Quotes about spirit (3905 quotes, page 39)

“Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit by which Nature herself is animated. It is the joy of the intellect which sees clearly into the Universe and which recreates it, with conscientious vision. Art is the most sublime mission of man, since it is the expression of thought seeking to understand the world and to make it understood.”

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) French sculptor

Preface, p. 7-8
1910s, Art, 1912

Understanding , Search , Art , Pleasure

“God is in command of history. Each crisis has something to teach us; each crisis is overcome by particular virtues and by reference to particular truths. The way out of a crisis is often unexpected, and often combines a decisive historical intervention by God, and a new spirit in the Church, animating new movements and new thinking. With hindsight we can even see in some cases how the crisis itself solved intractable problems which could not be solved in any other way”

Joseph Shaw (academic) (1971) British academic

Interview with Dr. Joseph Shaw https://remnantnewspaper.com/web/index.php/fetzen-fliegen/item/5036-interview-with-dr-joseph-shaw (August 28, 2020)

God , History , Animals , Truth

“The highest production and living standards cannot be achieved without a new and human spirit in the industrial world. No industry can succeed without the co-operation of capital, management and labour. Each must be encouraged. Each must be fairly rewarded. Between the three there must be mutual understanding and respect.”

Robert Menzies (1894–1978) Australian politician, 12th Prime Minister of Australia

1949 election campaign speech https://electionspeeches.moadoph.gov.au/speeches/1949-robert-menzies, delivered in Melbourne on November 10, 1949
Wilderness Years (1941-1949)

World , Understanding

“Being Buddhist, I do believe we are reincarnated. Our spirit goes back into the celestial forces and we come back based on how well we’ve treated others — whether we come back better or in worse forms.”

Ming-Na Wen (1963) Macau-born American actress

Ming-Na Wen opens up about the challenges of Hollywood https://groknation.com/culture/5-deep-questions-ming-na-wen/ (March 27, 2018)

“Let us learn from the lips of death the lessons of life. Let us live truly while we live, live for what is true and good and lasting. And let the memory of our dead help us to do this. For they are not wholly separated from us, if we remain loyal to them. In spirit they are with us. And we may think of them as silent, invisible, but real presences in our households.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Life and Destiny (1913)

Thinking , Memory , Dead , Life

“By what sort of experience are we led to the conviction that spirit exists ? On the whole, by searching, painful experience. The rose Religion grows on a thorn-bush, and we must not be afraid to have our fingers lacerated by the thorns if we would pluck the rose.”

Felix Adler (1851–1933) German American professor of political and social ethics, rationalist, and lecturer

Section 7 : Spiritual Progress
Life and Destiny (1913)

Pain , Religion , Search

“I am a dreamer and when I wake,
You can't break my spirit - it's my dreams you take.
And as you move on, remember me.
Remember us and all we used to be.”

James Blunt (1974) English singer-songwriter

"Goodbye My Lover", written by James Blunt and Sacha Skarbek
Song lyrics, Back to Bedlam (2004)

Dreams

“The Lord exercises immense courtesy. He never imposes himself, never forces himself upon anyone. If I don’t let him in, he’s not going to force his way in. But that is not to say that someone who does good blindly, but who’s open to that imperative of goodness, isn’t vulnerable to a sort of propaedeutic of the spirit – an inward preparation of the heart that, whether in this world or the next, will bear fruit. Good is always good.”

Erik Varden (1974) Norwegian Monk and Prelate

Spirituality without platitudes https://www.thetablet.co.uk/features/2/14404/spirituality-without-platitudes (September 12, 2018)

World , Way , Heart , Exercises

“A leader without a competitive spirit is weak and easily gives up in the face of the slightest problem.”

Attila (406–453) King of the Hunnic Empire

Turkish Wikipedia
https://quotestats.com/topic/attila-hun-quotes/

Problem

“It is now an established fact that there is a complete lack of fear of law in the minds of criminals and instead the laxity of the system emboldens them to commit gruesome crimes against women and girls in the country. The justice delivery mechanism in the country is painfully long and cumbersome which more often than not breaks the spirit of the girl or woman who has been raped,”

Swati Maliwal (1984) women activist who fights for women rights

Zee News https://zeenews.india.com/delhi/dcw-chief-swati-maliwal-asks-delhi-lg-anil-baijal-to-fast-track-two-delhi-rape-cases-ensure-death-penalty-for-accused-2308623.html, accessed May 9, 2021

Justice , Law , Country , Girl

“The national character of the three kingdoms was strongly marked in my army. I found the English regiments always in the best humour when we were well supplied with beef; the Irish when we were in the wine countries, and the Scotch when the dollars for pay came up. This looks like an epigram, but I assure you it was a fact, and quite perceptible; but we managed to reconcile all their tempers, and I will venture to say that in our later campaigns, and especially when we crossed the Pyrenees, there never was an army in the world in better spirits, better order, or better discipline. We had mended in discipline every campaign, until at last (smiling) I hope we were pretty near perfect.”

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769–1852) British soldier and statesman

Remarks to John Wilson Croker (20 October 1825), quoted in L. J. Jennings (ed.), The Croker Papers: The Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Right Honourable John Wilson Croker, LL.D., F.R.S., Secretary to the Admiralty from 1809 to 1830, Vol. I (1884), p. 353

Perfection , Country , World , Smile

“To worship to other than one's own ancestral spirits is brown-nosing. If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

(zh-TW) 非其鬼而祭之，諂也。見義不為，無勇也。
The Analects, Chapter I, Chapter II

Courage

“A man wholly destitute of philanthropy is a monster, justly detested by all mankind; but another, entirely incapable of anger, is a sheepish wretch, liable to be insulted by every mean-spirited villain.”

Georg Forster book A Voyage Round the World

Book III, ch. II, Account of our stay at Tanna, and departure from the New Hebrides.
A Voyage Round the World (1777)

Anger

“Political friendships are political business transactions and in political, as in economic life, business transactions are most easily and reliably concluded between strong parties The weakling always goes to the wall. A people that lacks a genuine sacrificial spirit or believes that it is not rich enough to keep its armaments in order thereby only betrays that it is played out. I beg you to bear one idea in mind through every difficulty. If anyone should threaten our homestead, we must be ready to the last man.”

Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1856–1921) German chancellor during World War I

Speech to the Reichstag introducing the Military Bill (April 1913), quoted in W. M. Knight-Patterson, Germany from Defeat to Conquest, 1913–1933 (1945), p. 28

Friendship , Business , Strong , Idea

“Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”

Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer

Friendship , Friendship , For Friend , For Bestfriend

“True happiness means forging a strong spirit that is undefeated, no matter how trying our circumstances.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Strong , Happiness

“It is difficult to achieve a spirit of genuine cooperation as long as people remain indifferent to the feelings and happiness of others.”

Tenzin Gyatso (1935) spiritual leader of Tibet

Indifference , Happiness , People , Feeling

“True silence is the rest of the mind; it is to the spirit what sleep is to the body, nourishment and refreshment.”

William Penn (1644–1718) English real estate entrepreneur, philosopher, early Quaker and founder of the Province of Pennsylvania

Sleep , Silence

“The world is miserable because men live beneath themselves; the error of modern man is that he wants to reform the world without having either the will or the power to reform man, and this flagrant contradiction, this attempt to make a better world on the basis of a worsened humanity, can only end in the very abolition of what is human, and consequently in the abolition of happiness too. Reforming man means binding him again to Heaven, reestablishing the broken link; it means tearing him away from the reign of the passions, from the cult of matter, quantity and cunning, and reintegrating him into the world of the spirit and serenity, we would even say: into the world of sufficient reason.”

Frithjof Schuon book Understanding Islam

[1998, Understanding Islam, World Wisdom, 26, 0-941532-24-0]
Miscellaneous, Modernity

Tear , Men , Happiness , Passion

“It is because the spirit knows deep down that all lives intersect. That death doesn't just take someone, it misses someone else. And in that small distance, lives are changed.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (2003)

Death , Change

“There is no wrath like the cold fury of the professional spirit proved wrong by outsiders, and no folly comparable to its reactions under such conditions.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Volume I, p. 694
War Memoirs (1938)

“The finesse expresses distinction of spirit.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: (it) La finezza esprime distinzione di spirito.
Source: prevale.net

“God is a mean-spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against His children for failing to live up to his impossible standards.”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

God , Children , Revenge

“Another great entity standing behind the Christ is the Spirit of Peace or Equilibrium. He is overshadowing the Christ, in a very similar way to the way the Christ overshadowed and worked through the disciple Jesus in Palestine. He works very closely with the law of Action and Reaction, and His function is to transform the prevalent discord, confusion, chaos, turmoil in the world into its opposite, so that we shall enter an era of tranquility and peace - in exact proportion to the present discord. The violence and hatred of today will be transmuted into goodwill, and again, in exact proportion to the intensity of the hatred and violence. This is the great Law of Action and Reaction functioning. The law stated is that action and reaction are equal and opposite, and this great Cosmic Entity, the Spirit of Equilibrium, is working now through the Christ, producing the transformation of the world.”

Benjamin Creme (1922–2016) artist, author, esotericist

The Reappearance of the Christ and the Masters of Wisdom (1980)

Way , World , Peace , Law

“When someone is moved by apostolic zeal, he always moves forward, with a very open spirit, with the desire of always doing good. The Lord then does the rest.”

Ruggero Franceschini (1939) Italian Roman Catholic archbishop

Bishop Padovese laid to rest in Italy https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/19989/bishop-padovese-laid-to-rest-in-italy (June 15, 2010)

“Mean spirits, you whose only measure of value is gold, I have no desire to touch your treasures, however impure may have been the source of them.”

Maximilien Robespierre (1758–1794) French revolutionary lawyer and politician

On Property (24 April 1793)

“The current situation, although difficult, is not the worst. There is a spirit of solidarity among the people.”

Tomasz Peta (1951) Roman Catholic bishop

Archbishop Peta: Solidarity in Kazakhstan in times of pandemic https://www.vaticannews.va/en/church/news/2020-04/kazakhstan-church-solidarity-amid-trying-times.html (15 April 2020)

People

“If people are criticising your work, take it in the right spirit and try to find out what is wrong. I made a lot of mistakes on my first film and told myself not to do it again. Remember that you’re not making a film to keep it in a box, it’s for the people.”

Rima Das (1982) Indian Assamese film maker

Film Companion Article - Rima Das Gives Tips On Zero Budget Filmmaking - 4 November 2017 https://www.filmcompanion.in/interviews/bollywood-interview/rima-das-gives-tips-on-zero-budget-filmmaking/ - Archive https://web.archive.org/web/20210728182917/https://www.filmcompanion.in/interviews/bollywood-interview/rima-das-gives-tips-on-zero-budget-filmmaking/

People , Box

“Our party’s experiences and our revolutionary realities have demonstrated that whenever we firmly maintain a spirit of independence and self-reliance we are able to be creative in our development of policies and directions, and we achieve success.”

Lê Duẩn (1907–1986) former General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam

Speech at 12th Plenum of the Party Central Committee (1 December 1965)

Success , Reality

“Hatred is a leech: The thing that sticks to a person's skin; that feeds off them and drains the sap out of one's spirit. It changes a person, and does not leave until it has sucked the last drop of peace from them.”

Chigozie Obioma (1986) Nigerian writer

The fishermen (2015)

Personality , Change , Peace

“On my way, maybe I am looking for the destination, I am walking towards my destination by taking steps, I do not know how far, I am walking towards my destination, I do not see the way, I start thinking in the middle of the road, I keep my spirits in my life, maybe I can get my destination.”

Shabdon Ka Jahan

Thinking , Way , Life

“The losers on the battlefield were not the soldier and his spirit, but the decision-making officials who were supposed to be ready for a possible war, properly organize and wage it.”

Armen Sarkissian (1953) 4th President of Armenia, Member of the Global Leadership Foundation, one of the directors of Eurasia House, phy…

"In an interview with CivilNet" https://www.president.am/en/interviews-and-press-conferences/item/2020/12/11/President-Armen-Sarkissians-interview-with-CivilNet/ (11 December 2020)

War , Decision

“Show me the prophet, or any great person who did not possess a rebellious mind and spirit.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Personality

“Your spirit or attitude must be fearless in enjoying every part of worship and the companionship with the Creator.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Parting

“You must allow your spirit to explore the elements beyond the senses and be prepared for any outcome.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sense

“Body and spirit have never blended.
Never in physical action have I ever found the chilling satisfaction of words.”

Yukio Mishima (1925–1970) Japanese author

[At the movie's ending, speaking to the soldiers]
Final address (1970)

“A people desirous to preserve their freedom cannot be too jealous in watching the encroachment of a centralizing spirit.”

William Smith O'Brien (1803–1864) Irish nationalist politician (1803-1864)

p. 20 https://books.google.com/books?id=4VUBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA20
Principles of Government: Or Meditations in Exile (1856), Chapter II. On Centralized and Local Administration

Freedom , People

“It is a dull and obtuse mind, that must divide in order to distinguish; but it is a still worse, that distinguishes in order to divide. In the former, we may contemplate the source of superstition and idolatry; in the latter of schism, heresy! and a seditious and sectarian spirit.”

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher

'Aids to Reflection (1873), Aphorism 26

“The jealous is possessed by a "fine mad devil" and a dull spirit at once.”

Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss poet

No. 345
In William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 5, sc. 1, Falstaff says that Mistress Ford's husband has "the finest mad devil of jealousy in him".
Aphorisms on Man (1788)

Madness

“I am one of the happiest people on the earth. There are people who are gunning for me. I really don't know whether I will live for another day. But, today I'm alive. And, today I am fighting. They can kill me. They can jail me. But, they cannot kill my spirit.”

Swati Maliwal (1984) women activist who fights for women rights

TEDx Talks, accessed May 1, 2021

People , Fight

“The warrior for the True, the Right,
Fights in Love's name;
The love that lures thee from that fight
Lures thee to shame:
That love which lifts the heart, yet leaves
The spirit free,—
That love, or none, is fit for one
Man-shaped like thee.”

Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902) Irish poet and critic

Miscellaneous Poems, Song; reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 484.

Heart , Fight , Love

“Warriors have an ulterior purpose for their acts, which has nothing to do with personal gain. The average man acts only if there is the chance for profit. Warriors act not for profit, but for the spirit.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "The Power of Silence" (Chapter 18)

Chance , Personality

“The spirit manifests itself to a warrior at every turn. However, this is not the entire truth. The entire truth is that the spirit reveals itself to everyone with the same intensity and consistency, but only warriors are consistently attuned to such revelations.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "The Power of Silence" (Chapter 18)

Truth

“One shouldn't worry about taking pictures or making tape recordings. Those are superfluities of sedate lives. One should worry about the spirit, which is always receding.”

Carlos Castaneda book The Wheel of Time

Source: The Wheel of Time: Shamans of Ancient Mexico, Their Thoughts About Life, Death and the Universe], (1998), Quotations from "Journey to Ixtlan" (Chapter 8)

“The King is no longer the same; the change of character and spirit observed in him for two or three years is accentuated and makes fear of a catastrophe, at a time when he had only to let it go to be a remarkable King, perhaps to become a large figure.”

Émile Banning (1836–1898) academic, civil servant

Source: All the King's Men' A search for the colonial ideas of some advisers and "accomplices" of Leopold II (1853-1892). (Hannes Vanhauwaert), Emile Banning (1836-1898): The Don Quichotte of the ‘liberal civilization’ in Congo, A romantic associate of Leopold II. http://www.ethesis.net/leopold_II/leopold_II.htm#_ftn194 WILLEQUET, J. Le baron Lambermont, 103.

Fear , Time , Change

“Hindus accept no divisions between the believer and unbeliever. Every path leads to Him (God or Reality); there can be as many paths to Him as the number of human. Indeed, the prophetic tradition is alien to Hinduism. Narrowness of the spirit, peculiar to Semitic faiths, has been alien to India.”

Girilal Jain (1924–1993) Indian journalist

Source: The Hindu Phenomenon - By Girilal Jain p 5 -135 - South Asia Books - 1998 ISBN 8174760105

God , Faith , Reality

“Only my faith and hope in that loving God who wants the good for all his sons enabled me to grow in spirit and strengthened me for the ups and downs of life. That is why I was able to succeed and I thank my Lord again and again.”

Óscar Elías Biscet (1961) Cuban activist

Source: Cuba’s Conscience https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2012/03/12/cubas-conscience/ (December 2011)

God , Faith , Hope , Love

“Men take on the nature and the habits and the power of thought of those with whom they associate in a spirit of sympathy and harmony.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Power of the Master Mind
Source: Think & Grow Rich, January 1963, p. 150.

Nature , Men

“The "Master Mind" may be defined as: "Coordination of knowledge and effort, in a spirit of harmony, between two or more people, for the attainment of a definite purpose."”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Power of the Master Mind
Source: Think & Grow Rich, January 1963, p. 148.

People , Knowledge , Effort

“I was in my youth and in the days of my intoxication extravagance and excitement that unveiling of the angelic world and the manifestation of the wonders of power took place in my heart, spirit, conscience and intellect.”

Ruzbihan Baqli (1128–1209) Persian poet, mystic, and Sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2002), p. 112

Heart , Angels , Youth , World

“Now, as the Word of God is the Son of God, so the love of God is the Holy Spirit.”

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church

Sermon on the Apostles' Creed (c. 1273), Art. 8

God , Love

“Jesus told His followers that when they were gathered in that upper room in Jerusalem the Holy Spirit would descend upon them with power; and they were transformed from ignorant men into linguists of unbelievable ability.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

Men

“Men personalize good and evil in a multiplicity of gods and devils, but Truth students follow Jesus in recognizing the supreme Spirit in man as the "one God and Father of all."”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

God , Personality , Truth , Evil

“We see that Jesus taught plainly that God functions in and through man and nature instead of being a person somewhere in the skies; also that we demonstrate God by making His Spirit manifest in our life. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Mysteries Of John (1946)

God , Personality , Nature , Life

“God is Spirit in whom we "live, and move, and have our being." We are the offspring of this Spirit and can make conscious contact with it by turning our attention away from material things and thinking about Spirit. As we practice this kind of prayer our innate Spirit showers its life energies into our conscious mind and a great soul expansion follows.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

Source: Teach Us to Pray with Cora Fillmore (1941)

Soul , God , Thinking , Life

“[P]rivate spirits are too giddy to rest upon Scripture, and too heady and shallow to be acquainted with demonstrative arguments.”

William Laud (1573–1645) Archbishop of Canterbury

Source: A Relation of the Conference betweene William Lawd...and Mr. Fisher the Jesuite (1639), quoted in The Works of the Most Reverend Father in God, William Laud, sometime Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. Volume II: Conference with Fisher (1849), p. 272

“Kojève is the unknown Superior whose dogma is revered, often unawares, by that important subdivision of the "animal kingdom of the spirit" in the contemporary world - the progressivist intellectuals.”

Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) Russian-born French philosopher and statesman

Source: Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit, assembled by Raymond Queneau, edited by Allan Bloom, translated by James H. Nichols, Jr. (1969), Editor's Introduction

Animals , World

“A lot of Hollywood is very dark. Girls my age, I find a lot of them that I have literally grown up and auditioned with take these different paths that break their hearts, but they felt like they had to do it in order to get where they want to go. It’s just so hard on their spirit.”

Madeline Carroll (1996) American actress

Source: Madeline Carroll: I Almost Quit Acting ForGood Before Being Cast In ‘I Can OnlyImagine’ https://hollywoodlife.com/2018/03/16/i-can-only-imagine-movie-madeline-carroll-interview/ (March 16, 2018)

Girl , Age , Heart

“[T]hough affluence is a good thing, and the spirit of compassionate reform is a good thing, in the end a nation survives only to the extent that the spirit of self-discipline and self-sacrifice is strong and vital.”

Irving Kristol (1920–2009) American columnist, journalist, and writer

Source: Memorandum to Robert T. Hartmann https://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/0204/1511691.pdf (1976)

Strong

“My burning desire is to lead my generation into the very act of worship, worshiping the Lord in spirit and in truth.”

Tope Alabi (1970) Nigerian Gospel artist

https://quotes.ng/mobile/author.php?title=tope-alabi&id=1290

Truth

“We don’t only depend on “images” to arouse passion and excitement in our lives. More importantly, we must have a rational spirit and help each other move forward. After all, “images” are just a means of getting one’s foot in the door.”

Bo Xilai (1949) former Politburo member of the Communist Party of China

Source: Excerpts of letter to his first wife (14 July 1975)

Dependency , Help , Passion

“Always take care of yourself, of your spirit, be true to yourself, build a very thick skin where you understand that your value is outside of people’s opinions about you, and you’ll be okay.”

Simisola Kosoko (1988) Nigerian singer and songwriter

Source: https://notjustok.com/article/interviews/simi-in-conversation-with-notjustok-for-womens-history-month/ Simi on an interview during Women History Month

Understanding , People

“Even though 2021 was a challenging year, the country demonstrated its adaptive and innovative spirit.”

David Mabuza (1960) South African head teacher

Source: David Mabuza (2021) cited in " Deputy President David Mabuza commends SA for innovative spirit, despite a challenging 2021 https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/deputy-president-david-mabuza-commends-sa-for-innovative-spirit-despite-a-challenging-2021-20211224" on news24, 24 December 2021.

Country

“The end of a matter is better than its beginning; patience of spirit is better than haughtiness of spirit.”

book Bible

Source: Ecclesiastes 7:8

Patience

“A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit.”

book Bible

Source: Proverbs 15:13

Happiness , Heart

“It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.”

book Bible

Source: John 6:63, NAS

Life

“He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, he who rules his own spirit than he who takes a city.”

book Bible

Source: Proverbs 16:32, AMP

Anger

“New Year's Eve is literally filled with good cheer and happy thoughts, as we all try to put our best foot forward. This openness and generosity are the spirit of this wonderful holiday, when it is so important to warm parents’ hearts with kindness and loving care, to hug them if they are near you, and to tell everyone around you how dear they are to you and that happiness is all about love, children, family, and friends.”

Vladimir Putin (1952) President of Russia, former Prime Minister

2021

Parent , Love , Happiness , Children

“[T]he risk of these sports, and the supposed manliness of facing that risk, is generally put forth as one of their merits. Now I may be very blind and mean-spirited, but the manly sport of foxhunting seems to me not to be manly at all, but to be at once cowardly and fool hardy. It is cowardly as regards the cruelty practised on a victim which cannot defend himself by tormentors who, as far as the victim is concerned, are perfectly safe. It is foolhardy as risking men's lives for no adequate cause. It is manly, it is something much better than manly, when a man sacrifices or risks his life in a good cause. But I can see nothing manly, nothing in any way praiseworthy, in a man risking his life in a bad cause or in no cause at all. When a fox-hunter is suddenly cut off in the midst of his cruelties, I can see nothing in his end at all resembling the end of the martyr who dies for his religion or of the hero who dies for his country. I believe I am unfashionable in thinking so, but I cannot help it.”

Edward Augustus Freeman (1823–1892) English historian (1823-1892)

Source: 'The Morality of Field Sports', The Fortnightly Review (October 1869), quoted in E. A. Freeman, The Morality of Field Sports (1874), p. 24

Country , Thinking , Life , Men

“Our great security lies, I think, in our growing strength, both in numbers and wealth; ... unless, by a neglect of military discipline, we should lose all martial spirit ...; for there is much truth in the Italian saying, Make yourselves sheep, and the wolves will eat you.”

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …

Letter to Thomas Cushing (1773) http://oll.libertyfund.org/titles/franklin-the-works-of-benjamin-franklin-vol-vi-letters-and-misc-writings-1772-1775#lf1438-06_head_007.

Wealth , Truth , Thinking

“And, after all, the humane spirit, which is the motive power of all true schemes of reform, is, by its very essence, independent of belief in what is commonly called "success."”

Henry Stephens Salt (1851–1939) British activist

Source: " The Poet of Pessimism https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/library/essay/the-poet-of-pessimism/", Vegetarian Review, August 1896
Context: We work for an ideal, not because we believe the ideal is destined to be triumphant, but because we are impelled so to work, and cannot, without violence to our best instincts, act otherwise. We protest against cruelty and injustice for the same reason, not merely because we feel that the dawn of a better day is at hand, but because such a protest has to be made, and we know intuitively that we must help to make it. Of the event we can have no absolute assurance—it rests for other minds and other hands than our—but we can at least be assured that we have done what was natural and inevitable to us, and that, whether successful or unsuccessful, there was no other course for a thoughtful man to take.

Success , Motivation

“Most precious are the people; next come the spirits of land and grain; and last, the kings.”

Mencius (-372–-289 BC) Chinese philosopher

(zh-TW) 民為貴，社稷次之，君為輕。
7B:14. Variant translations:
Of the first importance are the people, next comes the good of land and grains, and of the least importance is the ruler.
The people are the most important ... and the ruler is the least important.
The Mencius
Variant: The people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain come next; the sovereign counts for the least.

People

“Four pails of water and a bagful of salts.
That is all we are, that is all a man comprises,
chemicals alone, with no spirit, soul or ghost -
nothing so bizarre.
No amount of faith disguises
what is true is what we fear the most”

Judge Smith (1948) English songwriter, composer, performer

"Four Pails"

Soul , Water , Fear , Faith

“The Rhine is still the Rhine, the great divider... Immediately you are over the Rhine, the spirit of place has changed... It is as if the life had retreated eastwards. As if the Germanic life were slowly ebbing away from contact with western Europe, ebbing to the deserts of the east.”

D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

Source: 'A Letter from Germany', written 19 February 1924, printed in The New Statesman (13 October 1934), quoted in D. H. Lawrence, Selected Essays (1950), pp. 175-176

Life , Change

“In everything we are destroyers – even in the instruments of destruction to which we turn for relief. The very socialism and internationalism through which our choked spirit seeks utterance, which seem to threaten your way of life, are alien to our spirit's demands and needs. Your socialists and internationalists are not serious. The charm of these movements, the attraction, such as it is, which they exercise, is only in their struggle: it is the fight which draws your gentile radicals.”

Maurice Samuel (1895–1972) novelist, translator and lecturer

You Gentiles (1924)
Source: pp. 152-153 https://archive.org/details/you-gentiles-maurice-samuel-1924-217pgs-rel.sml/page/152/mode/1up

Drawing , Way , Fight , Life

“The spirit of our age is Democracy. All for the people, and all by the people. Nothing about the people without the people… My nation will rise, called to resurrection by the eternal principles of the law of nature and of nature’s God. It will not lie in the grave longer than the holy number three, and will require your magnanimity by becoming the corner-stone of national independence on the European Continent.”

Lajos Kossuth (1802–1894) Hungarian politician

Source: In front of Ohio's legislators on 7 february, 1852.

Democracy , God , People , Lie

“Whatever an education is, it should make you a unique individual, not a conformist; it should furnish you with an original spirit with which to tackle the big challenges; it should allow you to find values which will be your roadmap through life; it should make you spiritually rich, a person who loves whatever you are doing, wherever you are, whomever you are with; it should teach you what is important, how to live and how to die.”

John Taylor Gatto book Dumbing Us Down

Source: Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling (1992), pp. 67-68

Personality , Education , Love , Life

“Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love.”

John Wesley book Sermons on Several Occasions

1770s, Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
Source: Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"

Imagination , Thinking , Love , Men

“Maybe it's hatred I spew, maybe it's food for the spirit
Maybe it's beautiful music I made for you to just cherish”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Renegade" (featured on Jay-Z's Blueprint, 2001)
2000s

Music , Food , Beauty

“Where in the lily lurks the mind,
Where in the rose discern the soul?More mindless still, stream, pasture, lake;
The mountains yet more heartless seem. […]It is their silence that appals,
Their aspect motionless that awes,
When searching spirit vainly calls
On the effect to bare the Cause.”

Alfred Austin (1835–1913) British writer and poet

The Door of Humility (1906)
Source: "Switzerland", XXII, lines 15–18, 37–40; pp. 53–54.

Soul , Search , Mountain , Silence

“My spirit animal is a big baboon. When i think about it it really gives me the key adrenaline to push myself further and ask my grandma out”

#1 Broncos Fan

Grandma , Animals , Thinking

“When it gets tough, it is time to renew your spirit, not to give up. It is time to be tough, not weak.”

- Goa

Time

“This attraction to exploration, to the unknown, to great journeys, great conquests, has always existed in the human spirit, even in very crude conditions, .... very backward conditions.”

Ricardo Galvão (1947) Brazilian physicist and engineer

“All those who are not criticized, err. Those who are not watched, abuse. Those who are spoiled, become fat. Those who are applauded, are puffed up. A true superiority of spirit is needed to save oneself from those consequences.”

Daniel Salamanca (1863–1935) President of Bolivia (1863-1935)

“Those who break the rules ethically are those who have mastered them first and disciplined themselves to understand the necessity of those rules, and break them in keeping with the spirit rather than the letter of the law.”

Jordan Peterson book Beyond Order

Source: Books, Beyond Order (2021), p. 85

Law , Understanding

“I pray to the Spirit, not vaingloriously with this title, as titles aren't the most important in life, but the fraternal service of love. What is decisive, what makes us worth more, is to love God and our neighbor.”

Felipe Arizmendi Esquivel (1940) Mexican bishop

Consistory of Cardinals: Exclusive Interview with Monsignor Felipe Arizmendi https://zenit.org/2020/11/27/consistory-of-cardinals-exclusive-interview-with-monsignor-felipe-arizmendi/ (27 November 2020)

God , Life , Decision , Love

“We Germans have learned from history. We are a peace-loving, freedom-loving people. For us, love of our native country, love of freedom, and the spirit of being a good neighbor always belong together.”

Helmut Kohl (1930–2017) former chancellor of West Germany (1982-1990) and then the united Germany (1990-1998)

As quoted in "Kohl: German chancellor, European statesman" https://www.dw.com/en/kohl-german-chancellor-european-statesman/a-16274982 (October 1, 2012), Deutsche Welle

Peace , History , Freedom , Country

“It is the function of Tradition to assure continuity. Tradition is the memory of a superpersonal soul [of culture]. It must see that the same creative spirit of the grand past is present at each innovation.”

Francis Parker Yockey (1917–1960) American writer

Imperium: The Philosophy of History and Politics (1948)

Soul , Memory , Past

“Courage is the main quality of leadership, in my opinion, no matter where it is exercised. Usually it implies some risk — especially in new undertakings. Courage to initiate something and to keep it going, pioneering an adventurous spirit to blaze new ways, often, in our land of opportunity.”

Walt Disney (1901–1966) American film producer and businessman

As quoted in The Magic of Teamwork (1997) by Pat Williams
Year unknown, published in 1990s

Courage , Exercises , Way

“The Holy Spirit that Christ promised to send […] creates in man new depths which harmonize him with the "depths of God"”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Job 11:7
Source: Catholicism (1938), Ch. XI. "Person and Society", p. 186

God , Christ

“The Holy Spirit that Christ promised to send to his own […] creates in man new depths which harmonize him with he "depths of God".”

Henri de Lubac (1896–1991) Jesuit theologian and cardinal

Job 11:7
Source: Catholicism (1938), Ch. XI. "Person and Society", p. 186

God , Christ

“I find war more hateful than ever, and I groan in spirit over every life lost and every home blasted.”

Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Gordon Lang (Christmas 1939), quoted in Keith Feiling, Neville Chamberlain (1946; 1970), p. 430
Prime Minister

Home , Hate , War , Life

“Cities have a spirit and reveal their secrets if you listen.”

Lamia Abbas (1929–2021) Iraqi poet

jadaliyya.com, Oct 17, 2015 https://www.jadaliyya.com/Details/32602

Secret

“We must explain that we are animated by the Spirit of the Gospel: we do not want to impose our faith but we do want to announce it. The Church is not a non governmental organisation it is at the service of the Proclamation of the Word.”

Jean-Gabriel Diarra (1945–2019) Malian catholic priest

“Our intention is not to impose the Gospel but to proclaim it with our lives” President of Bishops Conference in Rome for ad limina visit tells Fides (16 May 2007) Fides News Agency http://www.fides.org/en/news/9548-AFRICA_MALI_Our_intention_is_not_to_impose_the_Gospel_but_to_proclaim_it_with_our_lives_President_of_Bishops_Conference_in_Rome_for_ad_limina_visit_tells_Fides

Faith , Animals

“The spiritual dignity of this new humane life for mankind is the Spirit of Man himself sacrosanct.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Life

“Spirit is man's new power if he is to be truly mighty in his civilization.”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

“Might not the spirit of creative art, desperately needed by man, lie in the proper use of the radical new technologies of our times, and so arise?”

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867–1959) American architect (1867-1959)

A Testament (1957)

Time , Art , Lie

“Life is fully spiritual. Soul and body are the power. Body is very vulnerable to environmental disasters. That is why body is equal to destruction and experiencing-natured-oriented. Therefore, we must focus on the body less when the life faces challenges. Let spirit and soul take more lead.”

Idegu Ojonugwa Shadrach (1995)

Soul , Nature , Life

“With wide-embracing love
Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
Pervades and broods above,
Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

Though earth and moon were gone,
And suns and universes ceased to be,
And Thou wert left alone,
Every existence would exist in Thee.

There is not room for Death,
Nor atom that his might could render void:
Thou — Thou art Being and Breath,
And what Thou art may never be destroyed.”

Emily Brontë (1818–1848) English novelist and poet

No Coward Soul Is Mine (1846)

Universe , Change , Sun , Art

“Wise people have the ability to grasp the positive side of every situation, they have a brilliant, perverse mind and a spirit that loves to dare and sin: to live life to the fullest.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Le persone sagge hanno la capacità di cogliere il lato positivo di ogni situazione, hanno una mente brillante, perversa ed uno spirito che ama osare e peccare: vivere appieno la vita.
Source: prevale.net

People , Love , Life

Quotes about spirit page 39

Quotes about spirit
page 39