Quotes about spirit
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“The greatest create of power you have on earth, whether you are an angel, a spirit, a man or woman or child is to help others.”

Anne Rice book Servant of the Bones

Source: Servant of the Bones

Angels, Help

“People who make no mistakes lack boldness and the spirit of adventure. They are the brakes on the wheels of progress.”

Norman Vincent Peale (1898–1993) American writer

People

“Strong women- precious jewels all- their humanness is evident in their accessibility. We are able to enter into the spirit of these women and rejoice in their warmth and courage.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Women, Courage, Strong

“… the human spirit knows, deep down that all lives intersect.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Meniti Bianglala

“I’ve known people that the world has thrown everything at to discourage them… to break their spirit. And yet something about them retains a dignity. They face life and don’t ask quarters.”

Horton Foote (1916–2009) American playwright and screenwriter

Life, People, World

“This is perhaps the most noble aim of poetry, to attach ourselves to the world around us, to turn desire into love, to embrace, finally what always evades us, what is beyond, but what is always there – the unspoken, the spirit, the soul.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Source: The Other Voice: Essays on Modern Poetry

Love, World, Soul

“Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape…. For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Life, Reading

“I challenge anyone to understand Islam, its spirit, and not to love it. It is a beautiful religion of brotherhood and devotion.”

Yann Martel book Life of Pi

Source: Life of Pi

Love, Religion, Beauty, Understanding

“My principle anguish and the source of all my joys and sorrows from my youth onward has been the incessant, merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Last Temptation of Christ

Source: The Last Temptation of Christ

Youth, Joy

“In secret we met
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

When We Two Parted (1808), st. 4.
Context: In secret we met
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.

Secret, Silence, Heart, Forgetting

“Too bad you got so bogged down in books. You've got the spirit of a warrior.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Books

“My spirit has pass'd in compassion and determination around the whole earth.
I have look'd for equals and lovers an found them ready for me in all lands,
I think some divine rapport has equalized me with them”

Walt Whitman book Fulles d'herba

Source: Leaves of Grass

Lovers, Thinking

“We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we do, we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives. We have a spiritual depression.”

Chuck Palahniuk Fight Club

Source: Fight Club

War

“When I am wicked I am in high spirits.”

Henry James book The Europeans

Source: The Europeans

“The core of mans' spirit comes from new experiences.”

Jon Krakauer book Into the Wild

Source: Into the Wild

“You must carry on my spirit. It can no longer be carried by a god. It must be taken up by all of you. - Pan”

Rick Riordan book The Battle of the Labyrinth

Source: The Battle of the Labyrinth

God

“The inmost spirit of poetry, in other words, is at bottom, in every recorded case, the voice of pain – and the physical body, so to speak, of poetry, is the treatment by which the poet tries to reconcile that pain with the world.”

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer

Pain, World

“The world is full of broken people. Splints, casts, miracle drugs, and time can't mend fractured hearts, wounded hearts, wounded minds, torn spirits.”

Dean Koontz book One Door Away from Heaven

Source: One Door Away from Heaven

People, World, Time, Heart

“In secret we met
In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
After long years,
How should I greet thee?
With silence and tears.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement

When We Two Parted (1808), st. 4.

Secret, Tear, Silence, Heart

“My feet will tread soft as a deer in the forest. My mind will be clear as water from the sacred well. My heart will be strong as a great oak. My spirit will spread an eagle's wings, and fly forth.”

Juliet Marillier (1948) New Zealand fiction writer

Strong, Water, Heart, Flying

“Nature is not always tricked in holiday attire, but the same scene which yesterday breathed perfume and glittered as for the frolic of the nymphs, is overspread with melancholy today. Nature always wears the colors of the spirit.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Nature and Selected Essays

Color, Nature, Holiday

“You can drag my body to school but my spirit refuses to go.”

Bill Watterson (1958) American comic artist

Source: The Essential Calvin and Hobbes

School

“When you win, you often lose, that's just a fact. There's no currency to straighten a warped spirit, or open a closed heart, a selfish heart…”

Abraham Verghese book Cutting for Stone

Source: Cutting for Stone

Heart, Selfishness

“One sip of this will bathe the drooping spirits in delight, beyond the bliss of dreams.”

John Milton Comus

Source: Comus

Dreams

“Rock'n'roll is a teenage sport, meant to be played by teenagers of all ages--they could be 15, 25 or 35. It all boils down to whether they've got the love in their hearts, that beautiful teenage spirit… -Calvin Johnson”

Michael Azerrad (1961) American musician and writer

Source: Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground, 1981-1991

Love, Age, Beauty, Sport

“Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.”

Max Ehrmann (1872–1945) American writer, poet, and attorney

Source: Desiderata: A Poem for a Way of Life

Personality

“The spirit of complaint is born out of an unwillingness to trust God with today.
Like the Israelites, it means you are spending your time looking back toward Egypt or wishing for the future all the while missing what God is doing right now.”

Priscilla Shirer (1974) American writer

God, Time, Future

“I left in love, in laughter, and in truth and wherever truth, love and laughter abide, I am there in spirit.”

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American comedian

Statement written weeks before his death in 1994, as quoted in "Unseen Bill Hicks Clip" in Esquire (3 February 2014) https://www.esquire.com/uk/culture/film/news/a5661/unseen-bill-hicks-clip/

Love, Truth, Laughter

“To me, reason is as spiritual as anything else, the beauty of reason seems to me indelible and ineffable and numinous… the spirit is after all the same word we use to describe… essence”

Stephen Fry (1957) English comedian, actor, writer, presenter, and activist

Beauty

“Riches seem to come to the poor in spirit, the poor in interest and joy. To put it straight - the very rich are a poor bunch of bastards”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Joy

“The dream is the liberation of the spirit from the pressure of external nature, a detachment of the soul from the fetters of matter.”

Sigmund Freud book The Interpretation of Dreams

Source: The Interpretation of Dreams

Dreams, Soul, Nature

“Take long walks in stormy weather or through deep snows in the fields and woods, if you would keep your spirits up. Deal with brute nature. Be cold and hungry and weary.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Source: On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Nature, Weather

“i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes”

E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet

65 - This poem was used by Eric Whitacre for an a capella SATB chorus titled "i thank you God".
XAIPE (1950)

God, Dreams, Nature, Tree

“But each time you use spirit, you're more likely to go crazy.”
“Already crazy about you, Sage.”

Richelle Mead book The Indigo Spell

Source: The Indigo Spell

Time

“Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen

Suffering

“The revolution is made through human beings, but individuals must forge their revolutionary spirit day by day”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

“I had been afraid of the awful presence of the river, which was the soul of the river, but through her [Ultima] I learned that my spirit shared in the spirit of all things.”

Rudolfo Anaya book Bless Me, Ultima

Source: Bless Me, Ultima

Soul, Learning

“And you know, these things don't last forever.'

I know, Mandy. Nothing does.'

That's the spirit.”

Scott Westerfeld book So Yesterday

Source: So Yesterday

“This miracle of me is mine to own and keep, and mine to guard, and mine to use, and mine to kneel before…The fortune of my spirit is not to be blown into coins of brass and flung to the winds as alms for the poor of spirit.”

Ayn Rand book Anthem

Source: Anthem (1937)

“Fear is an enemy that can be killed only at close range. The closest range of all is intimacy. The deeper the fear is embedded in one’s spirit, the more vulnerable it is.”

Andrew Vachss (1942) American writer and lawyer

Source: Haiku

Fear

“Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

For Men

“There are a lot of black-hearted, mean-spirited bastards in the world. It's important that we hold them to acount. But always remember thatmight be the most black-hearted and mean-spirited in the lot, so hold yourself the most accountable of all.”

Darren Shan (1972) Irish writer of English-language fiction under pen name, real name Darren O'Shaughnessy

Source: Zom-B Underground

World, Heart

“The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice.”

Saul D. Alinsky (1909–1972) American community organizer and writer

Source: Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals

Pain, World, Light

“She was so quiet. So reflective. And she could erase herself, her spirit, with a swiftness that truly startled, when she knew the people around her could not respect it.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

People

“I knew that when the great guiding spirit cleaves humanity into two antagonistic halves, I will be with the people.”

Ernesto Che Guevara (1928–1967) Argentine Marxist revolutionary

Source: The Motorcycle Diaries: A Journey Around South America

People

“The quickest way to kill the human spirit is to ask someone to do mediocre work.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

Way

“I believe that owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

“My body gnaws at me from one side and my spirit gnaws at me from the other.”

Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer

“It takes patience to appreciate domestic bliss; volatile spirits prefer unhappiness.”

George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism

Patience

“If you should find yourself in a place that is indifferent to you and there is someone there that your spirit stretches to, then that person is kin.”

Helen Oyeyemi book The Opposite House

Source: The Opposite House

Personality, Indifference

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. The mediocre mind is incapable of understanding the man who refuses to bow blindly to conventional prejudices and chooses instead to express his opinions courageously and honestly.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Letter to Morris Raphael Cohen, professor emeritus of philosophy at the College of the City of New York, defending the appointment of Bertrand Russell to a teaching position (19 March 1940).
1940s
Variant: Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence and fulfills the duty to express the results of his thoughts in clear form.

Courage, Understanding

“Those in whom the Spirit comes to live are God's new Temple. They are, individually and corporately, places where heaven and earth meet.”

N.T. Wright (1948) Anglican bishop

Source: Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense

God

“Joyful, joyful, joyful,
as only dogs know how to be happy
with only the autonomy
of their shameless spirit.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

Happiness, Dogs

“But I am dead certain--ba-dump-bump-ching--that I'm the first guy to lead an army of spirits in an assault from the spirit-world side… and had them start off screaming, "BOO!”

Jim Butcher book Ghost Story

Source: Ghost Story

World, Guy, Dead

“A quick temper, sharp tongue, and restless spirit were always getting her into scrapes, and her life was a series of ups and downs, which were both comic and pathetic.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Life

“Memory is a part of the present. It builds us up inside; it knits our bones to our muscles and keeps our hearts pumping. It is memory that reminds our bodies to work, and memory that reminds our spirits to work to: it keeps us who we are.~Candle”

Gregory Maguire book Son of a Witch

Source: Son of a Witch

Memory, Heart, Parting

“It's the same with spirit guises; show me a sweet little choirboy or a smiling mother and I'll show you the hideous fanged strigoi it really is. (Not always. Just sometimes. *Your* mother is absolutely fine, for instance. Probably.)”

Jonathan Stroud book The Ring of Solomon

Source: The Ring of Solomon

Smile

“I regret everything because it has just finished, and already when I was twelve, I lamented the time that had gone by. Even in the best of spirits, it's always been as though I wrestle with the present in a vain effort to stop its becoming the past.”

Andrew Solomon book The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Source: The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression

Effort, Time, Past

“I dance for no reason, for reasons you can't dance,
Call me an activist of intellectualized circumstance
You can't learn my steps until you unlearn your thoughts Spirit, soul, can't be store-bought.”

Saul Williams (1972) American singer, musician, poet, writer, and actor

Soul, Learning, Dance

“(a womanist)

3. Loves music. Loves dance. Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness. Loves struggle. Loves the Folk. Loves herself. Regardless.”

Alice Walker book In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Source: In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens: Womanist Prose

Love, Food, Music, Dance

“It was at that moment he realized that his spirit was truly human once more. For he no longer remembered how to be alone without being lonely.”

Neal Shusterman book Everwild

Source: Everwild

“I was reminded of the Four Immutable Laws of the Spirit: Whoever is present are the right people. Whenever it begins is the right time. Whatever happens is the only thing that could have happened. And when it's over, it's over.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Some Assembly Required: A Journal of My Son's First Son

People, Law, Time

“Nonviolence means avoiding not only external physical violence but also internal violence of spirit. You not only refuse to shoot a man, but you refuse to hate him.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement

Hate, Peaceful

“Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the colour in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty, and your animal spirits, and you will pass for a fine man.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

"On The Conduct of Life" (1822)

Health, Beauty, Animals, Personality

“Or perhaps it is some combination of spirit and desire, love and hope, some alchemy that we each possess and can put to use, if we first know where to look without flinching.”

Libba Bray book Rebel Angels

Source: Rebel Angels

Love, Hope

“Fear not, nor be dismayed at the appearance that is darkness, at the disguise that is evil, at the empty cloak that is death, for you have picked these for your challenges. They are stones on which you choose to whet the keen edge of your spirit.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: One

Death, Fear, Appearance, Evil

“There are adventures of the spirit and one can travel in books and interest oneself in people and affairs. One need never be dull as long as one has friends to help, gardens to enjoy and books in the long winter evenings.”

D.E. Stevenson (1892–1973) British writer

Source: Listening Valley

People, Books, Travel, Winter

“Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.”

Og Mandino book The Greatest Salesman in the World

Source: The Greatest Salesman in the World (1968), Ch. 9 : The Scroll Marked II, p. 59.
Context: Henceforth I will look upon all things with love and I will be born again. I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness because it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness because it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards because they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles because they are my challenge.
I will greet this day with love in my heart.

Love, Way, Star, Light

“To think what is true, to sense what is beautiful and to want what is good, hereby the spirit finds purpose of a life in reason.”

Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803) German philosopher, theologian, poet, and literary critic

Life, Beauty, Thinking, Sense

“Forgiveness is the economy of the heart.…forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.”

Hannah More (1745–1833) English religious writer and philanthropist

Forgiveness, Heart, Anger

“Our triumph over sorrow is not that we can avoid it but that we can endure it. And therein lies our hope; that in spirit we might become bigger than the problems we face.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness And Making Miracles

Hope, Problem

“To keep our faces toward change, and behave like free spirits in the presence of fate, is strength undefeatable.”

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist

Fate, Change, Powerful

“Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Self-Reliance
Source: Self Reliance
Context: A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.

“At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

“Our bodies aren't strangers,' he said, his voice ragged. 'Our spirits aren't strangers'. He held her face in his hands. 'Tell me what part of me is stranger to you and I'll destroy that part of me.'
And she wept to hear his words.”

Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer

Source: Quintana of Charyn

Parting

“It is easier to denature plutonium than it is to denature the evil spirit of man.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1940s <br class="br">Source: The Real Problem Is in the Hearts of Men http://books.google.com/books?id=AIHgK-p6mhgC&q=%22It+is+easier+to+denature+plutonium+than+it+is+to+denature+the+evil+spirit+of+man%22&pg=PA385#v=onepage, The New York Times Magazine ( June 23, 1946 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60715F63E5C14738DDDAA0A94DE405B8688F1D3)

Evil

“There is something in the human spirit that will survive and prevail, there is a tiny and brilliant light burning in the heart of man that will not go out no matter how dark the world becomes.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

World, Light, Heart

“Don't you see? I'm not the spirit of any age. I'm at odds with everything and always have been! I have never belonged anywhere with anyone at any time!”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

Age, Time

“I continue to dream and pray about a revival of holiness in our day that moves forth in mission and creates authentic community in which each person can be unleashed through the empowerment of the Spirit to fulfill God's creational intentions.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Source: How To Pray: The Best of John Wesley on Prayer

God, Dreams, Communication, Personality

“The greatest tales, well told, awaken the fears and longings of the listeners. Each man hears a different story. Each is touched by it according to his inner self. The words go to the ear, but the true message travels straight to the spirit.”

Juliet Marillier book Son of the Shadows

Source: Son of the Shadows

Fear, Travel

“But not like this: not with
the house just an afterimage, and my mom a spirit, and my dad… recycled.”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Carter Kane, Chapter 41
Source: The Red Pyramid

Moms, Housing

“She closed her eyes; and in the sweet slumber lying
her spirit tiptoed from its lodging place.
It's folly to shrink in fear, if this is dying;
for death looked lovely in her face.”

Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) Italian scholar and poet

Love, Death, Fear, Lying

“Don't reason in the mind just obey in the spirit.”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

Source: Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind

“Enemies can't break your spirit, only friends can.”

Arundhati Roy book The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Source: The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

“As I grow older, much older, I will experience many things, and I will hit rock bottom again and again. Again and again I will suffer; again and again I will get back on my feet. I will not be defeated. I won't let my spirit be destroyed.”

Banana Yoshimoto book Kitchen

Source: Kitchen (1988)

Suffering

“There is no worse screen to block out the Spirit than confidence in our own intelligence.”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Confidence, Intelligence

“Faith is ultimately a firm and certain knowledge of God's benevolence toward us, founded upon the truth of the freely given promise in Christ, both revealed to our minds and sealed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit”

John Calvin (1509–1564) French Protestant reformer

Source: Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2 Vols

God, Truth, Faith, Knowledge

“Truly, everything in this world depended on time. Time ripened all. If you had time, you succeeded in working the human mud internally and turning it into spirit. Then you did not fear death. If you did not have time, you perished.”

Nikos Kazantzakis book The Last Temptation of Christ

Source: The Last Temptation of Christ

Death, World, Fear, Time

“It’s the spirit here that counts. The time may be long, the vehicle may be strange or unexpected. But if the dream is held close to the heart, and imagination is applied to what there is close at hand, everything is still possible.”

Robert Fulghum book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Source: All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

Dreams, Imagination, Time, Heart

“Sometimes he used a spade in his garden, and sometimes he read and wrote. He had but one name for these two kinds of labor; he called them gardening. ‘The Spirit is a garden,’ said he”

Victor Hugo book Les Misérables

Source: Les Misérables

Reading

“I’m a free spirit who never had the balls to be free.”

Cheryl Strayed book Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

Source: Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail

“Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window, and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all.”

Joseph Heller book Catch-22

Source: Catch-22 (1961)
Context: Yossarian was cold, too, and shivering uncontrollably.... It was easy to read the message in his entrails. Man was matter, that was Snowden's secret. Drop him out a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit gone, man is garbage. That was Snowden's secret. Ripeness was all.

Secret

“The library is inhabited by spirits that come out of the pages at night.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Night