Quotes about Understanding
Spiritual direction as Henri understood it can be defined as a relationship initiated by a spiritual seeker who finds a mature person of faith willing to pray and respond with wisdom and understanding to his or her questions about how to live spiritually in a world of ambiguity and distraction.
— Henri Nouwen
The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing... not healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares.
— Henri Nouwen
When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.
— Henri Nouwen
We tend to be compassionate to the extent that we have suffered the Passion in our own lives.
— Henri Nouwen
Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly.
— Henri Nouwen
Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.
— Henry David Thoreau
Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.
— Henry David Thoreau
The only remedy for love is to love more.
— Henry David Thoreau
There is danger that we lose sight of what our friend is absolutely, while considering what she is to us alone.
— Henry David Thoreau
We hear and apprehend only what we already half know.
— Henry David Thoreau
Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.
— Henry David Thoreau
The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?
— Henry David Thoreau