Can have involuntary physical symptoms, e.g. goosebumps, a lump in the throat, stammering, even tears.

Sometimes considered an important ingredient of or inspiration for the religious experience.

Can be frightening, humbling, overwhelming, even terrible; but often described as ecstatic, joyful, appreciative.

Awe might be considered also an extreme of admiration: e.g. like you might feel for a top-caliber acrobat or musician.

Sometimes considered a variety of "peak experience".

Complementary virtues¶

• aesthetic appreciation
• elevation
• reverence
• wonder

Contrasting vices¶

• arrogance / pride
• cynicism
• small-mindedness
• being unmoved
• world-weariness

Virtues possibly in tension¶

TBD

How to acquire or strengthen it¶

TBD

Notes and links¶

• The wonder stuff: what I learned about happiness from a month of ‘awe walks’
• Philosophers & psychologists on awe
• Start your day with awe
• Awe and Sublimity
• D. Keltner & J. Haidt “Approaching awe, a moral, spiritual, and aesthetic emotion” Cognition & Emotion (2003) pp. 297-314

Mentioned elsewhere¶

TBD

Inspirational quotes¶

• “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.” ―Albert Einstein
• “Watch the stars in their courses and imagine yourself running alongside them. Think constantly on the changes of the elements into each other, for such thoughts wash away the dust of earthly life.” —Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.47