Quotessence
Home / Authors / Evelyn Underhill Books
Evelyn Underhill

Evelyn Underhill Books

Writer

Worship

A source page for quotes linked to Evelyn Underhill.

0 quotes

The Grey World

A source page for quotes linked to Evelyn Underhill.

0 quotes

The Lost Word

A source page for quotes linked to Evelyn Underhill.

0 quotes

Related Quotes

“For the most part, of course, the presence of the great spiritual universe surrounding us is no more noticed by us than the pressure of air on our bodies, or the action of light. Our field of attention is not wide enough for that; our spiritual senses are not sufficiently alert. Most people work so hard at developing their correspondence with the visible world, that their power of correspondence with the invisible is left in a rudimentary state.”

PeopleWorldHardStatesEnoughBodyLightActionSpiritualUniverseCoursesLeftAttentionSeeingAirFieldsPressureWideSensesInvisibleDevelopingVisibleCorrespondenceGreat Spiritual
Author:Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“But so many Christians are like deaf people at a concert. They study the programme carefully, believe every statement make in it, speak respectfully of the quality of the music, but only really hear a phrase now and again. So they have no notion at all of the mighty symphony which fills the universe, to which our lives are destined to make their tiny contribution, and which is the self-expression of the Eternal God.”

PeopleBelieveSelfChristianUniverseSpeakQualityChristianityStudyOur LivesExpressionEternalNotionTinyStatementsPhrasesContributionConcertsDestinedDeafSymphonySelf ExpressionProgrammes
Book:Advent with Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“The practical life of a vast number of people is not, as a matter of fact, worth while at all. It is like an impressive fur coat with no one inside it. One sees many of these coats occupying positions of great responsibility. Hans Andersen's story of the king with no clothes told one bitter and common truth about human nature; but the story of the clothes with no king describes a situation just as common and even more pitiable.”

PeopleHumansMatterFactsStoriesCommonNumbersResponsibilitySituationHuman NaturePositionKingsClothesPracticalsBitterRealismCoatsImpressiveFurMatter Of FactGreat ResponsibilityFur CoatsPractical Life
Book:Evelyn Underhill: Essential Writings
Create image

“Do not entertain the notion that you ought to advance in your prayer. If you do, you will only find you have put on the brake instead of the acceleration. All real progress in spiritual things comes gently, imperceptibly, and is the work of God. Our crude efforts spoil it. Know yourself for the childish, limited and dependent soul you are. Remember that the only growth which matters happens without our knowledge and that trying to stretch ourselves is both dangerous and silly. Think of the Infinite Goodness, never of your own state.”

IfsThinkingKnowsTryingRealSoulMatterStatesGodHappensChristianRememberSpiritualReligionGrowthWorkPrayerEffortChristianityKnowledgeProgressDangerousOughtGoodnessInfinitePersonal GrowthNotionSillyGentleDependentKnow YourselfAdvancementSpoilOur PrayersStretchingCrudeAdvancingBrakeAccelerationChildishness
Author:Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“Mysticism, according to its historical and psychological definitions, is the direct intuition or experience of God; and a mystic is a person who has, to a greater or less degree, such a direct experience -- one whose religion and life are centered, not merely on an accepted belief or practice, but on that which the person regards as first hand personal knowledge.”

FirstsPersonsHandsBeliefPracticeGreaterDegreesDirectRegardHistoricalDefinitionsIntuitionAcceptedPsychologicalMysticismMysticPersonal Knowledge
Author:Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“It is immediately apparent, however, that this sense-world, this seemingly real external universe - though it may be useful and valid in other respects - cannot be the external world, but only the Self's projected picture of it ... The evidence of the senses, then, cannot be accepted as evidence of the nature of ultimate reality; useful servants, they are dangerous guides.”

WorldMayRealSelfRealityUniverseDangerousEvidenceUltimateGuidesAcceptedSensesServantUltimate Reality
Book:Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Man’s Spiritual Consciousness
Create image

“A saint is simply a human being whose soul has ... grown up to its full stature, by full and generous response to its environment, God. He has achieved a deeper, bigger life than the rest of us, a more wonderful contact with the mysteries of the Universe; a life of infinite possibility, the term of which he never feels that he has reached.”

FeelsHumansSoulUniverseTermHuman BeingsEnvironmentWonderfulMysteryPossibilityBiggerInfiniteResponseSaintDeeperContactGenerousStatureInfinite Possibilities
Book:Lent With Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“The soul's house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are few soundproof partitions in it. Only when the conviction - not merely the idea - that the demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, rules the whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory and drowning all the quieter voices by their din.”

WayLittlesIdeasSoulWholeSpiritDiesHouseVoicePlansDemandBuiltConvictionNoiseDrowningConvenientInconvenientOratoryPartition
Book:Advent with Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“It is far easier, though not very easy, to develop and preserve a spiritual outlook on life than it is to make our everyday actions harmonize with that spiritual outlook. For though we may renounce the world for ourselves, refuse the attempt to get anything out of it, we have to accept it as the sphere in which we are to co-operate with the Spirit, and try to do the Will.”

WorldTryingMayActionSpiritualSpiritEasyAcceptingEasierEverydayRefusePreservesSpheresOutlookRenounceOutlook On Life
Author:Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds. Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again.”

ThinkingInspirationalHas BeensMightEvilInterestMinutesPerspectiveGoes OnPicksSorryRefuseShakesApologyMight Have BeenMorbidMisdeedsPick Yourself Up
Book:The Making of a Mystic: New and Selected Letters of Evelyn Underhill
Create image

“Idealism, though just in its premises, and often daring and honest in their application, is stultified by the exclusive intellectualism of its own methods: by its fatal trust in the squirrel-work of the industrious brain instead of the piercing vision of the desirous heart. It interests man, but does not involve him in its processes: does not catch him up to the new and more real life which it describes. Hence the thing that matters, the living thing, has somehow escaped it; and its observations bear the same relation to reality as the art of the anatomist does to the mystery of birth.”

MenHeartDoeArtRealMatterRealityProcessInterestBrainVisionMysteryHonestBearsBirthRelationMethodReal LifeObservationMysticismApplicationDaringIdealismExclusiveLiving ThingsPremisesThings That MatterIntellectualismSquirrelsIndustriousPiercings
Book:The Complete Christian Mystic: A Practical, Step - By - Step Guide for Awakening to the Presence of God
Create image

“In mysticism that love of truth which we saw as the beginning of all philosophy leaves the merely intellectual sphere, and takes on the assured aspect of a personal passion. Where the philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks; and speaks, consequently, the disconcerting language of first-hand experience, not the neat dialectic of the schools. Hence whilst the Absolute of the metaphysicians remains a diagram —impersonal and unattainable—the Absolute of the mystics is lovable, attainable, alive.”

FirstsLooksPhilosophyHandsSchoolPassionSpeakLanguageSawsAliveIntellectualAspectAbsolutesRemainsPhilosopherArguingMysticismSpheresAssuredNeatMysticLovableUnattainableDialecticsDiagramsFirst Hand Experience
Book:Mysticism: A Study in the Nature and Development of Spiritual Consciousness
Create image