standards and the aimless procession of our busy days.” -Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Photo: Matt Seppings

42

Dornie, Scotland

“Our souls need time to think, dream, and reflect.” -Jo Ann Davis

Photo: yashima

43

Whistler, Canada

“The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.” -Thomas Merton

Photo: Zach Dischner

44

Hanover, Germany

"Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people." -Albert Einstein

Photo: Sprengben [why not get a friend]

45

South Sikkim, India

“Do not hide your light for fear of what others may think of you. Let it shine and be a reflection of what is possible.” -Kristi Bowman

Photo: Sukanto Debnath

46

Chengde, China

“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.” -Yvonne Woon

Photo: Carlo Alcos