“It is truly difficult to make a democracy. Democracy, like arty dream, is not made with spiritual words but with reflection and practice. It is not what I say that says I am a democrat, that I am not racist or machista but what I do. What I say must not be contradicted by what I do. It is what I do that bespeaks my faithfulness or not to what I say.” MadeDreamSpiritualDifficultPracticeDemocracySocietyReflectionDemocratRacistFaithfulness Author:Paulo Freire
“The patient endurance of the saints exhausts the evil power that attacks them, since it makes them glory in sufferings undergone for the sake of the truth. It teaches those too much concerned with a life in the flesh to deepen themselves through such sufferings instead of pursuing ease and comfort; and it makes the flesh's natural weakness in the endurance of suffering a foundation for overwhelming spiritual power. For the natural weakness of the saints is precisely such a foundation, since the Lord has made their weakness stronger than the proud devil.” MadeChristianSpiritualSufferingEvilNaturalLordTeachToo MuchProudComfortGloryWeaknessDevilConcernedStrongerFoundationPatientSakeSaintFleshEaseEnduranceOrthodoxOverwhelmingOrthodox ChristianSpiritual Power Author:Maximus the Confessor
“place where man laughs, sings, picks flowers, chases butterflies and pets birds, makes love with maidens, and plays with children. Here he spontaneously reveals his nature, the base as well as the noble. Here also he buries his sorrows and difficulties and cherishes his ideals and hopes. It is in the garden that men discover themselves. Indeed one discovers not only his real self but also his ideal self?he returns to his youth. Inevitably the garden is made the scene of man's merriment, escapades, romantic abandonment, spiritual awakening or the perfection of his finer self.” MenWellsChildrenMadeRealSelfPlaySpiritualLaughingYouthFlowerReturnSorrowSceneBirdPicksIdealsGardenPerfectionDifficultyNobleAwakeningPetCherishButterflyMaking LoveAbandonmentSpiritual AwakeningMaidensReal SelfMerrimentEscapade Author:Confucius
“Spiritual stagnation ensues when man's environment becomes unpredictable or when his inner life is made wholly predictable.” MenMadeSpiritualLife IsEnvironmentSocietyUnpredictablePredictableInner LifeStagnation Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer Source: Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
“I believe natural beauty has a necessary place in the spiritual development of any individual or any society. I believe that whenever we substitute something man-made and artificial for a natural feature of the earth, we have retarded some part of man's spiritual growth.” MenBelieveMadeEarthSpiritualScienceIndividualI BelieveGrowthNaturalDevelopmentFeaturesSpiritual GrowthSubstitutesArtificialSpiritual DevelopmentRetarded Book:The house of life: Rachel Carson at work Source: The house of life: Rachel Carson at work
“What greater weakness can there be than not to know what is the source of one's being, of one's life, of one's senses, of one's knowledge, and what is to be their end? What can be more deeply disheartening than to wonder whether one's soul is, perhaps, a material thing, like a stone or a reptile, corruptible like these base creatures? Is there not more strength and greatness of mind in admitting the idea of a being superior to all other beings, who has made them all and to whom all owe their existence; of a being supremely perfect, who is pure, who had no beginning and can have no ending, of whom our soul is the image and, so to speak, a portion, being a spiritual and immortal thing?” IfsMenMindMayDoeMadeIdeasSoulEndsAbleSpiritualPerfectDoubtSubjectsMaterialsPureProveCreaturesAll ThingsStonesCorruptionSuperiorsImmortalDiscouragingGrandeurStrength Of MindReptiles Author:Jean de la Bruyere
“If you're lucky you find your way into a spiritual community and you start to find the great teachers of all the ages who said the same thing. There's only love, you're made of love.” IfsWayMadeSaidAgeSpiritualCommunityTeacherLove YouLuckyOnly LoveGreat TeacherLucky YouSpiritual Community Author:Anne Lamott
“Modern transcendental idealism, Emersonianism, for instance, also seems to let God evaporate into abstract Ideality. Not a deity in concreto, not a superhuman person, but the immanent divinity in things, the essentially spiritual structure of the universe, is the object of the transcendentalist cult. In that address of the graduating class at Divinity College in 1838 which made Emerson famous, the frank expression of this worship of mere abstract laws was what made the scandal of the performance.” PersonsMadeSeemsSpiritualLawUniverseClassModernObjectsCollegeExpressionLetting GoWorshipPerformancesStructureMereInstanceAbstractDivinityAddressesGraduatesFrankIdealismCultScandalDeitiesTranscendentalSuperhumanGraduating Class Author:William James