Contemplative

The following quote from Sigmund Freud's book "Civilization and Its Discontents" is the best description of a contemplative and his transcendent role I have ever come across:

"To earth, this weary earth, ye bring us
To guilt ye let us heedless go,
Then leave repentance fierce to wring us:
A moment's guilt, an age of woe! Goethe's "Wilhelm Meister"

"And we may well heave a sigh of relief at the thought that it is nevertheless vouchsafed to a few to salvage without effort from the whirlpool of their own feelings the deepest truths, towards which the rest of us have to find our way through tormenting uncertainty and with restless groping."

I will always remember my grandmother Schweizer quoting Goethe to me. Perhaps she was my inspiration to lead a contemplative life.