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Parker J. Palmer

Parker J. Palmer Quotes

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Famous Parker J. Palmer Quotes

“The human soul doesn't want to be fixed, it simply wants to be seen and heard. The soul is like a wild animal - tough, resilient and shy. When we go crashing through the woods shouting for it to come out so we can help it, the soul will stay in hiding. But if we are willing to sit quietly and wait for a while, the soul may show itself.”

IfsWantHumansMaySoulHelpingShowsWaitingAnimalHeardWillingToughWoodsFixedShyHidingHuman SoulShoutingResilientWild Animal
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“In a true community we will not choose our companions, for our choices are so often limited by self-serving motives. Instead, our companions will be given to us by grace. Often they will be persons who will upset our settled view of self and world. In fact, we might define true community as the place where the person you least want to live with always lives”

WorldWantPersonsSelfFactsMightChoicesGivenCommunityViewsGraceUpsetMotiveCompanionServingOur ChoicesSelf Serving
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“I am very, very uneasy with churches that have basically said, "Well, since that's what people want and that's what sells, then were going to do our worship services like Hollywood productions. We're going to have a lot of bells and whistles. We're going to have high entertainment value, and it is going to have a lot of gloss and glitter."”

PeopleWantWellsSaidValuesChurchWorshipHollywoodSellsProductionsEntertainmentBellsGlitterUneasyGlossWorship Service
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“If we want to grow as teachers -- we must do something alien to academic culture: we must talk to each other about our inner lives -- risky stuff in a profession that fears the personal and seeks safety in the technical, the distant, the abstract.”

IfsWantCultureGrowsStuffTeacherSafetyProfessionAliensAbstractAcademicInner Life
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“I want to learn how to hold the paradoxical poles of my identity together, to embrace the profoundly opposite truths that my sense of self is deeply dependent on others dancing with me and that I still have a sense of self when no one wants to dance.”

WantStillsSelfTogetherIdentityOppositesEmbraceDancingDependentSense Of SelfParadoxical
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“I now understand what Nelle Morton meant when she said that one of the great tasks in our time is to "hear people to speech." Behind their fearful silence, our students want to find their voices, speak their voices, have their voices heard. A good teacher is one who can listen to those voices even before they are spoken-so that someday they can speak with truth and confidence.”

PeopleWantSaidSpeakVoiceBehindsSilenceTeacherHeardTeachingStudentsSpeechTasksOur TimeSomedayFearfulGood Teacher
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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“Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about-quite apart from what I would like it to be about-or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions…..Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live-but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.”

IfsWorldWantTryingHeartDoeI CanRealMatterHelpingValuesMy OwnIdentityListeningStandardsIntentionWho I AmVocationEarnestMy Own LifeWillfulness
Book:Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
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“The people who help us grow toward true self offer unconditional love, neither judging us to be deficient nor trying to force us to change but accepting us exactly as we are. And yet this unconditional love does not lead us to rest on our laurels. Instead, it surrounds us with a charged force field that makes us want to grow from the inside out - a force field that is safe enough to take the risks and endure the failures that growth requires.”

PeopleWantTryingDoeSelfEnoughHelpingForceGrowsGrowthAcceptingRiskFieldsJudgingOffersSafeEndureUnconditional LoveSurroundTrue SelfUnconditionalLaurelsForce Fields
Book:A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
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“Let’s not forget that American democracy started with ‘We the People’ agreeing to work hard to create ‘a more perfect union.’ We’ve lost the idea that politics begins at home with what happens in families, in neighborhoods, in classrooms, in congregations. We called this democracy into being – and if we want to call this democracy back to its highest values, it’s got to be the us doing that calling. That’s not going to happen if ‘We the People’ don’t know how to talk to one another with civility and hold our differences in a creative, life-giving way.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayWantGivingIdeasHardHomeHappensValuesLostDifferencesPerfectForgetKnow HowCreativeDemocracyHard WorkCallingHighestUnionsNeighborhoodClassroomCivilityCongregationCreative LifeAmerican DemocracyGiving Way
Author:Parker J. Palmer
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“Every good teacher and every good parent has somehow learned to negotiate the paradox of freedom and discipline. We want our children and our students to become people who think and live freely, yet at the same time we know that helping them become free requires us to restrict their freedom in certain situations.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWantChildrenHelpingCertainParentFreedomSituationTeacherStudentsDisciplineOur ChildrenVery GoodParadoxGood TeacherGood ParentLive Free
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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