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Howard Thurman

Howard Thurman Quotes

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Famous Howard Thurman Quotes

“Fear is one of the persistent hounds of hell that dog the footsteps of the poor, the dispossessed, the disinherited. There is nothing new or recent about fear—it is doubtless as old as the life of man on the planet. Fears are of many kinds—fear of objects, fear of people, fear of the future, fear of nature, fear of the unknown, fear of old age, fear of disease, and fear of life itself. Then there is fear which has to do with aspects of experience and detailed states of mind. Our homes, institutions, prisons, churches, are crowded with people who are hounded by day and harrowed by night because of some fear that lurks ready to spring into action as soon as one is alone, or as soon as the lights go out, or as soon as one’s social defenses are temporarily removed. The ever-present fear that besets the vast poor, the economically and socially insecure, is a fear of still a different breed. It is a climate closing in; it is like the fog in San Francisco or in London. It is nowhere in particular yet everywhere. It is a mood which one carries around with himself, distilled from the acrid conflict with which his days are surrounded. It has its roots deep in the heart of the relations between the weak and the strong, between the controllers of environment and those who are controlled by it. When the basis of such fear is analyzed, it is clear that it arises out of the sense of isolation and helplessness in the face of the varied dimensions of violence to which the underprivileged are exposed. Violence, precipitate and stark, is the sire of the fear of such people. It is spawned by the perpetual threat of violence everywhere. Of course, physical violence is the most obvious cause. But here, it is important to point out, a particular kind of physical violence or its counterpart is evidenced; it is violence that is devoid of the element of contest. It is what is feared by the rabbit that cannot ultimately escape the hounds.”

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Author:Howard Thurman
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“In the face of all the uncertainties that surround any decision, the wise man acts in the light of his best judgment illumined by the integrity of his profoundest spiritual insights. Then the rest is in the hands of the future and in the mind of God. The possibility of error, of profound and terrible error, is at once the height and the depth of man’s freedom. For this, God be praised!”

ChoicesFreedomInsightDecision MakingFree WillChoices And ConsequencesSpiritual Insight
Book:Meditations of the Heart
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“We are all of us indebted to a vast host of anonymous persons without whom some necessity would not have been available, some good which came to us, we would have missed. It is not too farfetched to say that living is itself an act of interdependence. . .However self-sufficient we are, our strength is always being supplied by others unknown to us whose paths led them down our street or by our house at the moment that we needed the light they could give. . . It is the way of life; it is one of the means by which God activates Himself in the texture of human life and human experience.”

SpiritualityTheologyTranspersonal PsychologyBibliotherapySpiritual Counseling
Book:Meditations of the Heart
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“Despite all the positive psychological attributes of hatred we have outlined, hatred destroys finally the core of the life of the hater. While it lasts, burning in white heat, its effect seems positive and dynamic. But at last it turns to ash, for it guarantees a final isolation from one’s fellows. It blinds the individual to all values of worth, even as they apply to himself and to his fellows. Hatred bears deadly and bitter fruit. It is blind and nondiscriminating.”

LoveHateJesusJusticePowerSocial JusticeDiscriminationPowerlessPowerlessnessClassicism
Book:Jesus and the Disinherited
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“Where refugees seek deliverance that never comesAnd the heart consumes itself as if it would live,Where children age before their timeAnd life wears down the edges of the mind,Where the old man sits with mind grown cold,While bones and sinew, blood and cell, go slowly down to death,Where fear companions each day's life,And Perfect Love seems long delayed.CHRISTMAS IS WAITING TO BE BORN:In you, in me, in all mankind.”

IfsMenMindHeartChildrenLongSeemsAgeWaitingBornPerfectBloodMankindColdEdgesBonesCellsEach DayCompanionOld ManRefugeeDeliveranceDelayedPerfect Love
Book:Howard Thurman: Essential Writings
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“The radical tension between good and evil, as man sees it and feels it, does not have the last word about the meaning of life and the nature of existence. There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste.”

MenWorldFeelsDoeLastsSpiritEvilExistenceWasteLaysRadicalTensionMeaning Of LifeGood And EvilLast Words
Book:A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience and Public Life
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“I say that creeds, dogmas, and theologies are inventions of the mind. It is the nature of the mind to make sense out of experience, to reduce the conglomerates of experience to units of comprehension which we call principles, or ideologies, or concepts. Religious experience is dynamic, fluid, effervescent, yeasty. But the mind can't handle these so it has to imprison religious experience in some way, get it bottled up. Then, when the experience quiets down, the mind draws a bead on it and extracts concepts, notions, dogmas, so that religious experience can make sense to the mind.”

WayMindReligiousPrinciplesDrawsConceptsNotionHandleInventionTheologyIdeologyMake SenseCreedsDogmaUnitsFluidComprehensionBeadsReligious Experience
Author:Howard Thurman
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“The years, the months, the days, and the hours have flown by my open window. Here and there an incident, a towering moment, a naked memory, an etched countenance, a whisper in the dark, a golden glow these and much more are the woven fabric of the time I have lived.”

YearsMomentsHoursMemoriesDarkMonthsWindowNakedGoldenFabricIncidentsHere And ThereWovenCountenance
Book:With Head and Heart: The Autobiography of Howard Thurman
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“Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive”

PeopleWorldLifeInspirationalNeedsSoulWisdomMotivationalSuccessAsksChangeWorkCourageLearningAlivePositiveSpringIndividualityBeing TrueThis LifeAfrican AmericanMinistersBeing YourselfTheologianPositive LifeMeaningful LifeCreative PeoplePeople In Your LifeCreative PersonIt Is What It IsLove Of My LifeWhat Is LifeI Love LifeInspirations Being YourselfBe Honest With YourselfGood LivingLove Your LifeHopes DreamsLove Is LifeAmazing LifeDeep LifeLife And InspirationalI Love My LifeFinding Your PathLife Best InspirationalMind HeartDreaming And DoingLife And ChoicesStaying Positive In LifeLove Life HappinessHopes In LifeNew Chapter In LifeLife Love And HappinessPositive Life ChangingLife Is AmazingThinking About Life
Author:Howard Thurman
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“Ask yourself what makes you come alive.”

PassionAsksAliveSelf EsteemInspirational LifeSelf LoveLive LifeSetting GoalsMy PassionMaking ChangesSelf EmpowermentLife GoalChanged My LifeLife CoachPositive EnergyRespect YourselfI Live My LifeSelf Esteem And ConfidenceFree WorldLive With PassionFollow Your PassionGreat PassionTime Of My LifeLive Your DreamsEnjoy YourselfTime For A ChangeFavorite PlacesJust Love YourselfJust Live Your LifeMotivation Goal SettingInspiring Self EsteemYour Purpose In LifePassion And SuccessTime And ChangeSeeing YourselfSoul LifeLive With PurposeGreat Self EsteemPurposefulnessInspiring YourselfStrong PassionEnthusiasm PassionFulfillment In LifeDreams And PassionInspirational PassionLost YourselfPassion For ArtInspiring Life ChangingPlaces In Your LifePurpose And PassionEnergy And Life
Author:Howard Thurman
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“It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and the powerful and against the weak and oppressed-this, despite the gospel.”

Has BeensChristianStrongSidesBlackPowerfulMovementWeakWeightDespiteDeniedOppressedBlack History
Book:A Strange Freedom: The Best of Howard Thurman on Religious Experience and Public Life
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“When the song of the angels is stilled, When the star in the sky is gone, When the kings and princes are home, When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins: ...To find the lost, To heal the broken, To feed the hungry, To release the prisoner, To rebuild the nations, To bring peace among brothers, To make music in the heart.”

HeartHomeSongLostNationsStarsGoneSkyBrotherBrokenKingsAngelHungryHealChristmasReleasePrisonerFlocksShepherdsStars In The SkyChristmas SongKings And PrincesChristmas Music
Book:Howard Thurman: Essential Writings
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