Henri Nouwen Quotes

Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the Beloved.

Define yourself radically as one beloved by God.

We acknowledge that being the person God made you cannot separate you from God's love.

Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion. God's love for you and his choice of you constitute your worth. Accept that, and let it become the most important thing in your life.

Thus her whole identity hangs in the balance of her love life. She is allowed to love herself only if a man finds her worthy of love.

Self-love is a busy prompter.

We are forever looking outside ourselves, seeking approval and striving to impress others. But living to please others is a poor substitute for self-love, for no matter how family and friends may adore us, they can never satisfy our visceral need to love and honor ourselves.

... the proper self-knowledge and self-love of every created thing is ipso facto a participation in the knowledge and love of God. The entire universe moves by desire for the Highest Good simply because every part of it loves what God loves - namely, its own being.

Self-rejection is the biggest sin that you can commit.

God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves.

We have the need to be accepted and to be loved by others, but we cannot accept and love ourselves. The more self-love we have, the less we will experience self-abuse. Self-abuse comes from self-rejection, and self-rejection comes from having an image of what it means to be perfect and never measuring up to that ideal. Our image of perfection is the reason we reject ourselves the way we are, and why we don't accept others the way they are.

God’s love sets us free from the need to seek approval. Knowing that we are loved by God, accepted by God, approved by God, and that we are new creations in Christ empowers us to reject self-rejection and embrace a healthy self-love. Being secure in God’s love for us, our love for Him, and our love for ourselves, prepares us to fulfill the second greatest commandment: To love our neighbor as ourselves.

Self respect beats social approval, every time.

The surest aid in combating the male's disease of self-contempt is to be loved by a clever woman.

But what I would like to say is that the spiritual life is a life in which you gradually learn to listen to a voice that says something else, that says, "You are the beloved and on you my favour rests."... I want you to hear that voice. It is not a very loud voice because it is an intimate voice. It comes from a very deep place. It is soft and gentle. I want you to gradually hear that voice. We both have to hear that voice and to claim for ourselves that that voice speaks the truth, our truth. It tells us who we are.

It's what we all wanted when we were children- to be loved and accepted exactly as we were then, not when we got taller or thinner or prettier...and we still want it... but we aren't going to get it from other people until we can get it from ourselves.

You don't need to be accepted by everyone else to get reaccepted by the one who made you.

Again--nothing you do or think or wish or make is necessary to establish your worth.

Break from self rejection, try some introspection.

Self worth cannot be verfied by others

Much of spiritual life is self-acceptance, maybe all of it.

Our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self acceptance.

To really 'live,' that is to find life reasonably satisfying, you must have an adequate and realistic self-image that you can life with. You must find yourself acceptable to 'you.'

Be kind to yourself. God thinks you're worth his kindness. And he's a good judge of character.

You're not too fat. You're not too loud. You're not too smart. You're not unladylike. There is nothing wrong with you.