“There are no plains in the spiritual life; we are either going uphill or coming down. Furthermore the pose of indifference is only intellectual. The will must choose. And even though an "indifferent" soul does not positively reject the infinite, the infinite rejects it.”

— Fulton J. Sheen

Source: Peace of Soul (1949), Ch. 2, p. 20

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 8, 2022. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "There are no plains in the spiritual life; we are either going uphill or coming down. Furthermore the pose of indiffere…" by Fulton J. Sheen?

Fulton J. Sheen 78

Catholic bishop and television presenter 1895–1979

Related quotes

“Indifference to life and indifference to the purity and amenity that sweeten existence must necessarily go together.”

Robert Chambers (publisher, born 1802) (1802–1871) Scottish publisher and writer

Source: Sanitary Economy (1850), p. 17

“It is infinitely better to have a few good men than many indifferent ones.”

George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States

Letter to James McHenry (10 August 1798)
1790s

“Stillness does not come and go. It is we who come and go. Stillness abides, like a vast evenness, limpid and pure. It is a transcendent realm of infinite clarity.”

Silouan Oner (1970) Antiochian Orthodox metropolitan

No. 60, in "A Century on the Wisdom of Stillness"

“For man to be able to live he must either not see the infinite, or have such an explanation of the meaning of life as will connect the finite with the infinite.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: Confession (1882), Ch. 9

“But that afternoon he asked himself, with his infinite capacity for illusion, if such pitiless indifference might not be a subterfuge for hiding the torments of love.”

Gabriel García Márquez book Love in the Time of Cholera

Source: Love in the Time of Cholera

“To the ceremonial aspects of Jewish religion Jesus was either indifferent or hostile; the thought of the prophets was the spiritual food that he assimilated”

Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918) United States Baptist theologian

Source: Christianity and the Social Crisis (1907), Ch.1 The Historical Roots of Christianity the Hebrew Prophets, p. 3
Context: To the ceremonial aspects of Jewish religion Jesus was either indifferent or hostile; the thought of the prophets was the spiritual food that he assimilated in his own process of growth. With them he linked his points of view, the convictions which he regarded as axiomatic.... The real meaning of his life and the real direction of his purposes can be understood only in that historical connection.