Quotes by Parker J. Palmer

“Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am.”

“Like a wild animal, the soul is tough, resilient, resourceful, savvy, and self-sufficient: it knows how to survive in hard places. I learned about these qualities during my bouts with depression. I...”

“In my own life, as winters turn into spring, I find it not only hard to cope with mud but also hard to credit the small harbingers of larger life to come, hard to hope until the outcome is secure. ...”

“The soul is like a wild animaltough, resilient, savvy, self-sufficient and yet exceedingly shy. If we want to see a wild animal, the last thing we should do is to go crashing through the woods, sho...”

“Formation may be the best name for what happens in a circle of trust, because the word refers, historically, to soul work done in community. But a quick disclaimer is in order, since formation some...”

“Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you. Before you tell your life what truths and values you have decided to live up to, let your life te...”

“The academic bias against subjectivity not only forces our students to write poorly ("It is believed...," instead of, "I believe..."), it deforms their thinking about themselves and their world. In...”

“How easily we get trapped in that which is not essential - in looking good, winning at competition, gathering power and wealth - when simply being alive is the gift beyond measure.”

“If we lived close to nature in an agricultural society, the seasons as metaphor and fact would continually frame our lives. But the master metaphor of our era does not come from agriculture - it co...”

“The door that closed kept us from entering a room, but what now lies before us is the rest of reality.”

“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 dis...”

“Harrowing The plow has savaged this sweet field Misshapen clods of earth kicked up Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view Last years growth demolished by the blade. I have plowed my life this way ...”

“You seem to look upon depression as the hand of an enemy trying to crush youDo you think you could see it instead as the hand of a friend, pressing you down to the ground on which it is safe to stand?”

“Science requires an engagement with the world, a live encounter between the knower and the known.”

“By standing respectfully and faithfully at the borders of anothers solitude, we may mediate the love of God to a person who needs something deeper than any human being can give.”

“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 unconditi...”

“Spirituality is not primarily about values and ethics, not about exhortations to do right or live well. The spiritual traditions are primarily about reality...an effort to penetrate the illusions o...”

“We listen for guidance everywhere except from within.”

“We are whiplashed between an arrogant overestimation of ourselves and a servile underestimation of ourselves.”

“If we are unfaithful to true self, we will extract a price from others. We will make promises we cannot keep, build houses from flimsy stuff, conjure dreams that devolve into nightmares, and other ...”