Sitting Still Quotes

• Simply wait, be quiet, still The world will freely offer itself to you.

  Franz Kafka

  Suicide, Suicidal, Solitary Life

  85 Copy quote

• There are things we see with our eyes, sitting high and looking out. And there are things we see with our hearts, sitting still and looking in.

  Philip Gulley

  Heart, Eye, Stills

  Philip Gulley (2009). “Signs and Wonders”, p.44, Zondervan

  14 Copy quote

  Show source

• In an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.

  Pico Iyer

  Age, Movement, Constant

  Pico Iyer (2014). “The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere”, p.66, Simon and Schuster

  73 Copy quote

  Show source

• In an age of speed, I began to think nothing could be more exhilarating than going slow. In an age of distraction, nothing can feel more luxurious than paying attention. And in an age of constant movement, nothing is more urgent than sitting still.

  Pico Iyer

  Thinking, Age, Attention

  45 Copy quote

• A thousand secrets are hidden in simply sitting still.

  Karlfried Graf Durckheim

  Secret, Thousand, Stills

  31 Copy quote

• You see more sitting still than chasing after.

  Jonathan Franzen

  Chasing, Stills, Stillness

  "Ten rules for writing fiction". www.theguardian.com. February 20, 2010.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• For me, sitting still is harder than any kind of work.

  Annie Oakley

  Kind, Harder, Stills

  165 Copy quote

• And it’s only by going nowhere - by sitting still or letting my mind relax - that I find that the thoughts that come to me unbidden are far fresher and more imaginative than the ones I consciously seek out.

  Pico Iyer

  Mind, Relax, Imaginative

  Pico Iyer (2014). “The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere”, p.62, Simon and Schuster

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sitting still is a pain in the ass.

  Noah Levine

  Buddhist, Pain, Meditation

  24 Copy quote

• In order to share one's true brilliance one initially has to risk looking like a fool: genius is like a wheel that spins so fast, it at first glance appears to be sitting still.

  Criss Jami

  Order, Risk, Wheels

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.91, Criss Jami

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Writing well involves walking the path of most resistance. Sitting still, being patient, allowing the lunatic dream to take shape on the page, then the shaping, the pencil on the page, breathing, slowing down, being willing–no, more than willing, being wide open–to press the bruise until it blossoms.

  Dani Shapiro

  Dream, Writing, Breathing

  5 Copy quote

• And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting...

  Edgar Allan Poe

  Ravens, Nevermore, Stills

  "The Raven" l. 103 (1845)

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is not by sitting still at a grand distance and calling the human race larvae that men are to be helped.

  Albert Einstein

  Distance, Men, Race

  4 Copy quote

• When I was little, like Maleficent, I was told that I was different - and I felt out of place, and too loud, too full of fire, never good at sitting still, never good at fitting in. And then one day I realized something, something I hope you all realize. Different is good.

  Angelina Jolie

  Fire, One Day, Maleficent

  Angelina Jolie's speech at the Kids' Choice Awards, time.com. March 29, 2015.

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• The powered flight took a total of about eight and a half minutes. It seemed to me it had gone by in a lash. We had gone from sitting still on the launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center to traveling at 17,500 miles an hour in that eight and a half minutes. It is still mind-boggling to me. I recall making some statement on the air-to-ground radio for the benefit of my fellow astronauts, who had also been in the program a long time, that it was well worth the wait.

  Robert Crippen

  Airplane, Eight, Space

  9 Copy quote

• I have discovered that sitting still leaves little spaces for the grief to get in, so I stay busy.

  Veronica Roth

  Grief, Space, Littles

  Veronica Roth (2012). “Insurgent Collector's Edition (Enhanced Edition)”, p.52, Harper Collins

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sitting still as stone watching - watching
  People walking by you wondering why
  No one ever stops to talk or thinks about it - if they ever did

  Dave Matthews

  Thinking, People, Stones

  12 Copy quote

• Growing up, road trips with Dad were something I hated. Sitting still for hours, singing that stupid song, "100 bottles of beer on the wall. 100 bottles of beer..." Dad, you know, keeping up with the song.

  Christopher Titus

  Song, Wall, Growing Up

  "Titus", www.imdb.com. 2000-2002.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• I would like to sit still for a while but I'm restless you know and sitting still is only an ideal like celibacy and complete cleanliness.

  John Steinbeck

  Celibacy, Cleanliness, Restless

  5 Copy quote

• I've never really been settled. I don't think I've ever known what it was like to be a person that was used to sitting still. I think it's given me the ability to detach from any situation.

  Trey Songz

  Thinking, Used, Given

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• I know that anybody who does all this and doesn't have to, everything thinks she's very driven. The truth is, I enjoy it all so! Can't it be that simple? I think it is! I don't feel overworked. I get a constant kick out of being heavily committed. Is that sick or something? God, what would I do sitting still?

  Beverly Sills

  Work, Passion, Simple

  4 Copy quote

• There's a difference in how I feel when I'm travelling and when I'm sitting still. I've been doing it for such a long time it has become a part of my life. It gets a bit hectic depending on where I am, you know, like there's different parts of the world that's more stimulating than other parts.

  Tina Turner

  Differences, Long, Different

  "Tina Turner 'Speaks Up' in 1985". Interview with Peter Panton for Speak Up Magazine, tinaturnerblog.com. 1985.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I wish I could write while I'm on the road but it never works for me. I need to be sitting still.

  Jami Attenberg

  Writing, Wish, Needs

  "Go forth (Vol.10)". Interview with Nicolle Elizabeth, logger.believermag.com. June 5, 2013.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is cruelty to children to keep five-year-olds sitting still, gazing into vacancy even for one hour at a time. We have little idea of the torture we thus inflict.

  Ellen Swallow Richards

  Children, Years, Ideas

  8 Copy quote

• It is a singular reaction, this sitting still and writing, writing, writing, or ruminating at length, which is much the same, really.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Writing, Length, Reactions

  Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1968). “Nabokov's congeries”

  5 Copy quote

  Show source