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. ![]()
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Angkor, Cambodia
"Follow effective action with quiet reflection. From the quiet reflection will come even more effective action." -Peter F. DruckerPhoto: MikeBehnken
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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 DickensPhoto: loco's photos
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Lake Louise, Canada
“Our power lies in our small daily choices, one after another, to create eternal ripples of a life well lived.” -Mollie MartiPhoto: papalars
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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 HofferPhoto: on1stsite.
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Melbourne, Australia
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” -Mark TwainPhoto: mugley
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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 ThoreauPhoto: lrargerich
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Sikkim, India
“I stared at myself in the mirror, wondering what she saw that I didn’t.” -Sherri Lee EmmonsPhoto: Sukanto Debnath
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Huby, England
“One can not reflect in streaming water. Only those who know internal peace can give it to others.” -Lao TzuPhoto: James Whitesmith
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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 DickensPhoto: 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. WheatleyPhoto: 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.” -AvantikaPhoto: paul bica
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Central Singapore
“I believe that our society is merely a reflection of what is going on inside each and every one of us.” -SealPhoto: MikeBehnken
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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. HawkinsPhoto: Bert Kaufmann
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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 PainePhoto: Bert Kaufmann
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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 LennonPhoto: Bert Kaufmann
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Gornergrat, Switzerland
“A moment of silence is actually a very loud moment.” -Nouf AlfadlPhoto: Jeff Pang
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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.” -ConfuciusPhoto: archer10 (Dennis)
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Shanghai, China
"I have always preferred the reflection of the life to life itself." -Francois TruffautPhoto: MikeBehnken
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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 CohenPhoto: williamcho
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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 LevithanPhoto: mikebaird
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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 CoveyPhoto: Peggy2012CREATIVELENZ
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Pisa, Italy
“It is strange to reflect how much energy is thrown away in attempting to know the unknowable.” -Joseph Barber LightfootPhoto: the bbp
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Parc de la Villette, France
“When I reflect on how things have changed, I can’t help but laugh.” -Alexis KornerPhoto: Panoramas
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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 AdamsPhoto: MikeBehnken
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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 DeviPhoto: tango-
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Laval, France
“Words are chameleons, which reflect the color of their environment.” -Learned HandPhoto: laverrue
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Arteixo, Spain
“Did you ever wonder if the person in the puddle is real, and you're just a reflection of him?” -Bill WattersonPhoto: jl.cernadas
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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 CooleyPhoto: jonrawlinson
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Paris, France
“What is the good of experience if you do not reflect?” -Frederick IIPhoto: runner310
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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 BournePhoto: FreeWine
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Yorkshire, England
“Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.” -H. Jackson Brown, Jr.Photo: Paul Stevenson
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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 VivekanandaPhoto: MSVG
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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 GoodremPhoto: fabbio
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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 SmithPhoto: Sigfrid Lundberg
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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 CiceroPhoto: blinkingidiot
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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 MengestuPhoto: The U.S. Army
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Sydney, Australia
“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” ― Søren KierkegaardPhoto: Tim J Keegan
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Cincinnati, USA
“If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it.” -Rev. Jesse JacksonPhoto: racingthesun
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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 FisherPhoto: Matt Seppings
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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 MertonPhoto: Zach Dischner
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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 EinsteinPhoto: Sprengben [why not get a friend]
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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 BowmanPhoto: Sukanto Debnath
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Chengde, China
“Sometimes, you have to look back in order to understand the things that lie ahead.” -Yvonne WoonPhoto: Carlo Alcos












quote 11.. (Mavrovi Anovi, Macedonia)…..the name of the country is FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), not simply “Macedonia”.
quote 11.. (Mavrovi Anovi, Macedonia)…..the name of the country is FYROM (Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), not simply “Macedonia”.
Thanks for the correction.
I really enjoyed this post and will continue to reflect on it throughout 2013. Thank you.