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Longing Quotes

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Longing Quotes

“We all yearn to fly. We are creatures of longing. We do not need to [physically fly] to be airborne. What I call the aerial instinct-the drive to transcend our present condition- is the defining characteristic of a human being. We are restless animals, eternal travelers who are forever in the process of becoming. Consciousness itself is a flight from the here and now to the beyond. Our reach always exceeds our grasp, which is what Heaven is for.”

NeedsHumansHeavenProcessHuman BeingsAnimalConsciousnessForeverConditionsBecomingCreaturesEternalLongingInstinctFlightCharacteristicsTravelerRestlessDefiningExceedHere And NowAirborne
Author:Sam Keen
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“The physical domain of the country had its counterpart in me. The trails I made led outward into the hills and swamps, but they led inward also. And from the study of things underfoot, and from reading and thinking, came a kind of exploration, myself and the land. In time the two became one in my mind. With the gathering force of an essential thing realizing itself out of early ground, I faced in myself a passionate and tenacious longing--- to put away thought forever, and all the trouble it brings, all but the nearest desire, direct and searching.”

ThinkingMindKindMadeTwoCountryDesireReadingForceRealizingForeverStudyTroubleLandEssentialsDirectLongingPassionateHillsExplorationInwardGatheringTrailsDomainSwampsCounterpartsTenacious
Author:John Haines
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“Much male fear of feminism is the fear that, in becoming whole human beings, women will cease to mother men, to provide the breast, the lullaby, the continuous attention associated by the infant with the mother. Much male fear of feminism is infantilism–the longing to remain the mother’s son, to possess a woman who exists purely for him.”

MenHumansWholeMotherHuman BeingsAttentionFeminismSonBecomingLongingMalesCeaseBreastsInfantBeing A WomanLullabyBecoming Whole
Book:On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978
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“I can negate everything of that part of me that lives on vague nostalgias, except this desire for unity, this longing to solve, this need for clarity and cohesion. I can refute everything in this world surrounding me that offends or enraptures me, except this chaos, this sovereign chance and this divine equivalence which springs from anarchy. I don't know whether this world has meaning that transcends it. But I know that I do not know that meaning and that it is impossible for me just now to know it. What can a meaning outside my condition mean to me? I can understand only in human terms.”

KnowsWorldNeedsHumansMeanI CanDesireTermChanceImpossibleConditionsThis WorldDivineSpringLongingUnityChaosSolveNostalgiaClarityAnarchyExistentialSovereignVagueCohesion
Book:The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays
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“The shadow-past is shaped by everything that never happened. Invisible, it melts the present like rain through karst. A biography of longing. It steers us like magnetism, a spirit torque. This is how one becomes undone by a smell, a word, a place, the photo of a mountain of shoes. By love that closes its mouth before calling a name.”

PastSpiritNamesHappenedCallingMountainMouthsShadowRainLongingShoesSmellInvisibleBiographiesUndoneSteersMagnetismTorque
Book:Fugitive Pieces
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“Father, let me be weak that I might loose my clutch on everything temporal. My life, my reputation, my possessions, Lord, let me loose the tension of the grasping hand. Even, Father, would I lose the love of fondling. How often I have released a grasp only to retain what I prized by 'harmless' longing, the fondling touch. Rather, open my hand to received the nail of Calvary, as Christ's was opened- that I, releasing all, might be released, unleashed from all that binds me now. He thought Heaven, yea, equality with God, not a thing to be clutched at. So let me release my grasp.”

HandsMightFatherHeavenChristLosesLordWeakLet MeLongingPossessionReputationReleaseTensionNailsGraspingClutchUnleashedCalvaryFondling
Author:Jim Elliot
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“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.”

HumansDoeSelfHardPurposeStrongNationsPresidentCommunityIdentityMaterialsHard WorkProudWorshipLongingDefinedEmptinessGoodsFaith In GodConsumptionConsumerismIndulgenceConsumingOverconsumptionSelf IndulgenceNo ConfidenceMalaiseStrong Family
Author:Jimmy Carter
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“It is a matter of glimpsing that in God's new creation, of which Jesus's resurrection is the start, all that was good in the original creation is reaffirmed. All that has corrupted and defaced it--including many things which are woven so tightly in to the fabric of the world as we know it that we can't imagine being without them--will be done away. Learning to live as a Christian is learning to live as a renewed human being, anticipating the eventual new creation in and with a world which is still longing and groaning for that final redemption.”

KnowsWorldHumansStillsMatterDoneChristianJesusHuman BeingsImagineCreationOriginalsLongingFinalsIncludingRedemptionResurrectionFabricWovenGroaning
Author:N. T. Wright
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“When longing is most intense separation is complete, and the purpose of separation, which was that Love might experience itself as Lover and Beloved, is fulfilled; and union follows. And when union is attained, the lover knows that he himself was all along the Beloved whom he loved and desired union with; and that all the impossible situations that he overcame were obstacles which he himself had placed in the path to himself. To attain union is so impossibly difficult because it is impossible to become what you already are! Union is nothing other than knowledge of oneself as the Only One.”

KnowsMightPurposeDifficultSituationPathImpossibleLoversLongingUnionsOneselfObstaclesSeparationIntenseBelovedFulfilledImpossible Situations
Author:Meher Baba
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“All you want is to be happy. All your desires, whatever they may be, are longing for happiness. Basically, you wish yourself well...desire by itself is not wrong. It is life itself, the urge to grow in knowledge and experience. It is choices you make that are wrong. To imagine that some little thing-food, sex, power, fame-will make you happy is to decieve oneself. Only something as vast and deep as your real self can make you truly and lastingly happy.”

WantWellsMayLittlesRealSelfDesireChoicesWishSexGrowsImagineFameLongingOneselfUrgesLittle ThingsImagine ThatMake You HappyReal SelfChoices You MakeKnowledge And Experience
Author:Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj
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“I loved the quiet places in Kyoto, the places that held the world within a windless moment. Inside the temples, Nature held her breath. All longing was put to sleep in the stillness, and all was distilled into a clean simplicity. The smell of woodsmoke, the drift of incense; a procession of monks in black-and-gold robes, one of them giggling in a voice yet unbroken; a touch of autumn in the air, a sense of gathering rain.”

WorldMomentsBlackVoiceSleepAirQuietRainGoldBreathsLongingCleanSimplicitySmellTemplesAutumnStillnessGatheringMonkRobesUnbrokenProcessionIncenseKyotoQuiet Place
Author:Pico Iyer
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“Glad and merry and sweet is the blessed and lovely demeanour of our Lord towards our souls, for he saw us always living in love-longing, and he wants our souls to be gladly disposed toward him . . . by his grace he lifts up and will draw our outer disposition to our inward, and will make us all at unity with him, and each of us with others in the true, lasting joy which is Jesus.”

WantSoulJoyJesusLordSawsGraceSweetDrawsBlessedLongingUnityGladLovelyLiftsLastingInwardDispositionOur LordMerry
Author:Julian of Norwich
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“Our gifts seem so small in comparison to God’s. But our efforts count, even though like Simeon we only stretch out our arms in the patience of faith so that we may receive the Holy Gift. Even though we only wait, poor and yearning in the darkness, in fervent longing for the proclamation, we are ready, and may help bring about the fullness of time.”

MayHelpingSeemsWaitingPoorEffortDarknessReadyArmsHolyLongingComparisonYearningFullnessProclamationFervent
Author:Eberhard Arnold
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