Henri Nouwen Quotes

If our hearts are ready for anything, we are touched by the beauty and poetry and mystery that fill our world.

I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know quite certainly that just to be alive is a grand thing.

With an undefended heart, we can fall in love with life over and over every day. We can become children of wonder, grateful to be walking on earth, grateful to belong with each other and to all of creation. We can find our true refuge in every moment, in every breath.

Develop an interest in life as you see it; the people, things, literature, music - the world is so rich, simply throbbing with rich treasures, beautiful souls and interesting people. Forget yourself.

Life never becomes a habit to me. It's always a marvel.

I love life. There's so much to learn and see all the time, and nothing nicer for me than to wake up, and the sky is blue.

Immensely grateful, touched, proud, astonished, abashed.

Write in recollection and amazement for yourself.

When I don't plumb the depths or the opportunities of each day, I don't have joy.

When it's over, I want to say: all my life I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

To me, it's always good to retain a sense of wonder and never good too big for life, like you've seen it all before.

An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.

Youthful impatience obscures the endless potential for joy that's standing right in front of you.

We're surrounded by wonder, and yet we want more, and we want it bigger, faster, louder, better.

The capacity for delight is the gift of paying attention.

There is no glory in star or blossom till looked upon by a loving eye; There is no fragrance in April breezes till breathed with joy as they wander by.

Wonder is involuntary praise.

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.

The year hasn't started yet and it's already been the best I've ever had.

To my young friends out there: Life can be great, but not when you can't see it. So, open your eyes to life: to see it in the vivid colors that God gave us as a precious gift to His children, to enjoy life to the fullest, and to make it count. Say yes to your life.

Each day offers us the gift of being a special occasion if we can simply learn that as well as giving, it is blessed to receive with grace and a grateful heart.

There are moments when the body is as numinous as words, days that are the good flesh continuing. Such tenderness, those afternoons and evenings, saying blackberry, blackberry, blackberry.

Even with all of the things that are so awful, if you walk into your yard and stay there looking at almost anything for five minutes, you will be stunned by how marvelous life is and how incredibly lucky we are to have it.

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

I wake up every day and I think, 'I'm breathing! It's a good day.'