quotations and passages on spirit

We are not human beings having
a spiritual experience. We are
spiritual beings having a
human experience.

Teilhard de Chardin

spirit 2
for the purposes of this page, "soul" and
"spirit" are treated as synonyms.

Sadly, some people wait until they have a heart attack or ulcers,
or have a teenage child who gets into trouble, or until their spouse leaves them,
or the like, to attend to their soul needs. The disastrous experience pushes them to it.
But you don't have to wait for disaster. You can open yourself to the possibility
of nourishing your soul, and you can make it a priority. Take careful stock of the way
you spend your life energies doing things that are not so nourishing. Often,
in the middle adult years especially, people find that they have been busy
being productive in some task-oriented way, some way in which their souls
were excluded. The responsibilities of everyday life--taking the kids to school,
paying the bills, doing the grocery shopping, all the stuff that life requires
of mature adults--expand to fill the entire life.

Jean Shinoda Bolen

I believe that each of us was put on this earth to fulfill his or her potential for humanity, and the soul is that part of us that makes us truly human. The soul is what makes a human being a human being and not simply another creature on God's earth. The soul is not a physical entity, but instead refers to everything about us that is not physical--our values, memories, identity, sense of humor. Since the soul represents the parts of the human being that are not physical, it cannot get sick, it cannot die, it cannot disappear. In short, the soul is immortal.

Rabbi Harold Kushner

Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross

Whether you know it or not, one of the most important relationships in your life is with your Soul.
Will you be kind and loving to your Soul, or will you be harsh and difficult?
Many of us unknowingly damage our Souls with our negative attitudes and actions
or by simple neglect. By making the relationship with your Soul an important part of your life,
however, by honoring it in your daily routine, you give your life greater meaning
and substance. Use your experiences--all of them--as opportunities to nourish your Soul!

I believe that humans will not merely endure: they will prevail.
They are immortal, not because they alone among creatures have
an inexhaustible voice, but because they have souls,
spirits capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.

William Faulkner

Spirit

Man gets tired
Spirit don't
Man surrenders
Spirit won't
Man crawls
Spirit flies
Spirit lives when man dies

Man seems
Spirit is
Man dreams
The spirit lives
Man is tethered
Spirit is free
What spirit is, man can be

Mike Scott
(from The Waterboys' This Is the Sea)

Unrest of spirit is a mark of life.

Karl Menninger

Everything science has taught me--and continues
to teach me--strengthens my belief in the continuity of our spiritual existence after death.
Nothing disappears without a trace.

Wernher von Braun

All you need is deep within you waiting to unfold
and reveal itself. All you have to do is
be still and take time to seek what is within,
and you will surely find it.

Eileen Caddy

Are you aware that your spirit needs to be fed? Did you know that
your spirit would be delighted to partake in a feast of spiritual food?
How about a plate full of prayer? Or maybe a few hours of succulent
self-reflection. Perhaps a piping-hot selection of spiritual literature,
served by the side of a lake or under a tree, would satisfy your spiritual
hunger. Can you imagine feasting for a few hours on spiritually
uplifting music? What about some forgiveness à la mode, topped
with compassion? You cannot imagine how much your spirit would enjoy it.

Iyanla Vanzant

Delve within; within is the fountain of good,
and it is always ready to bubble up, if you always delve.

Marcus Aurelius

No great spiritual event befalls those who do not summon it.

Elbert Hubbard

Spirituality is an inner fire, a mystical sustenance that feeds our souls.
The mystical journey drives us into ourselves, to a sacred flame
at our center. The purpose of the religious experience is to develop
the eyes by which we see this inner flame, and our capacity to live
its mystery. In its presence, we are warmed and ignited.
When too far from the blaze, we are cold and spiritually lifeless.
We are less than human without that heat. Our connection to God is life itself.

Marianne Williamson

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My whole attitude to life is spiritual--a feeling of identification with all nature,
all mankind, all life, the whole of the past, the whole of the future.

Fenner Brockway

Our spirit is a being of nature quite indestructible and its activity continues
from eternity to eternity. It is like the sun, which seems to set only
to our earthly eyes, but which, in reality, never sets, but shines on unceasingly.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When I use the word spirituality, I don't necessarily mean religion;
I mean whatever it is that helps you feel connected to something
that is larger than yourself.

Dean Ornish

The balance and peace we seek for ourselves and our society won’t be achieved
through mental effort alone. Mind and spirit are meant to travel together,
with spirit leading the way. Until we make a conscious commitment to understand
and embrace our spiritual nature, we will endure the ache of living without
the awareness and guidance of the most essential part of ourselves.

Susan L. Taylor

We collect data, things, people, ideas, "profound experiences,"
never penetrating any of them. . . But there are other times.
There are times when we stop. We sit still. We lose ourselves
in a pile of leaves or its memory. We listen and breezes
from a whole other world begin to whisper.

James Carroll

Be patient with everyone, but above all with yourself. I mean, do not
be disturbed because of your imperfections, and always rise up
bravely from a fall. I am glad that you make a daily new beginning;
there is no better means of progress in the spiritual life than to be
continually beginning afresh, and never to think that we have done enough.

St. Francis de Sales

The spiritual life is, at root, a matter of seeing. It is all of life
seen from a certain perspective. It is waking, sleeping, dreaming,
eating, drinking, working, loving, relaxing, recreating, walking,
sitting, standing, and breathing. . . . spirit suffuses everything; and so
the spiritual life is simply life, wherever and whatever,
seen from the vantage point of spirit.

John Shea

Because we reside within God’s spirit and God’s spirit resides within us,
we are, quite literally, surrounded by and infused with the divine—though
we may frequently fail to recognize God’s presence. And this surrounding,
infusing spirit of God is fully and irreversibly committed to the well being
of creation and to its ongoing transformation. Furthermore, the divine spirit
is intimately and actively involved in your life, in my life, and in every life.

Gary Egeberg

In this noisy, restless, bewildering age, there is a great need for quietness of spirit.
Even in our communion with God we are so busy presenting our problems, asking for help,
seeking relief that we leave no moments of silence to listen for God’s answers.
By practice we can learn to submerge our spirits
beneath the turbulent surface waves of life and reach that depth of our being where
all is still, where no storms can reach us. Here only can we forget the
material world and its demands on us.

Alice Hegan Rice

The paralyzing effect of fear makes us as helpless as babies and
blinds us to the truth that God didn’t send us here to be powerless spectators,
but to become powerful initiators. We are spiritual beings having an
earthly experience, and we have the power to break the cycle of negativity
that is fueling a very dangerous world. It’s not only possible, it’s why we are here.

Susan L. Taylor

It’s tempting, when faced with a flaw of the spirit or other growth issue,
to pray for and expect immediate change. Sometimes it happens. But how lost
and confused we feel if our prayers don’t bring the instant relief we seek.
During such times, it’s good to remember that all facets of our nature—whether
traits we love about ourselves or those we want to improve—are part of our
God-created being. Even our less-than-desirable parts are there for a reason
and contain His lessons for us. When change seems to come slowly, don’t
give up hope. Consider that the timetable for your growth is in the Lord’s hands.
Continue your daily communion with God and trust your spirit to be healed in His time.

unattributed