For it seemed to me as if then first I stood at a distance and aloof from the uproar of life; as if the tumult, the fever, and the strife were suspended; a respite granted from the secret burthens of the heart; a sabbath of repose; a resting from human labours. Here were the hopes which blossom in the paths of life reconciled with the peace which is in the grave; motions of the intellect as unwearied as the heavens, yet for all anxieties a halcyon calm; a tranquillity that seemed no product of inertia, but as if resulting from mighty and equal antagonisms; infinite activities, infinite repose.

Stillness is the altar of spirit.

Stillness is neither thought nor the cessation of thought. Stillness stands steadfast as wisdom when the heart is luminous and clear. Uncontrived and unfabricated, wisdom is overlooked by blind oblivion. Stillness is not one state opposed to another. It is not an external phenomenon. It is incomprehensible and ineffable because at root, it is uncreated and unconditioned. It unifies, so as to ground what is integral. It illumines, so as to clarify what is translucent. It glorifies, to liberate the glorified. It deifies, to transfigure the deified.

Whenever there is stillness there is the still small voice, God's speaking from the whirlwind, nature's old song, and dance...

Let us then love stillness, my brethren,

Stillness is an undisturbed state of the intellect,

Stillness is neither dissipation nor dislocation. She is neither exclusion nor suppression. She is neither addiction to confusion nor fixation on separation. Stillness is ineffable freedom. Everything is ineffably free in true stillness. She is inexhaustible. She is endless. ‘After fire, a still small voice.’

So, true stillness is of God, from God, and wholly in God. With this we begin to enter into our rest. We begin to rest in peace. We begin to taste the bright mysteries of holy dying, that overcome death through death. Stillness is resurrection. It overcomes death by death. It reveals glory to wisdom. It unveils vision and wonder. Such wonder binds confused, divided thoughts. It is serene.

There is in stillness oft a magic power
To calm the breast, when struggling passions lower;
Touch'd by its influence, in the soul arise
Diviner feelings, kindred with the skies.

A pure, sincere, and stable spirit is not distracted though it be employed in many works; for that it works all to the honor of God, and inwardly being still and quiet, seeks not itself in any thing it doth.

Be still. Stillness reveals the secrets of eternity

Stillness is the foundation of understanding and insight.

On the thought a blessed silence came, an empty clarity. He took it a first for utter desolation, but desolation was a type of free fall, perpetual and without ground below. This was stillness: balanced, solid, weirdly serene. No momentum to it at all, forward or backwards or sideways.

He lay drained of tension, not moving, and content to be so. The oddly stretched moment was like a bite of eternity, eaten on the run. Was this quiet place inside something new-grown, or had he just never stumbled upon it before? How could so vast a thing lay undiscovered for so long? His breathing slowed and deepened.

Oh solitude, that noble peace of the mind! He loved the throng and multitude of the day: he loved people: but sometimes he suspected that he loved them as God doesat a judicious distance.