E. Stanley Jones Quotes

I confess it is beyond our power to awaken the heart, but ordinarily this way does good.

There has already been the karmic work: that what life has transformed in me, this initiation brought on, of necessity, by trials.

We will not find the inner strength to evolve to a higher level if we do not inwardly develop this profound feeling that there is something higher than ourselves.

It is only by frequent deaths of ourselves and our self-centered desires that we can come to live more fully.

As far as inner transformation is concerned, there is nothing you can do about it. You cannot transform yourself, and you certainly cannot transform your partner or anybody else. All you can do is create a space for transformation to happen, for grace and love to enter.

And it is in this darkness, when there is nothing left in us that can please or comfort our own minds, when we seem to be useless and worthy of all contempt, when we seem to have failed, when we seem to be destroyed and devoured, it is then that the deep and secret selfishness that is too close to us for us to identify is stripped away from our souls. It is in this darkness that we find liberty. It is in this abandonment that we are made strong. This is the night which empties us and makes us pure.

We may be sure that it is the love of God only that can make us come out of self. If His powerful hand did not sustain us, we should not know how to take the first step in that direction.

If you want to awaken all of humanity, then awaken all of yourself, if you want to eliminate the suffering in the world, then eliminate all that is negative in yourself. Truly, the greatest gift you have to give is that of your own self-transformation.

I was no longer the centre of my life and therefore I could see God in everything.

Solitude is the furnace of transformation. Without solitude we remain victims of our society and continue to be entangled in the illusions of the false self.

If you wish to shine like day, burn up the night of self-existence. Dissolve in the Being who is everything.

There is a way of losing that is finding. When soul overmasters sense. When the noble and divine self overcomes the lower self. When duty and honor and love immortal things bid the mortal perish. It is only when a man supremely gives that he supremely finds

Who rises from prayer a better man, his prayer is answered.

It is so powerful when we can leave behind our ordinary identities, no longer think of ourselves primarily as a conductor, or writer, or salesclerk, and go to a supportive environment to deeply immerse in meditation practice.

Changing is not just changing the things outside of us. First of all we need the right view that transcends all notions including of being and non-being, creator and creature, mind and spirit. That kind of insight is crucial for transformation and healing.

Only one person in a million becomes enlightened without a teacher's help.

No great inner event befalls those who summon it not.

The mythic journey is always about selflessness.

To me, growing into spiritual maturity is becoming less self-conscious and more God-conscious.

Yes, now I understood for the first time that my soul was not so poor and empty as it had seemed to me, and that it had been only the sun that was lacking to open all its germs, and buds to the light.

You cannot see the changes that you're dreaming about, because they're internal.

God expects but one thing of you, and that is that you should come out of yourself in so far as you are a created being made and let God be God in you.

What we achieve inwardly will change outer reality.

You will never cease to be the most amazed person on earth at what God has done for you on the inside.

I wouldn't have really committed myself to any kind of spiritual lifestyle, I don't think, if I had not endured great suffering. I think that's the case with a lot of people.