Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia
On the Nomination of Archbishop Basilios (19 January 1951)
Source: 1930s- 1950s, Landmarks of Tomorrow: A Report on the New 'Post-Modern' World (1959), p. 126
Haile Selassie (1892–1975) Emperor of Ethiopia
On the Nomination of Archbishop Basilios (19 January 1951)
“We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.”
Stephen R. Covey (1932–2012) American educator, author, businessman and motivational speaker
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, in The Phenomenon of Man [Le Phénomène Humain] (1955); Covey quotes this in Living the 7 Habits : Stories of Courage and Inspiration (2000), p. 47
Variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.
A paraphrase of De Chardin's statement which has also become misattributed to Covey.
Misattributed
Variant: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest
This is attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin in The Joy of Kindness (1993), by Robert J. Furey, p. 138; but it is attributed to G. I. Gurdjieff in Beyond Prophecies and Predictions: Everyone's Guide To The Coming Changes (1993) by Moira Timms, p. 62; neither cite a source. It was widely popularized by Wayne Dyer, who often quotes it in his presentations, crediting it to Chardin, as does Stephen Covey in Living the 7 Habits : Stories of Courage and Inspiration (2000), p. 47. Such statements could be considered paraphrases of Hegel's dictum that matter is spirit fallen into a state of self-otherness. Or any number of thousands of similarly vague quotes by hundreds of predecessors.
Disputed
Variant: We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.
Variant: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
p 23
The Undiscovered Self (1958)