Quotes about the soul
A collection of quotes on the topic of soul, god, life, love.
Best quotes about the soul
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Variant: A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.
Variant: Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
Source: The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, p. 188; also reported in various sources as:
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
“Beauty is the illumination of your soul.”
John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher
Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
“Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer
Quoted in: LIFE http://books.google.com/books?id=9EgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA9, Vol. 57, nr. 11 (11 September 1964). p. 9. <br class="br">1960s
“A sad soul can kill you quicker, far quicker, than a germ.”
John Steinbeck book Travels with Charley: In Search of America
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America
“A room without books is like a body without a soul.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
Attributed to Cicero in J. M. Braude's Speaker's Desk Book of Quips, Quotes, & Anecdotes (Jaico Pub. House, 1966), p. 52. <br class="br">Dennis McHenry in a 2011 post at theCAMPVS.com http://thecampvs.com/2011/08/03/cicero-on-books-and-the-soul/ identified a source for the exact form of words in the essay "On the Pleasure of Reading" http://books.google.com/books?id=0YfQAAAAMAAJ&dq=cicero%20%22room%20without%20books%22%20%2B%22contemporary%20review%22&pg=PA240#v=onepage&q&f=false by Sir John Lubbock, published in The Contemporary Review, vol. 49 (1886) https://archive.org/details/contemporaryrev55unkngoog, pp. 240–51 https://archive.org/stream/contemporaryrev55unkngoog#page/n250/mode/2up, in which Lubbock wrote that "Cicero described a room without books as a body without a soul" (p. 241). The same sentence may also be found on p. 61 https://archive.org/stream/thepleasuresofli01lubbuoft#page/60/mode/2up of Lubbock's collection The Pleasures of Life. Part I. 18th edition (London and New York : Macmillan and Co. 1890) https://archive.org/details/thepleasuresofli01lubbuoft, in a lecture titled "A Song of Books". McHenry suggested that Lubbock may have had in mind the words "postea vero quam Tyrannio mihi libros disposuit mens addita videtur meis aedibus" at Cicero, Ad Atticum 4.8, which are translated by E. O. Winstedt on p. 293 https://archive.org/stream/letterstoatticus01ciceuoft#page/292/mode/2up of Cicero: Letters to Atticus I (London : William Heinemann, and New York : G. P. Putnam's Sons 1912) https://archive.org/details/letterstoatticus01ciceuoft "Since Tyrannio has arranged my books, the house seems to have acquired a soul", and by Evelyn Shuckburgh on p. 234 https://archive.org/stream/cu31924012541433#page/n283/mode/2up of The Letters of Cicero. Vol. I. B. C. 68–52 (London : George Bell and Sons 1908) https://archive.org/details/cu31924012541433 "Moreover, since Tyrannio has arranged my books for me, my house seems to have had a soul added to it" (although the Latin word " mens http://athirdway.com/glossa/?s=mens", rendered "soul" by both Winstedt and Shuckburgh, is more usually translated by the English "mind"). D. R. Shackleton Bailey in Cicero's Letters to Atticus (Harmondsworth : Penguin Books 1978), p. 162, translated "And now that Tyrannio has put my books straight, my house seems to have woken to life". <br class="br">Disputed <br class="br">Variant: Ut conclave sine libris ita corpus sine anima" A room without books is like a body without a soul
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
Marcus Aurelius book Meditations
Source: Meditations
Quotes about the soul
“Your naked body should only belong to those who fall in love with your naked soul.”
Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British comic actor and filmmaker
“If my eyes could show my soul, everyone would cry when they saw me smile.”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist
“He's more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”
Emily Brontë book Wuthering Heights
Variant: Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same
Source: Wuthering Heights
“The night is my best friend. It calms the storm in my soul and it lets the guiding stars rise.”
Joseph Goebbels (1897–1945) Nazi politician and Propaganda Minister
Die Nacht ist meine beste Freundin. Sie glättet den Sturm in der Seele und lässt die weisenden Sterne aufgehen.
Michael: a German fate in diary notes (1926)
“The best way to know the soul of another country is to read its literature.”
Amos Oz (1939–2018) Israeli writer, novelist, journalist and intellectual
“I love you as certain dark things are to be loved,
in secret, between the shadow and the soul.”
Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet
Variant: I love you as one loves certain dark things, secretly, between the shadow and the soul.
Source: 100 Love Sonnets
“I put my heart and soul into my work, and I have lost my mind in the process.”
Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)
“My own soul is my most faithful friend. My own heart, my truest confidant.”
Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor
"History of India" at Amazing World http://www.amworld.info/india-travel/history-of-india
“He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”
Madeline Miller book The Song of Achilles
Source: The Song of Achilles
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) Austrian Romantic composer
True genius without heart is a thing of nought - for not great understanding alone, not intelligence alone, nor both together, make genius. Love! Love! Love! that is the soul of genius. - Nikolaus Joseph von Jacquin, entry in Mozart's souvenir album (1787-04-11) from Mozart: A Life by Maynard Solomon [Harper-Collins, 1966, ISBN 0-060-92692-9], p. 312.
Misattributed
Maria Montessori (1870–1952) Italian pedagogue, philosopher and physician
Source: The Montessori Method Scientific Pedagogy as Applied to Child Education in 'The Children's Houses' with Additions and Revisions by the Author
“People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.”
C.G. Jung book Psychology and Alchemy
CW 12, par. 126 (p 99)
Psychology and Alchemy (1952)
Context: People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn the literature of the whole world - all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls. Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.
Anthony the Great (251–357) Christian saint, monk, and hermit
Book II, Chapter 10
From St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Os sentimentos que mais doem, as emoções que mais pungem, são os que são absurdos – a ânsia de coisas impossíveis, precisamente porque são impossíveis, a saudade do que nunca houve, o desejo do que poderia ter sido, a mágoa de não ser outro, a insatisfação da existência do mundo. Todos estes meios tons da consciencia da alma criam em nós uma paisagem dolorida, um eterno sol-pôr do que somos.
The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 196
“Don't gain the world and lose your soul
Wisdom is better than silver and gold.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
Zion Train
Uprising (1979)
Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology
Other
“The universe itself is God and the universal outpouring of its soul”
Chrysippus (-281–-208 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
As quoted in De Natura Deorum by Cicero, i. 15.
“Sometimes the soul takes pictures of things it has wished for, but never seen.”
Anne Sexton (1928–1974) poet from the United States
“When peoples care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul.”
Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist
“The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul – BOOKS.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
Variant: Everybody can be great... because anybody can serve. You do not have to have a college degree to serve. You do not have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.
“Not even the human
imagination satisfies
the endless emptiness of the soul.”
Allen Ginsberg book Reality Sandwiches
Source: Reality Sandwiches
“When I know your soul, I will paint your eyes”
Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920) Italian painter and sculptor
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (1945) Brazilian politician, 35th president of Brazil
Testimony to the Federal Police regarding the "Lava-jato Operation" investigation. ‘Não tem uma viva alma mais honesta do que eu’, afirma Lula http://politica.estadao.com.br/blogs/fausto-macedo/nao-tem-uma-viva-alma-mais-honesta-do-que-eu-afirma-lula/ at estadao.com.br 01.20.2016
“This is what my soul is telling me: be peaceful and love everyone.”
Malala Yousafzai (1997) Pakistani children's education activist
UN speech, June 2013
Context: Even if there was a gun in my hand and he was standing in front of me, I would not shoot him. This is the compassion I have learned from Mohamed, the prophet of mercy, Jesus Christ and Lord Buddha. This the legacy of change I have inherited from Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mohammed Ali Jinnah. This is the philosophy of nonviolence that I have learned from Gandhi, Bacha Khan and Mother Teresa. And this is the forgiveness that I have learned from my father and from my mother. This is what my soul is telling me: be peaceful and love everyone.
“If a poem hasn't ripped apart your soul; you haven't experienced poetry.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) American author, poet, editor and literary critic
“The Wrong we have Done, Thought, or Intended Will wreak its Vengeance on
Our SOULS.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
“And into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”
John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author
Once again, this is far from Muir's style of writing. The quote does not come up in any search of John Muir's Journals or his published texts on the John Muir Exhibit website. It is most commonly put on t-shirts - never in any scholarly source.
Misattributed
“The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience.”
Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet
“Two souls with but a single thought,
Two hearts that beat as one!”
John Keats (1795–1821) English Romantic poet
“Colour is a power which directly influences the soul.”
Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter
Source: Concerning the Spiritual in Art
“If you're losing your soul and you know it, then you've still got a soul left to lose.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
“Every production of an artist should be the expression of an adventure of his soul.”
W. Somerset Maugham book The Summing Up
Source: The Summing Up (1938), p. 310
Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor
https://archive.org/stream/baburnama017152mbp/baburnama017152mbp_djvu.Txt
Bettina von Arnim (1785–1859) German writer
Quoted in Albert Jay Nock, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man (1943), p. 175.
Attributed
Madhvacharya (1199–1278) Hindu philosopher who founded Dvaita Vedanta school
Quoted from [Martha Bush Ashton, Martha Bush Ashton-Sikora, Bruce Christie, Yakṣagāna, a Dance Drama of India, 23, http://books.google.com/books?id=ug3DNI-1xwUC&pg=PA23, 1977, Abhinav Publications, 23–].
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
The Vision: Reflections on the Way of the Soul (1994)
“False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”
Socrates (-470–-399 BC) classical Greek Athenian philosopher
Phaedo 115e
literally: 'For know well', he said, 'o dearest Kriton, that to not speak well is not only sinful by itself, but lets evil intrude into the soul.'(εὖ γὰρ ἴσθι, ἦ δ᾽ ὅς, ὦ ἄριστε Κρίτων, τὸ μὴ καλῶς λέγειν οὐ μόνον εἰς αὐτὸ τοῦτο πλημμελές, ἀλλὰ καὶ κακόν τι ἐμποιεῖ ταῖς ψυχαῖς.)
Plato, Phaedo
“Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.”
C.G. Jung book Psychology and Alchemy
CW 12, par. 126 (p 99)
Psychology and Alchemy (1952)
Context: People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls. They will practice Indian yoga and all its exercises, observe a strict regimen of diet, learn the literature of the whole world - all because they cannot get on with themselves and have not the slightest faith that anything useful could ever come out of their own souls. Thus the soul has gradually been turned into a Nazareth from which nothing good can come.
“Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.”
Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet
"Who says words with my mouth?" in Ch. 1 : The Tavern, p. 2
The Essential Rumi (1995)
Context: Who looks out with my eyes? What is the soul?
I cannot stop asking.
If I could taste one sip of an answer,
I could break out of this prison for drunks.
I didn't come here of my own accord, and I can't leave that way.
Whoever brought me here, will have to take me home.
John Williams (1932) American composer, conductor and pianist
John Williams, conductor laureate, Boston Pops Orchestra, Leroy Anderson Square Dedication, Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 17, 2003.
Source: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/2003/07.17/12-anderson.html
Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer
Variant: How we need that security. How we need another soul to cling to, another body to keep us warm. To rest and trust; to give your soul in confidence: I need this. I need someone to pour myself into.
Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
Eddie Izzard (1962) British stand-up comedian, actor and writer
Dress to Kill (1998)
Source: Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill
Context: I had to chat up girls, and I'd only tagged them before. I didn't have the verbal power to be able to say, "Susan, I saw you in the classroom today. As the sun came from behind the clouds, a burst of brilliant light caught your hair, it was haloed in front of me. You turned, your eyes flashed fire into my soul, I immediately read the words of Dostoevsky and Karl Marx, and in the words of Albert Schweitzer, 'I fancy you.' " But no! At 13, you're just going, " 'Ello, Sue. I saw you in the room... I've got legs, have you? Oh yeah... Do you like bread? I've got a French loaf. [mimes smacking her with the loaf and dashing off] Bye! (I love you!)"
“Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
Vladimir Nabokov book Lolita
Opening lines.
Source: Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta. She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita. Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, an initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for fancy prose style. Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.
Diana Gabaldon book Dragonfly in Amber
Variant: I talk to you as I talk to my own soul," he said, turning me to face him. He reached up and cupped my cheek, fingers light on my temple. "And Sassenach," he whispered, "Your face is my heart.
Source: Dragonfly in Amber
Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi
Source: Thinking Like The Universe: The Sufi Path Of Awakening
“The soul that can speak through the eyes can also kiss with a gaze.”
Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer (1836–1870) Spanish poet
“many pass for saints on earth whose souls are in hell.”
Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation
Source: The Bondage of the Will
“People say that eyes are windows to the soul.”
Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner
Source: The Kite Runner
“A respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
“You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Drum Major Instinct (1968)
Context: And so Jesus gave us a new norm of greatness. If you want to be important—wonderful. If you want to be recognized—wonderful. If you want to be great—wonderful. But recognize that he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. That's a new definition of greatness. And this morning, the thing that I like about it: by giving that definition of greatness, it means that everybody can be great, (Everybody) because everybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve. You don't have to know about Plato and Aristotle to serve. You don't have to know Einstein's theory of relativity to serve. You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. And you can be that servant.
“Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
