Character and Conduct – 30 January – The Art of Being Quiet

IT is only when we begin to think about life, and how we should live, that the art of being quiet assumes its real value;  to the irrational creature it is nothing, to the rational it is much.   In the first place, it removes what De Quincey, with his usual grand felicity of expression, calls ‘the burden of that distraction which lurks in the infinite littleness of details.’   It is the infinite littleness of details which takes the glory and the dignity from our common life, and which we who value that life for its own sake and for the sake of its great Giver must strive to make finite.

Since unconscious life is not possible to the intellectual adult, as it is to the child – since he cannot go on living without a thought about the nature of his own being, its end and aim – it is good for him to cultivate a habit of repose, that he may think and feel like a man putting away those childish things – the carelessness, the thoughtless joy, ‘the tear forgot as soon as shed, which, however beautiful, because appropriate, in childhood, are not beautiful because not appropriate in mature age.

The art of being quiet is necessary to enable a man to possess his own soul in peace and integrity – to examine himself, to understand what gifts God has endowed him with, and to consider how he may best employ them in the business of the world.   This is its universal utility.   It is unwholesome activity which requires not repose and thoughtful quiet as its forerunner, and every man should secure some portion of each day for voluntary retirement and repose within himself.

Life Here and Hereafter, Canon MacCOLL

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These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing the her readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.