Reflection quotes
1.6K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Browse quotes that often appear alongside reflection — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"My discovery of Tarkovsky's first film was like a miracle. Suddenly, I found myself standing at the door of a room the keys of which had, until then, never been given to me. It was a room I had always wanted to enter and where he was moving freely and fully at ease."
"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."
"Eloquence, at its highest pitch, leaves little room for reason or reflection, but addresses itself entirely to the desires and affections, captivating the willing hearers, and subduing their understanding."
"If you want to sing out, sing out, and if you want to be free, be free, cause there's a million ways to be, you know that there are."
"To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is."
"It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment."
"How people treat other people is a direct reflection of how they feel about themselves."
"Liberation is a praxis: the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it."
"Men seek for vocabularies that are reflections of reality. To this end, they must develop vocabularies that are selections of reality. And any selection of reality must, in certain circumstances, function as a deflection of reality."
"Books ARE a form of political action. Books are knowledge. Books are reflection. Books change your mind."
"People of the world don't look at themselves, and so they blame one another."
"When you do The Work, you see who you are by seeing who you think other people are. Eventually you come to see that everything outside you is a reflection of your own thinking. You are the storyteller, the projector of all stories, and the world is the projected image of your thoughts."
"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."
"The mirror reflects all objects without being sullied"
"Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose he knows not, though he sometimes thinks he senses it. But without deeper reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people."
"Lord Byron is only great as a poet; as soon as he reflects he is a child."
"Make sure the outside of you is a good reflection of the inside of you"
"There’s something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. It’s a different perspective. It is a reflection as opposed to an interpretation, and I think we get a lot of interpretations about the lives of women that are not coming from women."
"I gazed at every mirror on the planet, not one gave back my reflection."
"Within the word we find two dimensions-reflection and action. If one is sacrificed even in part, the other immediately suffers. To speak a true word is to transform the world."
