Henri Nouwen: Quotes about love

Henri Nouwen was Dutch priest and writer. Explore interesting quotes on love.

Henri Nouwen: 46 quotes4 likes

“We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval.”

Bread For the Journey (1996)
Context: We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn’t approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God’s love.

“What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.”

Henri Nouwen

In the Name of Jesus (1989)

“Your body needs to be held and to hold, to be touched and to touch. None of these needs is to be despised, denied, or repressed. But you have to keep searching for your body's deeper need, the need for genuine love. Every time you are able to go beyond the body's superficial desires for love, you are bringing your body home and moving toward integration and unity.”

Henri Nouwen

The Inner Voice of Love

“My hope is that the description of God's love in my life will give you the freedom and the courage to discover... God's love in yours.”

Henri Nouwen

Here and Now: Living in the Spirit (1994), pg. 175