Henri Nouwen Quotes

One of the most important parts of my life has been community.

It is love and friendship, the sanctity and celebration of our relationships, that not only support a good life, but create one. Through friendships, we spark and inspire one another's ambitions.

Friends are nations in themselves.

The capacity for friendship is God's way of apologizing for our families.

Humans are social beings, and we are happier, and better, when connected to others.

Friendships are among the most fundamental of human needs.

I do come from a very close family. And I'm fascinated, in particular, with family relationships and the relationships that we all form with friends who feel as close, if not closer, than family.

I consider everybody I know to be my family.

I'm very close with my family and friends.

The dearest people around me are my family and friends.

I rely on other people every day of my life.

When I was on Taransay, I loved being part of a community, I loved that everyone knew what I was doing, where I was going. I loved that. I liked knowing that if I wasn't back at a certain time people would start worrying a little bit about me, I loved the whole community thing, sitting for hours and chatting to people.

It is so rewarding to have a community that I can interact with. Whether it's meeting them in person or reading their comments, it's all so surreal and humbling.

I went through a period in my life when I had no friends, when the phone never rang, when I thought I would die from loneliness. I know that the real blessing here isn't that I have a book published, but that I have so many people to thank.

Family does not necessarily mean blood relatives but often a description of a community, organisation or nation.

No man is the whole of himself; his friends are the rest of him.

It's the oldest, corniest piece of advice in the world but it still works. The strongest networks are built on friendship. Be a friend not only to the people in your network, but to the people who matter the most to the people in your network.

I've always known that life is better when you share it. I now realize it gets even sweeter when you expand the circle.

Man have to have friends even in hell.

There's a group I've been close to, since childhood. We spend a lot of time together.'.

We might not know we are seeking people who best enrich our lives, but somehow on a deep subconscious level we absolutely are. Whether the bond is temporary or permanent, whether it succeeds or fails, fate is simply a configuration of choices that combine with others to shape the relationships that surround us. We cannot choose our family, but we can choose our friends, and we sometimes, before we even meet them.

I remain good friends with most of the major relationships in my life.

For all of us, whether we walk old paths or blaze new trails, friends remain important.

You need to be in fellowship of a church...If you separate a live coal from the others, it will soon die out. However, if you put a live coal in with other live coals, it will be a glow that will last for hours.

[Friendships] are easy to get out of compared to love affairs, but they are not easy to get out of compared to, say, jail.