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Parker J. Palmer

Parker J. Palmer Quotes

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Famous Parker J. Palmer Quotes

“Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life. Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness - mine, yours, ours - need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life”

IfsNeedsGivingHumansMeanDoeUseDreamKnowingMinesPerfectionGive MeWholenessNew LifeParts Of LifeBrokennessUtopianDevastation
Book:A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
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“We continually make decisions in private which affect the commonweal, as the ecologists (to take but one example) have shown us. When I keep my house warmer than it needs to be, I consume fuel which might help someone else keep warm, or keep a job. When the food I eat is high on the protein chain I contribute to a maldistribution of protein around the world. When I teach my children to be primarily concerned with private gain, I diminish the ranks of public leadership in the rising generation.”

WorldNeedsChildrenHelpingMightJobsHouseDecisionTeachGenerationsExampleGainsConcernedEnvironmentalWarmChainsAround The WorldMy ChildrenRisingFuelSustainabilityDiminishProtein
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“Storytelling has always been at the heart of being human because it serves some of our most basic needs: passing along our traditions, confessing failings, healing wounds, engendering hope, strengthening our sense of community.”

NeedsHumansHeartCommunityHealingFailingTraditionWoundsPassingPassingsStorytellingBeing HumanStrengtheningBasic NeedsConfessing
Book:A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
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“I understand that there are forms of entertainment that can make people weep or jazz them up so they feel like they have had an experience. But I also know that an hour later that's faded and you are back to the difficult realities of your own life. And we need to help people know how to go beyond those difficulties to a place where God dwells.”

PeopleKnowsNeedsFeelsHelpingRealityFormDifficultHoursKnow HowDifficultyJazzEntertainmentFaded
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“We can teach a good, formal lesson on forgiveness as a Christian virtue and all the doctrines that are attached to it. But to be in a real-life situation, a work camp or a trip or some other activity with young people where real forgiveness needs to happen, that's a different situation altogether. And that is where the deepest learning will occur.”

PeopleNeedsDifferentRealHappensChristianYoungSituationTeachVirtueLessonsActivityReal LifeDoctrineCampsFormal
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“We must come together in ways that respect the solitude of the soul that avoid the unconscious violence we do when we try to save each other that evoke our capacity to hold another life without dishonoring its mystery never trying to coerce the other into meeting our own needs.”

WayNeedsTryingSoulTogetherViolenceMysterySolitudeCapacityMeetingsUnconsciousEvokeAnother LifeCoerce
Book:Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
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“Our equal and opposite needs for solitude and community constitute a great paradox. When it is torn apart, both of these life-giving states of being degenerate into deathly specters of themselves. Solitude split off from community is no longer a rich and fulfilling experience of inwardness; now it becomes loneliness, a terrible isolation. Community split off from solitude is no longer a nurturing network of relationships; now it becomes a crowd, an alienating buzz of too many people and too much noise.”

PeopleNeedsGivingStatesCommunityRichToo MuchLonelinessTerribleSolitudeEqualOppositesCrowdsNoiseIsolationParadoxSplitsFulfillingTornNurturingBuzzDegeneratesTorn Apart
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“... circles of trust ... are a rare form of community - one that supports rather than supplants the individual quest for integrity - that is rooted in two basic beliefs. First, we all have an inner teacher whose guidance is more reliable than anything we can get from a doctrine, ideology, collective belief system, institution, or leader. Second, we all need other people to invite, amplify, and help us discern the inner teacher's voice.”

PeopleNeedsFirstsTwoHelpingFormIndividualBeliefVoiceCommunityLeaderSupportTeacherIntegrityMindfulnessInstitutionsCirclesDoctrineIdeologyGuidanceCollectivesInvitesRootedQuestsBelief SystemsAmplify
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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