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.
“When we expect transformation to occur through external experiences, we are opting for an inferior model of spiritual formation.”
The Divine Commodity: Discovering A Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity (2009, Zondervan)
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Source: Superiority and Subordination as Subject-matter of Sociology (1896), p. 169
“What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expected generally happens.”
Book 2, chapter 4. Compare: "I say the very things that make the greatest Stir / An' the most interestin' things, are things that did n't occur", Sam Walter Foss, Things that did n't occur.
Books, Coningsby (1844), Henrietta Temple (1837)
Socialism (1922), Epilogue (1947)
Context: The only certain fact about Russian affairs under the Soviet regime with regard to which all people agree is: that the standard of living of the Russian masses is much lower than... the paragon of capitalism, the United States of America. If we were to regard the Soviet regime as an experiment, we would have to say that the experiment has clearly demonstrated the superiority of capitalism and the inferiority of socialism.
The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), Chapter Eight, Healing Ourselves
“I think we can expect a great spiritual strengthening.”
Source: Archbishop Zvolenský: Pope’s visit to Slovakia is “joyful news” https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2021-07/archbishop-zvolensky-pope-s-visit-to-slovakia-is-joyful-news.html (4 July 2021)