“Renunciation of the World is the most essential mark of the spiritual journey to God.”

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 82

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.

say, 'Of everything — aims, hopes, help and life itself.
Statement during the New Life period (1949 - 1952), 10:3481
Lord Meher (1986)

Source: The Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky's Red River Gorge

Beating the drums of hope and faith (2004)
Context: I feel for, and identify with, individuals on their spiritual journeys — whether those journeys are hard or smooth. That is why I write about the young man who parties all night and finds it hard to get along with his parents; I sing about the Muslim girl murdered by her father and step mother; I write about the death of a close relative and the struggle of dealing with that parting; I write about conflict within marriage; difficulties being a good parent; religious hypocrisy; consumerism; sexual abuse; religious narrow-mindedness; these are all struggles that are very real within our community. Even if I have not felt these struggles first hand, seeing others around me experience such tests does effect me… the social repercussions of these struggles effect us all one way or another.

2000s, AARP magazine interview (2008)