Quotes about spiritual
page 11

Mark Satin photo
Julian of Norwich photo
Aron Ra photo

“I knew Muhammad Mujeeb personally. He was Head of the Department of History and Shaikh-ul-Jamia… In 1972, however, there was a mild 'confrontation' between him and me. Sometime that year there was a Selection Committee meeting for the post of Professor of History in Delhi University. I was then a Reader and candidate for the post of Professor. Mujeeb was an 'expert'… Mujeeb asked me a question: "Why did the Hindu convert to Islam?" It was a loaded question carrying the suggestion that the initiative for conversion came from the Hindu. In all probability Mujeeb expected me to say that the Hindus suffered from the injustices of the caste system, that Islam was spiritually so great and its message of social equality so attractive that the Hindus queued up for conversion the moment they came in contact with Islamic invaders. A tactful candidate (not a truthful one) would have said what Mujeeb desired, but my answer was different. I said that Hindus did not (voluntarily) convert to Islam; they were converted, often forcibly, as told by Muslim chroniclers. Muslim invaders and rulers felt proud of their achievements in the fields of loot and destruction, enslavement and proselytization. Their chroniclers, writing at their command or independently, speak about their achievements in these spheres in glowing terms. They repeatedly write about the choice offered to the Hindus - "Islam or death". Mujeeb expected a different answer. I was not selected.”

Source: Theory and Practice of Muslim State in India (1999), Chapter 6

Kancha Ilaiah photo
Stephen R. Covey photo
Henry Suso photo
Wassily Kandinsky photo

“If until now colour and form were used as inner agents, it was mainly done subconsciously. The subordination of composition to geometrical form is no new idea (cf. the art of the Persians). Construction on a purely spiritual basis is a slow business, and at first seemingly blind and unmethodical. The artist must train not only his eye but also his soul, so that it can weigh colours in its own scale and thus become a determinant in artistic creation. If we begin at once to break the bonds that bind us to nature and to devote ourselves purely to combination of pure colour and independent form, we shall produce works that are mere geometric decoration, resembling something like a necktie or a carpet. Beauty of form and colour is no sufficient aim by itself, despite the assertions of pure aesthetes or even of naturalists obsessed with the idea of "beauty". It is because our painting is still at an elementary stage that we are so little able to be moved by wholly autonomous colour and form composition. The nerve vibrations are there (as we feel when confronted by applied art), but they get no farther than the nerves because the corresponding vibrations of the spirit which they call forth are weak. When we remember however, that spiritual experience is quickening, that positive science, the firmest basis of human thought is tottering, that dissolution of matter is imminent, we have reason to hope that the hour of pure composition is not far away. The first stage has arrived.”

Wassily Kandinsky (1866–1944) Russian painter

Quote from Concerning the Spiritual in Art, Wassily Kandinsky, Munich, 1912; as cited in Kandinsky, Frank Whitford, Paul Hamlyn Ltd, London 1967, p. 15
1910 - 1915

Gautama Buddha photo
John Stuart Mill photo
Alexej von Jawlensky photo

“My art in the last period has all been in small format, but my paintings have become even deeper and more spiritual, speaking purely through colour... And now I leave these small – but to me – important works to the future and to the people who love art.”

Alexej von Jawlensky (1864–1941) Russian painter

from: 'Lebenserinnerungen', 1938 - after 1937 Jawlensky couldn't paint any longer because of severe arthritis
Source: 1936 - 1941, Life Memories' (1938), p. 249

Mary Baker Eddy photo
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin photo

“In the spiritual life, as in all organic processes, everyone has their optimum and it is just as harmful to go beyond it as not to attain it.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

On Christian Asceticism, p. 100
The Divine Milieu (1960)

Georg Brandes photo

“Suppose we consider, not the rationality of holism, but its spirituality. Holism traditionally says that a collection of beings may have a collective property that cannot be inferred from the properties of its members.”

C. West Churchman (1913–2004) American philosopher and systems scientist

Source: 1960s - 1970s, The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (1979), p. 212; cited in Janet Judy McIntyre-Mills (2003) Critical Systemic Praxis for Social and Environmental Justice. p. 65

Haile Selassie photo
Kurt Schwitters photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
Dylan Moran photo
Varadaraja V. Raman photo
Leo Igwe photo

“For too long, African societies have been identified as superstitious, consisting of people who cannot question, reason or think critically. Dogma and blind faith in superstition, divinity and tradition are said to be the mainstay of popular thought and culture. African science is often equated with witchcraft and the occult; African philosophy with magical thinking, myth-making and mysticism, African religion with stone-age spiritual abracadabra, African medicine with folk therapies often involving pseudoscientific concoctions inspired by magical thinking. Science, critical thinking and technological intelligence are portrayed as Western — as opposed to universal — values, and as alien to Africa and to the African mindset. An African who thinks critically or seeks evidence and demands proofs for extraordinary claims is accused of taking a “white” or Western approach. An African questioning local superstitions and traditions is portrayed as having abandoned or betrayed the essence of African identity. Skepticism and rationalism are regarded as Western, un-African, philosophies. Although there is a risk of overgeneralizing, there are clear indicators that the continent is still socially, politically and culturally trapped by undue credulity. Many irrational beliefs exist and hold sway across the region. These are beliefs informed by fear and ignorance, misrepresentations of nature and how nature works. These misconceptions are often instrumental in causing many absurd incidents, harmful traditional practices and atrocious acts.”

Leo Igwe (1970) Nigerian human rights activist

A Manifesto for a Skeptical Africa (2012)

Ai Weiwei photo

“One of the reasons religions are widely accepted is spiritual laziness and its resulting fear.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

Ai Weiwei on Twitter in English (beta). (December 24, 2010) http://aiwwenglish.tumblr.com/
2010-, Twitter feeds, 2010-12

David Whitmer photo

“Of course we were in the spirit when we had the view, for no man can behold the face of an angel, except in a spiritual view, but we were in the body also, and everything was as natural to us, as it is at any time.”

David Whitmer (1805–1888) Book of Mormon witness

Letter of David Whitmer to Anthony Metcalf, March 1887. Quoted in Richard Lloyd Anderson, Investigating the Book of Mormon Witnesses (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1981), p. 86.

Kuruvilla Pandikattu photo

“The spiritual freedom, once relished and tasted/ Is ready to give up everything.”

Kuruvilla Pandikattu (1957) Indian philosopher

Source: Freedom: Foster It! p. 117. (2004)

Gerhard Richter photo
William Jennings Bryan photo
Abraham Joshua Heschel photo

“Spiritual life begins to decay when we fail to sense the grandeur of what is eternal in time.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Prologue p. 6
The Sabbath (1951)

Sun Myung Moon photo
Adyashanti photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
Ursula K. Le Guin photo
Maimónides photo
Voltairine de Cleyre photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
H.V. Sheshadri photo
Ernest Barnes photo
Sri Aurobindo photo
Calvin Coolidge photo
Jane Addams photo

“If the Settlement seeks its expression through social activity, it must learn the difference between mere social unrest and spiritual impulse.”

Jane Addams (1860–1935) pioneer settlement social worker

Source: Twenty Years at Hull-House (1910), Ch. 9

Adi Da Samraj photo
Stanley Baldwin photo
Sam Harris photo

“The self really is an illusion—and realizing this is the basis of spiritual life.”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Sam Harris, Interview with The Minimalists (19 August 2014)
2010s

Helena Petrovna Blavatsky photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
Aldo Capitini photo
Piet Mondrian photo

“He [ Jan Toorop, an older and famous Dutch religious painter] sees the Catholic faith as A. Besant, [a British Theosophiste and women's right activiste, then] views it in its primeval period: the Catholic religion as it was originally, is the same as Theosophy, is it not? I remained broadly in agreement with Toorop, and I could tell that he goes to the depths, and that he is searching for the spiritual.”

Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) Peintre Néerlandais

Quote in Mondrian's letter to Cornelis Spoor, Domburg October 1910; Van Ginneken and Joosten, op. cit. (note 26), pp. 263; as cited in Mondrian, - The Art of Destruction, Carel Blotkamp, Reaktion Books LTD. London 2001, p. 47
1910's

Prince photo

“Once launched into some activity, conceiving of himself as an instrument of God’s will, the ascetic did not stop to ask about the meaning of it all. On the contrary, the more furious his activity, the more the problem of what his activity meant receded from his mind. … To meet the demands of the day was as near as one could come to doing the pious thing, in this—God’s—world. To trouble about meaning was really an impiety and, of course, frivolous, because futile. For the question of meaning, therefore, neither the ascetic nor the therapeutic type feels responsible, if his spiritual discipline has been successful. The recently fashionable religious talk of “ultimate concern” makes no sense either in the ascetic or in the therapeutic mode. To try to relate “ultimate concern” to everyday behavior would be exhausting and nerve-shattering work; indeed, it could effectively inhibit less grandiose kinds of work. Neither the ascetic nor the therapeutic bothers his head about “ultimate concern.” Such a concern is for mystics who cannot otherwise enjoy their leisure. In the workaday world, there are no ultimate concerns, only present ones. Therapy is the respite of every day, during which the importance of the present is learned, and the existence of what in the ascetic tradition came to be called the “ultimate” or “divine” is unlearned.”

Philip Rieff (1922–2006) American sociologist

The Triumph of the Therapeutic (1966)

Martin Luther King, Jr. photo

“And so I say to you today, my friends, that you may be able to speak with the tongues of men and angels; you may have the eloquence of articulate speech; but if you have not love, it means nothing. Yes, you may have the gift of prophecy; you may have the gift of scientific prediction and understand the behavior of molecules; you may break into the storehouse of nature and bring forth many new insights; yes, you may ascend to the heights of academic achievement so that you have all knowledge; and you may boast of your great institutions of learning and the boundless extent of your degrees; but if you have not love, all of these mean absolutely nothing. You may even give your goods to feed the poor; you may bestow great gifts to charity; and you may tower high in philanthropy; but if you have not love, your charity means nothing. You may even give your body to be burned and die the death of a martyr, and your spilt blood may be a symbol of honor for generations yet unborn, and thousands may praise you as one of history's greatest heroes; but if you have not love, your blood was spilt in vain. What I'm trying to get you to see this morning is that a man may be self-centered in his self-denial and self-righteous in his self-sacrifice. His generosity may feed his ego, and his piety may feed his pride. So without love, benevolence becomes egotism, and martyrdom becomes spiritual pride.”

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

1960s, Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967)

Rajiv Gandhi photo
Ted Malloch photo

“There’s such a thing as spiritual capital that has economic function and potential.”

Ted Malloch (1952) American businessman

Source: Doing Virtuous Business (Thomas Nelson, 2011), p. 15.

Susan Sarandon photo
Newton Lee photo

“Never underestimate the power of spiritual expression. It is the power of fusion, bringing and holding all things together in the true design in the creative process.”

Martin Cecil, 7th Marquess of Exeter (1909–1988) Marquess of Exeter

The Third Sacred School, Volume 7, Chapter 80
As of a Trumpet, On Eagle's Wings, The Third Sacred School

Michael Badnarik photo
Sri Aurobindo photo

“The ascent of man into heaven is not the key, but rather his ascent here into the spirit and the descent also of the Spirit into his normal humanity and the transformation of this earthly nature. For that and not some post mortem salvation is the real new birth for which humanity waits as the crowning movement of its long obscure and painful course…. Therefore the individuals who will most help the future of humanity in the new age will be those who will recognise a spiritual evolution as the destiny and therefore the great need of the human being…. They will especially not make the mistake of thinking that this change can be effected by machinery and outward institutions; they will know and never forget that it has to be lived out by each man inwardly or it can never be made a reality for the kind…. Failures must be originally numerous in everything great and difficult, but the time comes when the experience of past failures can be profitably used and the gate that so long resisted opens. In this as in all great human aspirations and endeavours, an a priori declaration of impossibility is a sign of ignorance and weakness, and the motto of the aspirant's endeavour must be the solvitur ambulando of the discoverer. For by the doing the difficulty will be solved. A true beginning has to be made; the rest is a work for Time in its sudden achievements or its long patient labour….”

Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) Indian nationalist, freedom fighter, philosopher, yogi, guru and poet

July, 1918
India's Rebirth

Samuel Butler photo
Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah photo

“On the other hand, Allah directs man to the spiritual purity through the act of giving that is represented by charity that the pious pays as "Zakat" and "Sadakat" almsgiving, and other financial obligations.”

Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah (1935–2010) Lebanese faqih

The mutual love between Allah and His servants http://english.bayynat.org.lb/Doctrines/Themutual1.htm

Yukteswar Giri photo
Sri Chinmoy photo
Bill Hybels photo

“Busyness is the unrivaled archenemy of spiritual authenticity.”

Bill Hybels (1951) American writer

Too Busy Not to Pray (2008, InterVarsity Press)

John Gray photo
Walter Rauschenbusch photo
Lewis Mumford photo

“The vast material displacements the machine has made in our physical environment are perhaps in the long run less important than its spiritual contributions to our culture.”

Lewis Mumford (1895–1990) American historian, sociologist, philosopher of technology, and literary critic

"The Drama of the Machines" in Scribner's Magazine (August 1930)

Leo Tolstoy photo
Ernesto Che Guevara photo
Muhammad Iqbál photo
Sri Aurobindo photo
John Muir photo

“With inexpressible delight you wade out into the grassy sun-lake, feeling yourself contained in one of Nature's most sacred chambers, withdrawn from the sterner influences of the mountains, secure from all intrusion, secure from yourself, free in the universal beauty. And notwithstanding the scene is so impressively spiritual, and you seem dissolved in it, yet everything about you is beating with warm, terrestrial, human love, delightfully substantial and familiar.”

John Muir (1838–1914) Scottish-born American naturalist and author

" The Glacier Meadows of the Sierra http://books.google.com/books?id=zj2gAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA478", Scribner's Monthly, volume XVII, number 4 (February 1879) pages 478-483 (at page 479); modified slightly and reprinted in The Mountains of California http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/writings/the_mountains_of_california/ (1894), chapter 7: The Glacier Meadows
1890s, The Mountains of California (1894)

Coretta Scott King photo

“I'm fulfilled in what I do… I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes — the finer things of life — would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.”

Coretta Scott King (1927–2006) American author, activist, and civil rights leader. Wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.

As quoted in Mary Lou Retton's Gateways to Happiness (2000) by Mary Lou Retton, David Bender, p. 213

Adi Da Samraj photo
R. H. Tawney photo
Bhakti Tirtha Swami photo
Manmohan Acharya photo
Eugene V. Debs photo
Emanuel Swedenborg photo
Henry George photo
Gregory Palamas photo

“The soul completely dominated by its desire for spiritual instruction is never sated.”

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) Monk and archbishop

The Philokalia Vol. 4, Faber and Faber.

Joseph H. Hertz photo
Paul of Tarsus photo
John Campbell Shairp photo
Steph Davis photo
Timothy Leary photo
Stanley Baldwin photo
Ralph Vaughan Williams photo
Rousas John Rushdoony photo