“We should treat our minds, that is, ourselves, as innocent and ingenuous children, whose guardians we are, and be careful what objects and what subjects we thrust on their attention. Read not the Times. Read the Eternities.” – Henry David Thoreau, Life Without Principle
“You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering”. – Wernher von Braun
“I remember once going to a class in yoga where the teacher said that, spirituality speaking, if you believed that you had achieved enlightenment you have merely arrived at your limitation.” – Milton Glaser’s rule #8
“Mission is revealing to others their fundamental beauty, value and importance in the universe, their capacity to love, to grow and to do beautiful things and to meet God.” – Jean Vanier.
“Since the 1950s, reports of major depression have increased tenfold…People are more anxious, trust government and business less, and get divorced more often…There is, though, one group of Americans that is imperturbably sunny: the Amish. Their depression rates are negligibly low relative to the rest of society’s. Their happiness levels are consistently high.” – James Surowiecki. See also: Better Off
[Adam, a mentally handicapped man] taught me that the heart is more important than the mind…Didn’t Thomas Aquinas say that human beings are thinking animals? Well, Adam didn’t think. Adam had a heart, a real human heart. I suddenly realized that what makes a human being human is the heart with which he can give and receive love. – Henri Nouwen.
One of the things that I am becoming aware of more and more is that from the very beginning of my life there have been two voices. one voice saying, “Henri, be sure you make it on your awn, be sure you can do it yourself, be sure you become an independent person. Be sure that I can be proud of you.” And, another voice saying “Henri, whatever you are going to do, even if you don't do anything very interesting in the eyes of the world, be sure you stay close to the heart of Jesus, be sure you stay close to the lave of God.” You can sort of guess which voice was whose. – Henri Nouwen.
“I distrust the perpetually busy; always have. The frenetic ones spinning in tight little circles like poisoned rats. The slower ones, grinding away their fourscore and ten in righteousness and pain. They are the soul-eaters.” – Mark Slouka.