Quotes about spirituality
page 21

“It is a test mentally, physically and spiritually at times. You must try to stay in the process of creating which will always have obstacles.”

Zachary Laoutides (1986) film actor

La France: Paris Tribune (French) 2016: Le drame Roumain, l’architecte Mexicain et le Grec Odyssey

Time

“The women who were best able to grow spiritually and psychologically had married men who were the least able to grow.”

Warren Farrell (1943) author, spokesperson, expert witness, political candidate

Source: The Boy Crisis (2018), pp. 71

Women, Men

“I feel a spiritual sense, and that sense is a connection between generations. Some of the lyrics are about connecting intuitively with Mother Earth, sometimes with our evil nature, sometimes with our goodness. I love to connect with my ancestors. Also, I need to express these concerns that are a part of my generation.”

Lila Downs (1968) Mexican American singer-songwriter

On striking a balance between traditional and contemporary issues in “Lila Downs Reminds Us of the Strength Women Bring to Latin America and its History” https://sheshredsmag.com/lila-downs-14/ in She Shreds (2018 May 3) <br class="br">Music and culture

Nature, Parting, Sense, Love

“There are many ways in which the intuition can be drawn into activity, and one of the most useful and potent is the study and interpretation of symbols. Symbols are the outer and visible forms of the inner spiritual realities, and when facility in discovering the reality behind any specific form has been gained, that very fact will indicate the awakening of the intuition.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Glamour: A World Problem (1950), Certain Preliminary Clarifications

Way, Study, Reality

“We are told by physicians and scientists that thousands of cells in the human brain are still dormant and, consequently, that the average human being uses only a small part of his equipment. The area of the brain which is found around the pineal gland is that connected with the intuition, and it is these cells which must be roused into activity before there can be any real intuitive perception which, when aroused, will manifest soul control, spiritual illumination, true psychological understanding of one's fellowmen, and a development of the true esoteric sense, which is the objective before you at this time.”

Alice A. Bailey (1880–1949) esoteric, theosophist, writer

Source: Glamour: A World Problem (1950), Certain Preliminary Clarifications, p. 2

Soul, Time, Understanding, Sense

“This is something that the novel does better than any other art form: reproducing the inner life and the inner experience of another person, particularly extreme forms of consciousness like grief, dreams, drunkenness, spiritual revelations, even insanity. Unlike movies, where we’re always onlookers, in novels we have the experience of being someone else: knowing another person’s soul from the inside. No other art form does that. And I like dealing with particularly intense inner experiences because I think that in many ways, this is what the novel does best.”

Donna Tartt (1963) American writer

On what novels convey to Tartt in “Interview with Donna Tartt” https://medium.com/@Powells/interview-with-donna-tartt-8d86a2438b41 in Medium (2015 Jul 13)

Soul, Personality, Dreams, Art

“The Mystery Schools are the schools in which the training and disciplines for initiation are received. Colleges will be created from which those seen as ready for initiation will be drawn. The Mystery Schools themselves will be of two categories: preparatory and advanced. The aim is that all humanity should have taken at least the first initiation (and thus enter the Spiritual Hierarchy) in this coming Aquarian cycle. There will be a preparatory school in Japan, an advanced one in China; a preparatory one in Scotland, an advanced one in Ireland; a preparatory one in the American Midwest, an advanced one in California; a preparatory one in New Zealand, and advanced one in Australia; a preparatory one in Greece, an advanced one in Egypt; a preparatory one in Sweden, an advanced one in Russia; a preparatory one in France, an advanced one in Italy. Thus, the world as a whole will be covered to give precise teaching to those disciples who are ready for preparation for initiation.”

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

Source: Maitreya's Mission Vol. II (1993), p. 181

Training, World, School

“The imbalances of our political, social, cultural, spiritual condition must be turned into revolutionary action to overthrow this corrupt system of dutch colonial exploitation.”

Joceline Clemencia (1952–2011) Curaçaoan writer

Source: Source https://triunfodisablika.wordpress.com/2020/11/29/an-anti-colonial-anthem-joceline-clemencia/

“The fact of reincarnation, then, is taken for granted, for not one of us could possibly tread the whole of that long course, could reach divine perfection, in the limits of a single life. But our man of the world need not know of reincarnation. He knows it in his spiritual memory, although his physical brain may not yet have recognized it, and his past, which is a fact, will push him onwards until Spirit and brain are in fuller communication, and that which is known to the man himself becomes known in the concrete mind.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Initiation, The Perfecting of Man (1923)

Past, Communication, Perfection, Memory

“The method of establishing perfect spiritual relationship with God that the Holy Quran teaches us is Islam, meaning devoting one's whole life to the cause of God and being occupied with the supplications which we have been taught in Surah Fatiha. This is the essence of Islam. Complete surrender to God and the supplication taught in Surah Fatihah are the only methods of meeting God and drinking the water of true salvation.”

Mirza Ghulam Ahmad book The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam

The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam. <br class="br">The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam <br class="br">Source: The Philosophy of the Teachings of Islam https://www.alislam.org/book/philosophy-teachings-islam/ – Alislam https://www.alislam.org/

God, Drink, Perfection, Water

“A man who is a spiritual man--a religious teacher--regards the universe from the standpoint of the Spirit from which everything is seen as coming from the One. When he stands, as it were, in the centre, and he looks from the centre to the circumference, he stands at the point whence the force proceeds, and he judges of the force from that point of radiation and he sees it as one in its multitudinous workings, and knows the force is One; he sees it in its many divergencies, and he recognises it as one and the same thing throughout. Standing in the centre, in the Spirit, and looking outwards to the universe, he judges everything from the standpoint of the Divine Unity and sees every separate phenomenon, not as separate from the One but as the external expression of the one and the only Life. But science looks at the thing from the surface. It goes to the circumference of the universe and it sees a multiplicity of phenomena. It studies these separated things and studies them one by one. It takes up a manifestation and judges it; it judges it apart; it looks at the many, not at the One; it looks at the diversity, not at the Unity, and sees everything from outside and not from within: it sees the external difference and the superficial portion while it sees not the One from which every thing proceeds.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Essays and Addresses, Vol. III- Evolution and Occultism (1913)

Study, Teachers, Universe, Science

“There is one thing that is eating the heart out of India, and that is modern materialism. There is one thing which is poisoning the mind of India, and that is the kind of science which is the teacher of materialism and works against Spirituality in the mind. How should I be able to tell you of the moral regeneration of India unless first I can strike at that which is piercing her heart and sucking out her very lifeblood. So--as I have been trained in the science of the West, trained in the knowledge of the physical Universe which is so much used to make men believe that nothing but the physical remains--I take for my first subject this undermining of materialism by science, and I attack it with the weapons that were once used to build it up.”

Annie Besant (1847–1933) British socialist, theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator

Source: Essays and Addresses, Vol. III- Evolution and Occultism (1913)

Heart, Teachers, Knowledge, Universe

“Orthodox Buddhism strictly forbids religious rites, and the learned lamas acknowledge that they cannot bestow spiritual enlightenment, which can only be acquired by personal intellectual effort. Yet the majority believe in the efficacy of certain ritualistic methods of the healing of the sick, securing material prosperity, the conquest of evil beings and the guidance of the spirits of the dead in the other world.”

Alexandra David-Néel (1868–1969) French explorer, spiritualist, Buddhist, anarchist and writer

Magic And Mystery In Tibet

Dead, Personality, Learning, World

“Before any final solution to American history can occur, a reconciliation must be effected between the spiritual owner of the land – American Indians – and the political owner of the land – American Whites. Guilt and accusations cannot continue to revolve in a vacuum without some effort at reaching a solution.”

Vine Deloria Jr. (1933–2005) American writer

pg. 75
God Is Red (1973)

History, Effort

“It should also be remembered that the Bible is written in the language of symbols, a special category of literature designed both to conceal and to reveal spiritual truths. Blindness is a symbol for temporary unawareness of spiritual light. The Christ partly represents spiritual intuitiveness. When one who is spiritually blind becomes intuitively awakened and active or, symbolically, enters the presence of the Christ and is healed by him, the scales are said to have fallen from his eyes. This I believe to be the true symbolical interpretation; for I look upon the story as one of the many beautiful miniature mystery dramas to be found in the Bible, portraying in allegory and symbol the soul’s awakening from darkness to light. Nevertheless, symbolism apart, the answer given by the Lord was, as stated above, doctrinally and technically correct.”

Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) New Zealand occultist

Reincarnation & Christianity (1967)

Soul, Light, Beauty, Truth

“The seeker for wisdom must... be prepared to delve deeply, to discover, and to interpret according to the classical keys, the numberless treasures of spiritual and occult wisdom and law which lie beneath the surface of all allegorical writings, littered with debris though that surface may appear to be.”

Geoffrey Hodson (1886–1983) New Zealand occultist

The Hidden Wisdom In The Holy Bible (1963), Volume III

Lie, Appearance, Wisdom, Law

“To know oneself is the equivalent of knowing God. But in order to acquire this knowledge, the disciple must submit to long and painful process of self-discipline. He must pass though all the test of the severest asceticism. Only after he has prepared himself, will the spiritual master open his heart and render him capable of perceiving the mysteries of the spiritual world.”

Shah Badakhshi Indian poet

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 202

God, Pain, Heart, Knowledge

“We cannot call up an army of peace but we can call up a spiritual army to implore peace, so that the fact that one day of peace is better than years of war will penetrate peoples’ consciences.”

Eduardo Martínez Somalo (1927–2021) cardinal of the Catholic Church

Cardinal Martinez reiterates Pope’s call for peace https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/cardinal_martinez_reiterates_popes_call_for_peace (August 9, 2006)

War, Peace, People

“We are surrounded by darkness and are afraid to venture out. Unless we do, however, we will not find God, because it is only by leaving what is safe and comfortable to pierce the darkness that we will find the light of God. This is a fitting metaphor for the spiritual pilgrimage that all of us have to make out of our self-contained comfort zone into the wide world of God and God’s people in the Catholic Church.”

Leonard Paul Blair (1949) Catholic archbishop

Pilgrims all, on the journey of life http://www.catholicchronicle.org/index-php/columns/pilgrims-all-on-the-journey-of-life.html (13 November 2010)

God, Light, People, Self-confidence

“The soul completely dominated by its desire for spiritual instruction is never sated.It is because of this that Wisdom says of herself, 'Those who eat Me will still be hungry' (Eccles. 24:21); while the Lord, who has instilled this divine desire in the soul, says of Mary who chose 'what is best' that it will not be taken away from her (cf. Luke 10:42).”

Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) Monk and archbishop

Source: To the Most Reverend Nun Xenia (c. 1344), p. 295

Soul, Wisdom

“If, therefore, we learn persistently to be detached from the good things of this world, we shall be able to unite the earthly appetite of the soul to its spiritual and intellectual aspiration, through the communion of the Holy Spirit who brings this about within us. For unless His divinity actively illumines the inner shrine of our heart, we shall not be able to taste God's goodness with the perceptive faculty undivided, that is, with unified aspiration.”

Diadochos of Photiki (400–486) Byzantine saint

§ 28
On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination (480 AD)

Soul, God, Learning, Heart

“Spiritual discourse always keeps the soul free from self-esteem, for it gives every part of the soul a sense of light, so that it no longer needs the praise of men.”

Diadochos of Photiki (400–486) Byzantine saint

§ 11
On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination (480 AD)

Soul, Light, Self-confidence, Sense

“In fact, the spiritual detriment we unconsciously suffer, in every province of our affairs, from this our prostrate respect to power of speech is incalculable.”

Thomas Carlyle book Latter-Day Pamphlets

1850s, Latter-Day Pamphlets (1850), Stump Orator (May 1, 1850)

Suffering

“Anybody can they say they are being "spiritual"”

Ken Wilber (1949) American writer and public speaker

and they are, because everybody has some type and level of concern. Let us therefore see their actual conception, in thought and action, and see how many perspectives it is in fact concerned with, and how many perspectives it actually takes into account, and how many perspectives it attempts to integrate, and thus let us see how deep and how wide runs that bodhisattva vow to refuse rest until all perspectives whatsoever are liberated into their own primordial nature.
The Eye of Spirit : An Integral Vision for a World Gone Slightly Mad (1997)

“Spiritual evolution is the progressive advance of mankind toward a state of things in which the light of ethical perfection shall be reflected from the face of human society; that is, in which all men shall live and move and have their being in mutually promoting the highest life of each and all. It means that the object of social reformation shall not be a mere change in the conditions under which men live, but a change in human nature itself. It means that we shall look forward consciously to the breaking forth of new powers in ourselves, to the release, through our own efforts, of capacities dimly latent in us.”

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

Some Characteristics of the American Ethical Movement (1925)

Perfection, Men, Light, Effort

“The condition of all progress is experience. We go wrong a thousand times before we find the right path. We struggle, and grope, and hurt ourselves until we learn the use of things, and this is true of things spiritual as well as of material things. Pain is unavoidable, but it acquires a new and higher meaning when we perceive that it is the price humanity must pay for an invaluable good.”

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

Section 8 : Suffering and Consolation
Life and Destiny (1913)

Hurt, Pain, Time, Learning

“Creation spirituality replaced a patriarchal spirituality rooted in notions of fall and redemption.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics (2014), p.106.

“A man provides leadership.
A man provides direction, caution, and advice to others.
A man provides emotional and spiritual support.
A man provides stability and order.
A man provides companionship and good company.
A man provides identity.
A man provides an example.
All of these things require personal sacrifices of time, dedication, and effort. And from where does the strength and inspiration for that come? Or, in other words, what is worth living for, sacrificing for, and even dying for?”

William G. Boykin (1948) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Source: Man to Man: Rediscovering Masculinity in a Challenging World (2020), p. 5

Support, Time, Personality, Effort

“The centre of all our efforts in caring for the sick must be the person himself or herself. Our attention must be directed to each person at this particular moment of their journey of life. In our modern world, and even within our health system, we face the danger of depersonalisation. Too easily, we can focus on procedures and techniques, on the task at hand and the hoped-for outcome. The challenge is to remain focused on the particular person before us, on their physical well-being and also on their emotional, mental and spiritual well-being. It is their particular fears and hopes, struggles and frailties that we are called to receive and to carry with them.”

Albert LeGatt (1953) Catholic bishop

World Day of the Sick https://www.archsaintboniface.ca/media/Archeveque-Archbishop/World-Day-of-the-Sick-2015_1.pdf (February 11, 2015)

Fear, World, Personality, Life

“Just as a candle cannot burn without fire, men cannot live without a spiritual life.”

Gautama Buddha (-563–-483 BC) philosopher, reformer and the founder of Buddhism

Life, Men

“If the many, the specialists, gain the day, it will be the end of science as we know it - of great science. It will be a spiritual catastrophe comparable in its consequences to nuclear armament.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

K. Popper, The Myth of the Framework, London: Routledge. As quoted in The Cambridge Companion to Karl Popper https://books.google.it/Brooks?id=ha6yDAAQBAJ&of=PA173 (2016) by J. Shearmur, G. Stokes

Science

“Virtue is the conformity of the soul to the divine Model and to the spiritual work; conformity or participation. The essence of the virtues is emptiness before God, which permits the divine Qualities to enter the heart and radiate in the soul. Virtue is the exteriorization of the pure heart.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 17, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Virtue

Soul, God, Heart

“Sanctity is essentially contemplativity: it is the intuition of the spiritual nature of things; profound intuition which determines the entire soul, hence the entire being of man.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 13, 978-1-93659700-0]
Spiritual path, Holiness

Soul, Nature

“It (my book) is a picture of the many spiritual conflicts that have passed between God and my soul, before I could subject mine to the will of Jesus, my Master, in whose service I have now found perfect freedom.”

George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest

Maycock, A L, Nicholas Ferrar of Little Gidding. SPCK, London, 1938
Letter to Nicholas Ferrar (1632-33)

Soul, God, Freedom, Perfection

“Trust in God is the last station on the Divine Path for nothing remains to be attained through mystical efforts after having experienced spiritual satisfaction.”

Abu Nasr as-Sarraj

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 83

God, Effort

“I don’t have any particular work. I pray for the Jesuits, relatives and friends. Every morning I give communion to the senior and sick fathers in the infirmary. Sometimes Jesuit fathers and brothers come to me for spiritual advice. I try my best to help them.”

Linus Nirmal Gomes (1921–2021) Roman Catholic Bishop

Centenarian Jesuit bishop inspires generations with his profound faith https://www.ucanews.com/news/centenarian-jesuit-bishop-inspires-generations-with-his-profound-faith/89539# (September 16, 2020)

Help

“With the help of two concepts that are traditionally opposed—science and spirituality—we humbly reintroduce psychedelics back into the cultural dialogue.”

Joe Rogan (1967) American martial artist, podcaster, sports commentator and comedian

DMT: The Spirit Molecule (2010)

Help, Science

“Spirituality is the search for perfect understanding, for Self-discovery, for Truth, and it must take place right where you are. The Truth that you are searching for must already be right here, for it is timelessly present.”

Mooji (1954) Jamaican spiritual teacher

Greater than Sky, Vaster than Space, (2018), Part I

Understanding, Search, Perfection, Truth

“Though it seemed so beautiful, the world around us was eternally dangerous. The price of spiritual freedom, we learnt, was eternal vigilance. Such a high price for so long.”

Tim Winton book The Turning

Short story, 'Damaged Goods' - p.60
Short stories, The Turning (2004)

Freedom, Beauty, World

“In the spiritual world, it's only the self-conscious individual that is considered the greatest and not the conqueror of the world. In reality, conquering temptation is the toughest task among them all.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Reality, World

“The devil is our spiritual policeman. Unless you wish to do good, then you will be saved from getting a ticket or going to court.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“We are becoming more spiritual, in our minds, but in reality, it is the opposite of spiritually that is practised by the mystics.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Reality

“Even the caterpillar must endure the dark journey before gaining wings and transforming into a butterfly. It is their spiritual struggle in life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life

“He performed great miracles, like turning water into wine, thus making people to become spiritually drunken.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

People, Water, Wine

“It would be deemed foolish to repay a spiritual separation that Adam and Eve committed, with the death of the body only.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Death

“Mood swings quickly spread like a virus in the spiritual world. Only mentally able individuals are welcome at this last stage of life.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Life, World, Mood

“Religion and science are all in pursuit of reaching the spiritual realm, thus transcending bodily things.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Religion, Science

“Scientific experiences and practices can easily lead to spirituality, rather than trying to memorize more facts.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“When it comes to spirituality, words are unnecessary. They will always fail you. All you can do is to live the experience.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Whenever books seem so boring, it's a good time to turn to nature as the best teacher. This is the true path of spirituality or the discovery of reality.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Teachers, Books, Time, Nature

“Whenever you become separated from God, you must think about it in the spiritual way, and not on a physical level.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, Thinking, Way

“Renunciation (Zuhd) is a noble station and it is the basis of all spiritual progress. It is the first step on the way to God. Without renunciation one cannot hope to make progress in this respect.”

Abu Nasr as-Sarraj

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

God, Hope, Way

“In the elementary sense of the word, faith is our assent to a truth that transcends us; but spiritually speaking, it is our assent, not to transcendent concepts, but to immanent realities, or to Reality as such; now this Reality is our very substance.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2019, Esoterism as Principle and as Way, World Wisdom, 234, 978-1-93659765-9]
Spiritual life, Faith

Faith, Sense, Truth, Reality

“The fact that spiritual realism, or faith, pertains to the intelligence of the heart and not to that of the mind, enables one to understand that in spirituality, the moral qualification takes precedence over the intellectual qualification, and by far.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2013, From the Divine to the Human, World Wisdom, 71, 978-1-936597-32-1]
Spiritual life, Faith

Faith, Understanding, Intelligence, Heart

“The worldly or imperfect man journeys through life as if on a long road; if he is a believer, he sees God above him in the far distance, and also at the end of this road. However the spiritual man stands in God, and life passes before him like a stream.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2013, Vers l’Essentiel : lettres d’un maître spirituel, Les Sept Flèches, 94, 978-2-97003-258-8]
Spiritual life, Outline

God, Life

“The chief difficulty of the spiritual life is to maintain a simple, qualitative, heavenly position in a complex, quantitative, earthly setting.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2016, La conscience de l’Absolu, Hozhoni, 20, 978-2-37241-020-5]
Spiritual life, Outline

Life

“Without fear of God as a basis, nothing is possible spiritually, for the absence of fear is a lack of self-knowledge.”

Frithjof Schuon (1907–1998) Swiss philosopher

[2012, Echoes of Perennial Wisdom, World Wisdom, 30, 978-1-93659700-0]
God, Reverential fear and love

God, Knowledge, Fear

“I'm not religious or anything like that. [But] a little more spiritual something or other.. .A little more 'feeling.'”

Joan Mitchell (1925–1992) American painter

And there's my word again. You know?.. .And I find that.. ..[pauses], I find that uninspiring, and if I hung around too much I might find it very deadly. If I let it enter my studio. And it would be hard not to have it enter.
Tape number two, side A
1980s, Oral history interview with Joan Mitchell, 1986

Feeling

“Honestly, for me, acting is just a very spiritual thing where I’m just present with the words I read on the screen, and when it’s awful and it kind of makes your skin crawl, then that’s what comes up and that’s what I do.”

Penn Badgley (1986) American actor and musician

Source: "Penn Badgley weighs in on the worst thing his 'Gossip Girl' character ever did" in TODAY https://www.today.com/popculture/penn-badgley-worst-thing-dan-humphrey-did-gossip-girl-t235509 (22 October 2021)

Reading

“There are several different meanings of the words "religion" and "spirituality", all of which are important. The whole point about an integral or comprehensive approach is that it must find a way to believably include all of those important meanings in a coherent whole.”

Ken Wilber (1949) American writer and public speaker

Source: Which Level of God Do You Believe In? (2004)

Religion, Way

“Bishops and priests should bring the spiritual dimension to political and social life. The poor will be exploited and used as a pretext for partisan or other agendas.”

Orlando Antonini (1944) Italian priest

Source: Outgoing Nuncio to Paraguay says Lugo harmed the Church by entering politics https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/17102/outgoing-nuncio-to-paraguay-says-lugo-harmed-the-church-by-entering-politics (14 September 2009)

Life

“Can we grasp that the only requirement in order that this may be so is organization, a combined world organization founded upon the spiritual principle of sharing and cooperation; and that this would change the world from the state it is now in to a comparative Heaven?”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

World, Change

“Let us lay down as the first foundation stone of our work the determination to seek for a World Design which is strictly in accordance with the highest spiritual principles which have been given to man down the ages, irrespective of whether we think the result possible or not.”

Vera Stanley Alder (1898–1984) British artist

Source: Humanity Comes of Age, A study of Individual and World Fulfillment (1950), Chapter II Planning a Model World

Age, World, Thinking

“We have been so persistently taught that prayer consists in asking God for some human need that we have lost sight of our spiritual identity and have become a race of praying beggars.”

Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) American mystic

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

God

“Hindus have become devoid of self-confidence simply because they have ceased to take legitimate, well-informed, and conscious pride in their spiritual, cultural, and social heritage.”

Sita Ram Goel (1921–2003) Indian activist

Source: Defence of Hindu Society (1983)

Confidence, Self-confidence

“The black man's brake, if we are to believe, is the lack of prophets and spiritual masters”

Bavua Ntinu André (1939–2013) Spiritual master of the PSV

https://www.lephareonline.net/grand-maitre-bavua-a-une-solution-pour-lafrique-noire/ Grandmaster Bavua has a solution for black Africa D-I.K, lephare, Grandmaster Bavua has a solution for black Africa on June 01, 2010.

“I think we can expect a great spiritual strengthening.”

Stanislav Zvolenský (1958) Slovak Roman Catholic archbishop

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)

Thinking

“The church has always been the center of our our life for our family, it's our spiritual home and I thinks it's kept us balanced and helped us get through some tough times, I don't know where I'd be without my faith.”

Gary W. Janak (1962) American Catholic auxiliary bishop

Source: SBSL Original - Father Gary Janak https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH0cm_Zvzzc (April 11, 2019)

Home, Family, Faith, Time

“All our great spiritual leaders are dead. Moses is dead, Muhammad is dead, Buddha is dead, the Reverend Jim Jones is dead, and I'm not feeling so hot myself!”

Brother Theodore (1906–2001) German-American monologuist and comedian

Dead, Feeling

“Freedom from lower qualities is an essential qualification required for spiritual progress.”

Abu Sa'id Abu'l-Khayr (967–1049) poet

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 95

Freedom

“Patience is a true means for reaching God. In patience the soul rejoices spiritual bliss and kinship with the Beloved. This is stage when the seeker of God heartily welcomes afflictions which appear on the way to Him”

Abu Talib al-Makki Scholar, mystic

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 86

Soul, God, Affliction, Appearance

“The spiritual state of nearness of God is a sign of true saintliness. This ultimately results in the experience of love and longing for early union.”

Qutbuddin Bakhtiar Kaki (1173–1235) Indian Sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 264

God, Love

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

Muhammad ibn Abd al-Jabbar ibn al-Hasan al-Niffari

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 80

God, World

“Search your heart within where lies the key to all Divine mysteries, and where God has placed treasures of Divine, mystical and spiritual powers.”

Bu Ali Shah Qalandar (1209–1324) Indian Sufi saint

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam (2004), p. 270

God, Search, Heart

“We find ourselves in a time of global uncertainty and in such a time are called to offer the common man Christian hope, perspective for the future and faith in eternity. The people of today actually hunger the most for God. They seek solace in various surrogates and, therefore, experience disappointment. Nothing can give man meaning and peace except God. The Church should open its doors to all people. We Greek Catholics, with our mystical spirituality, ecclesiastical tradition and the wealth of our liturgy, can and should offer the living Christ, his joy, love, forgiveness and hope to the people around us in our own characteristic way. With great hope, I look toward the future of our Eparchy of Križevci and anticipate days of spiritual revival. Whoever truly wants to follow Christ will inevitably encounter resistance and persecution from the world. However, let us not lose hope. With God we are always in the majority and always on the winning side. May our many holy ancestors be our role models and support us on this path.”

Milan Stipić (1978) Croatian Greek-Catholic bishop

Source: The Episcopal Ordination of Msgr. Milan Stipić as the Bishop of Križevci https://ika.hkm.hr/english/the-episcopal-ordination-of-msgr-milan-stipic-as-the-bishop-of-krizevci/ (October 2020)

Wealth, Love, Hunger, God

“We often think that yoga is only about the combination of postures, breathing, and meditation, but it results in a lot of internal work, too. That work has led me to understand my own liberation — not just of my physical body, but of my emotional and spiritual bodies. A huge part of that has been recognizing that I am a sexual being, and that's not something that I need to apologize for or be ashamed of.”

Jessamyn Stanley (1987) American yoga teacher and author

Source: Jessamyn Stanley's Road To Sexual Liberation, Michelle Toglia, July 8, 2020, 2020 https://www.bustle.com/wellness/jessamyn-stanley-sexual-liberation,

Understanding, Thinking, Parting

“The Church has two missions. Its first mission is to address its own members; not just those who were baptised but also those who after being baptised have chosen to embrace the Church's teachings and embark on a spiritual journey that passes through the Church. When I speak as the bishop of these people I have to put everything in the light of the Gospel. When I speak to society at large, and I know there are people who embrace this position and others who don't, I have a duty to pass on the Church's message.”

Paul Cremona (1946) Catholic archbishop

Source: Lead us not into temptation https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/lead-us-not-into-temptation.314940 (27 June 2010)

Light, People

“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

“Gnostic has an elevated spiritual rank. He eats less, sleeps less and repose less. He is like shinning moon who radiates others and bears the burden of everything on earth, shows right path like light and saturates the heart like water giving it new life.”

Sari al-Saqati (772–867) Iraqi sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam, p. 43

Sleep, Light, Water, Heart

“Every nearest to Divine presence is given spiritual acumen in proportion to his proximity to Divine sanctuary.”

Sari al-Saqati (772–867) Iraqi sufi

Source: The Sayings and Teachings of the Great Mystics of Islam, p. 43

“The spiritual journey is not about heaven and finally getting to a place that’s really swell. In fact, that way of looking at things is what keeps us miserable.”

Pema Chödron (1936) American philosopher

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times (1997)

Way

“In the spiritual path there are constant failures and set-backs. Repeated endeavour, constant vigilance and undaunted perseverance are needed.”

Swami Sivananda (1887–1963) Indian philosopher

Sayings of Swami Sivanada (1947)

Failure, Perseverance

“If I have my breakfast, then I can think, and that includes spiritual things, or whatever it is I want to do, meditate or read a book or watch a movie, and so I respect the food because that comes first for me. I think the movie shows the power of the experience that we all have with food.”

Nicolas Cage (1964) American actor

"Interview: Nicolas Cage digs deep about ‘Pig,’ his favorite and most underrated of his own movies, and the role he’d love to play" in Awards Watch https://awardswatch.com/interview-nicolas-cage-digs-deep-about-pig-his-favorite-and-most-underrated-of-his-own-movies-and-the-role-hed-love-to-play/ (14 January 2022)

Books, Reading, Food, Thinking

“His Holiness the Dalai Lama and I are spiritual friends. There is no difference between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and me. Some people are trying to create discord between us. This will not succeed.”

Choekyi Gyaltsen (1938–1989) 10th Panchen Lama of the Gelug School of Tibetan Buddhism

As quoted in 1985, "Tibet’s Panchen Lama: 25 Years After" https://tibet.net/tibets-panchen-lama-25-years-after/

People

“Deeds rather than words express my concept of the part religion should play in everyday life. I have watched constantly that in our movie work the highest moral and spiritual standards are upheld, whether it deals with fable or with stories of living action.”

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

1963, Deeds Rather Than Words (1963)

Religion, Life, Parting

“The more spiritual we become, the more normal and human we will be.”

Witness Lee (1905–1997) Chinese Christian preacher

Life-study of Ezekiel - p. 52, of Witness Lee - By Living Stream Ministry, ISBN 0-7363-0755-9

“[D]oes not the mutual love of two beings complete them both, and call forth in each of them higher and more irreducible qualities? That is, in proportion as this love tends the more to true unity, because it is more spiritualized, so are these qualities more fully, more strictly personal.”

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

Source: Catholicism (1938), Ch. XI. "Person and Society", p. 179

Personality, Love

“Conscientious objection is a universally established right; I think that sometimes the problem is how it is understood or put into practice. Doctors and nurses have the right to have their moral, spiritual, and personal convictions respected, but never in detriment to or contempt of anyone.”

Rogelio Cabrera López (1951) Roman Catholic archbishop

Church supports conscientious objection for medical professionals in Nuevo Leon https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/42683/church-supports-conscientious-objection-for-medical-professionals-in-nuevo-leon (27 October 2019)

Personality, Universe, Problem, Thinking

“The petty bias of personal taste can no longer hide either excrescence or spiritual poverty in the name of style.”

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

A Testament (1957)

Personality

“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

“Is false abstraction always the consequence of spiritual degeneration?”

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

A Testament (1957)

Falseness

“From the social point of view as from all others, instability is as it were at its maximum, disorder and confusion are everywhere, and humanity has surely never been further from the 'Terrestrial Paradise' and from primordial spirituality.”

René Guénon (1886–1951) French metaphysician

Source: Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power (1929), pp. 77–78

“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

“The core of spirituality is creation in the name of Human ennoblement.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

“Here enter you, pure, honest, faithful, true
Expounders of the Scriptures old and new.
Whose glosses do not blind our reason, but
Make it to see the clearer, and who shut
Its passages from hatred, avarice,
Pride, factions, covenants, and all sort of vice.
Come, settle here a charitable faith,
Which neighbourly affection nourisheth.
And whose light chaseth all corrupters hence,
Of the blest word, from the aforesaid sense.

The holy sacred Word,
May it always afford
T' us all in common,
Both man and woman,
A spiritual shield and sword,
The holy sacred Word.”

Francois Rabelais book Gargantua and Pantagruel

Source: Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532–1564), Gargantua (1534), Chapter 54 : The inscription set upon the great gate of Theleme.

Light, Faith, Sense

“I think that everything that is really good and beautiful, the inner, moral, spiritual and sublime beauty in men and their works, comes from God, and everything that is bad and evil in the works of men and in men is not from God, and God does not approve of it.
But I cannot help thinking that the best way of knowing God is to love many things. Love this friend, this person, this thing, whatever you like, and you will be on the right road to understanding Him better, that is what I keep telling myself. But you must love with a sublime, genuine, profound sympathy, with devotion, with intelligence, and you must try all the time to understand Him more, better and yet more. That will lead to God, that will lead to an unshakable faith.”

Vincent Van Gogh (1853–1890) Dutch post-Impressionist painter (1853-1890)

1880s, 1880, Letter to Theo (Cuesmes, July 1880)

Personality, Intelligence, Understanding, Thinking

“This is the threat to our lives. We all face it. We all operate in our society in relation to a system. Now is the system going to eat you up and relieve you of your humanity or are you going to be able to use the system to human purposes? … If the person doesn't listen to the demands of his own spiritual and heart life and insists on a certain program, you're going to have a schizophrenic crack-up. The person has put himself off center. He has aligned himself with a programmatic life and it's not the one the body's interested in at all. And the world's full of people who have stopped listening to themselves.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Episode 1, Chapter 12
The Power of Myth (1988)

Personality, Life, People, World

“Doing good to others will make you feel like a better person: physically, psychologically and spiritually. Maybe gestures like this don't cost you anything, but for those who receive them… they have great value.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Fare del bene agli altri ti farà sentire una persona migliore: fisicamente, psicologicamente e spiritualmente. Magari gesti così non ti costano nulla, ma per chi li riceve... hanno un grande valore.
Source: prevale.net

Personality, Feeling

“It is a person's virtuousness that is an inexhaustible source of his spiritual energy in serving humanity.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Personality

“The path of spirituality is a conscious journey of a person leading to a life imbued with humanistic values, self-realization, a profound understanding of the world, and the experience of beauty.”

Zafar Mirzo (1972)

Personality, World, Understanding, Beauty

Quotes about spirituality page 21

Quotes about spirituality
page 21