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70 phrases of reflection to think and philosophize

70 phrases of reflection to think and philosophize

March 29, 2024

There are many elements and aspects of our life that involve doubts and conflicts . It is usual to ask ourselves the how, when, why and for what, reflecting on many facets of our life and what happens around us. Where we are? Why do we live? Where we go? What happens after death? Who I am? How should we live? Why there is love or hate? What do I feel and why?

Throughout history a great amount of reflections have arisen regarding these and other topics, be they more daily or more transcendental. In this article We collect a series of reflection phrases that can inspire us and allow to see how other people have visualized the world.


  • Related article: "123 wise phrases to reflect on life"

The best reflection phrases to think about

Below we present a small collection of reflection phrases that have been made by people of all types and conditions throughout history, many of which are pronounced by world-renowned personalities.

1. Being deeply loved gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage

Lao Tzu reflects the great power that love has in our lives.

  • Related article: "The theory of Yin and Yang"

2. The happiness of your life depends on the quality of your thoughts

Phrase attributed to Marco Aurelio, reflects what we think and how we react to the world what allows us to become happy or not.


3. The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge

Stephen Hawking phrase that reflects that it is worse to mistakenly believe that you know something than to directly ignore it.

4. Sometimes we feel that what we do is just a drop in the sea, but the sea would be much less if it lacked a drop

Maria Teresa of Calcutta He uttered this phrase to reflect on the fact that we are all important .

5. Desire only serves as long as it is directed towards the action that satisfies it

Jorge Bucay's phrase that indicates that desire and dreaming is only useful if we dare to carry out actions that allow us to get closer to them.

6. It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory will be yours

Reflection of Buddha that expresses the need to be able to overcome our own limitations and fears and dare to be as we are.


7. Life is not about finding yourself, but about creating yourself

A phrase by George Bernard Shaw that emphasizes the fact that we are not made in a pre-established form but that we forge ourselves throughout life.

8. The wise man does not say everything he thinks, but always thinks everything he says

Aristotle proposes to reflect before speaking, so that we are aware of what we say and its consequences.

9. If you know why you fall in love, you are not in love

Pavarotti phrase, which expresses that love feels and does not think.

10. With morality we correct the errors of our instincts, and with love the errors of our moral

José Ortega y Gasset says that ultimately we are guided by what love, our feelings and emotions dictate to us.

11. There is nothing good or bad, it is human thought that makes it appear like this

Shakespeare expresses that our valuations of things are completely subjective , not being universal truths.

12. Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and putting one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world

Goethe expresses the great difficulty and value of exposing oneself to putting into practice what we think and living according to what we believe.

13. It is easy to see the faults of others, but how difficult it is to see our own. We exhibit the faults of others as the wind scatters the straw, while we hide ours as the cheating player hides his dice.

Buddha phrase that expresses that we usually criticize other people's faults when we ourselves commit many others and we do not see them.

14. In life, man is elastic and evolves. At the moment of death he is rigid and immutable. Plants in the sun are flexible and fibrous but they perish dry and cracked. That is why the elastic and flexible is associated with life and the rigid and immutable gives the mana to death

Lao Tse expresses the need to be flexible and be able to adapt to changes, leaving aside rigidity and accepting new possibilities.

15. I've noticed that even people who say that everything is predestined and that we can not do anything to change our destiny just look before crossing the street

Reflection on the non-existence of fate as something written and invariable by Stephen Hawking.

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16. Without reflection we blindly go our way, creating more unintended consequences and achieving nothing useful

Margaret Wheatley exposes us the need to reflect in order that our actions serve for something positive .

17. In the end it is not the years in our life that count, but life in our years

Abraham Lincoln expresses that what matters is what we do with our life so that it is lived and satisfying, more than the time we have for it.

18. It always seems impossible until it is done

Nelson Mandela expresses that we have to risk trying to achieve our goals even if nobody has achieved it before. Only what we do not try is impossible.

19. In life sometimes you win, sometimes you learn

John Maxwell phrase that reflects that not succeed in our companies does not mean losing or failure, but offers an opportunity to improve.

20. To live is to be born at every moment

Erich Fromm phrase that indicates that we are constantly learning and adjusting our way of seeing the world.

21. Our complexes are the source of our weakness, but they are often also the source of our strength

Sigmund Freud pushes us to face our complexes and see them as a source of learning and strengthening.

22. There are three phrases that prevent us from moving forward: I have to do it well, you have to treat me well and the world must be easy

Albert Ellis reflects on the dysfunctional beliefs that we have and that hinder our life and adaptation to the world.

23. The search for excellence is motivating, the pursuit of perfection is demoralizing

Harriet Braiker phrase that reflects that trying to achieve perfection ends up exhausting who does it, never being able to reach their goal.

24. Do not waste your time, because of that matter life is formed

Benjamin Franklin pushes us to not waste time and do what is important for us, having a limited time.

25. Our reward lies in the effort and not in the result: a total effort is a complete victory

Gandhi explained with this phrase that what matters is not the goal but the path we use to reach it.

26. What we know is a drop of water, what we ignore is the ocean

Sir Isaac Newton says that we really know very little about the world, and even that knowledge can be totally wrong.

27. If you send reinforcements everywhere, you will be weak everywhere

This phrase is part of "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu. Express the need to focus on something instead of devoting minimal effort to different aspects or domains.

28. I know like the bird that, stopping its flight for a while in branches too weak, feels how it yields under its weight and nevertheless sings, knowing that it has wings

Victor Hugo says that we must be aware of our strength and our great potential , which will lead us to reach our goals even though at present we do not have sufficient means to do so.

29. If you cry for losing the sun, tears will not let you see the stars

Rabindranath Tagore indicates that we should not let ourselves be submerged by situations, but we should try to be aware that there are multiple possibilities and opportunities beyond loss.

30. If you do not live dangerously, you do not live. Life only blooms in danger. Life never blooms in safety.

Osho proposes that not taking risks can allow you to be sure, but not to enjoy the great opportunities that life can offer us.

31. We are just a race of advanced monkeys on a planet smaller than an average star. But we can understand the universe. That makes us very special

Hawkings tells us that although we are only a small part of the universe, but a part capable of great things.

32. Luck is what happens when preparation and opportunity meet and merge

Voltaire indicates with this phrase that luck is given not only by chance but by being prepared to take advantage of the opportunity.

33. Do you want to be rich? Well, do not be anxious to increase your assets but to decrease your greed

Phrase of Epicurus that urges us to stop our ambition to enjoy what we have

34. To love is not only to want, it is above all to understand

Phrase by François Sagan that reflects the need for understand something or someone to truly love him .

  • Related article: "The 4 types of love: what different kinds of love are there?"

35. The most common lie is that with which a man deceives himself. Deceiving others is a relatively vain defect

Nietzsche indicates that man often deceives himself to facilitate existence.

36. Stop thinking and finish your problems

Lao Tzu indicates that we must stop thinking about everything, because excessive reflection and concern is usually the origin of many of our current problems.

37. Happiness is achieved when what one thinks, what one says and what one does are in harmony

Gandhi emphasizes the need to be true to oneself.

38. Happiness is not the absence of problems, it is the ability to deal with them

Steve Maraboli phrase that indicates that contrary to what many believe Being happy does not mean not suffering difficulties .

39. Your task is not to seek love, but to seek and find the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

The poet Yalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi refers in this sentence to that despite the fact that most people seek love, he does not realize that he often puts up barriers that make it difficult to find him.

40. It is won and lost, it is raised and lowered, it is born and it dies. And if the story is so simple, why do you worry so much?

This phrase of Facundo Cabral makes reference to the unnecessary thing of worrying about everything that happens, instead of accepting what comes.

41. I'll go anywhere, as long as it's forward

The famous explorer David Livingstone reflects the need to move forward and not stagnate in life.

42. The true wisdom is in recognizing one's own ignorance

Socrates saw the recognition of his own limits as something worthy of wisdom, being against the pretense of knowing many intellectual assumptions.

43. Long is the way of teaching by means of theories; brief and effective by means of examples

Seneca reflected on the best ways to learn and concluded that learning that becomes meaningful through clear examples for learners is much more effective than merely memorizing.

44. Everyone who enjoys it believes that what matters of the tree is the fruit, when in reality it is the seed. Here is the difference between those who believe and those who enjoy

Friedrich Nietzsche indicates that whoever thinks and believes is able to see the basis of things and does not remain merely superficial.

45. How small you are blade of grass. Yes, but I have the whole Earth at my feet

Rabindranath Tagore expresses that for small that we can see, we have a lot of opportunities to take advantage of in our life that can take us practically wherever we want.

46. ​​Our lives are defined by opportunities, even those we lose

This phrase by Scott Fitzgerald shows that we must think that both what we do and what is not part of and shapes our life.

47. All our lives began with human affection as the first support. Children who grow up wrapped in affection, smile more and are nicer. They are generally more balanced

The Dalai Lama reflects the fact that we all need, especially in our first steps, the human warmth and love.

48. If you are looking for different results, do not always do the same

Albert Einstein reflects the need to change what we do if we want to achieve different things. Persisting in the same attitudes will not change things .

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49. If you cheat me once, it's your fault; If you cheat on me, it's mine

Anaxagoras indicated that we should not be naive and that we should be careful not to take advantage of us.

50. Keep in mind that great love and great achievements require great risks

Achieving great goals requires effort, risk and sacrifice, as the Dalai Lama said.

51. Let us thank the people that make us happy; they are the lovely gardeners who make our soul bloom

Proust makes us reflect on those who are close to us and make life happy.

52. I do not share your opinion, but I would give my life to defend your right to express it

Voltaire reflects on the right that we should all have to be able to think what we want freely.

53. No person deserves your tears, and whoever deserves them will not make you cry

Gabriel García Márquez said this phrase, indicating that whoever deserves our affection will be whoever loves us and will not harm us unless it is necessary.

54. The worrying thing is not the perversity of the evil ones but the indifference of the good ones

Martin Luther King makes us reflect on the need to fight for what we believe to be fair and not turn a blind eye against injustice.

55. One has no right to love and hate anything but a deep knowledge of his nature has been acquired

Leonardo Da Vinci believes that we should not rush to appreciate or despise things without striving to understand them before

56. Happiness is interior, not exterior, therefore it does not depend on what we have, but on what we are

Be happy, according to Pablo Neruda , it depends on how we feel with ourselves and with the world.

57. I'm not black, I'm a man

Again another phrase of Martin Luther King that makes us think about labels, prejudices, discrimination and segregation of people based on socially established categories even though we are all people.

58. Only fools believe that silence is a void. It is never empty. And sometimes the best way to communicate is by shutting

Eduardo Galeano phrase that reflects that even the absence of communication is communicating something.

59. Man is born free and everywhere is chained

This phrase of Jean-Jacques Rousseau makes us reflect on the different aspects of our life that often enchain us and make it difficult for us to be ourselves.

60. I love you not for who you are, but for who I am when I am with you

Romantic phrase by Gabriel García Márquez that reflects that love makes us see the world with another perspective, regardless of how the person is loved.

61. I never think about the future. Arrives too early

Albert Einstein tells us that worrying too much about the future is useless because sooner rather than later it will eventually arrive, we worry about it or not.

62. There is a secret to living happily with the beloved: do not pretend to modify it

The poet Dante Aligheri It expresses the importance of not trying to change those we love and accept it as it is.

63. A man who does not think for himself does not think at all

Oscar Wilde reflects the need to think autonomously without depending on the thoughts of others.

64. If I had observed all the rules, I would not have gotten anywhere

Marilyn Monroe reflects that sometimes it is necessary to challenge what is established in order to move forward.

65. No matter what you do in life, do it wholeheartedly

Confucius indicates in this sentence the need to put effort in everything we do.

66. Now you think you can or think you can not, you're right

Henry Ford indicates the importance of believing in our own opportunities.

67. Mystery is the most beautiful thing we can experience. It is the source of all true art and science

Einstein makes us see that it is the unknown and mysterious of life that makes us move forward, finding new things to see and discover and new ways of trying to understand them.

68. I have not failed. I've just found ten thousand ways that do not work

Phrase attributed to Thomas Edison in that it reflects that not guessing is not a failure but it serves to learn .

69. We all have a secret kept locked in the attic of our soul

Phrase of Carlos Ruiz Zafón that reflects that we all have secrets and parts that we reserve only for ourselves.

70. Think of all the beauty that is still around you and be happy

Despite what happens, we can always find some beauty in life, as Anne Frank reminds us in this phrase.


Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - Complete Audiobook (March 2024).


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