Our lives today are so busy that the idea of stillness might seem like something people talk about but never really experience for long.
It can feel elusive, even when we try to find it ourselves.
However, despite the noise of notifications, paperwork, life admin, work, and the hum of technology, the pursuit of stillness can help us find some calm in the storm and give us the headspace to relax and decompress.
Stillness itself is not simply the absence of movement or sound. It’s a deep state of calm and a feeling of balance.
It’s pursuit, in many ways, is a counter-narrative to the hustle of modern life and the philosophy of “more, faster, quicker”.
In the words of the ancient Taoist sage Lao Tzu, “To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders.”
Here are more quotes to help you find it yourself:
Quotes on Stillness:
“Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity”
– Lao Tzu
“Go deeply into the urge to be silent and not the mental interference of how, where and when. If you follow silence to its source you can be taken by it in a moment.”
– Jean Klein
“Meditation in the midst of activity is a thousand times superior to meditation in stillness.”
– Hakuin Ekaku
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more; Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger.”
– William Shakespeare
“Within you there is a stillness and sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself”
– Hermann Hesse
“Look at a tree, a flower, a plant. Let your awareness rest upon it. How still they are, how deeply rooted in Being. Allow nature to teach you stillness.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“Stillness, is not the absence of movement or sound. It’s not about focusing on nothingness; it’s about creating a physical and emotional clearing to allow ourselves to feel, think, dream and question.”
– Brené Brown
“Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance.”
– Morgan Freeman
“The stillness in stillness is not the real stillness; only when there is stillness in movement does the universal rhythm manifest.”
– Bruce Lee
“First you recognize stillness, then you are it. You feel yourself as autonomous, that is, not identified with what is all around you. And now true relation is possible.”
– Jean Klein
“Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great.”
– Leonard Bernstein
“Be the silent watcher of your thoughts and behavior. You are beneath the thinker. You are the stillness beneath the mental noise.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“A mind that has come to the stillness of wisdom shall know being, shall know what it is to love. Love is neither personal nor impersonal. Love is love, not to be defined or described by the mind as exclusive or inclusive. Love is its own eternity; it is the real, the supreme, the immeasurable.”
– Aldous Huxley
“That’s what I think is the biggest challenge, is just being still and learning how to just be present in that stillness and not over do it, not over act.”
– Andy Serkis
“The collapsing of an empire. This changing word moves inexorably on. Thoughts bubble and the stiller the mind the more palpable the dazzling torrent of life becomes.”
– Stephen Batchelor
“To know yourself as the Being underneath the thinker, the stillness underneath the mental noise, the love and joy underneath the pain, is freedom, salvation, enlightenment.”
– Eckhart Tolle
“The inner is foundation of the outer
The still is master of the restless
The Sage travels all day
yet never leaves his inner treasure”
– Lao Tzu
