Ramakrishna Quotes

I know not what you believe of God, but I believe He gave yearnings and longings to be filled, and that He did not mean all our time should be devoted to feeding and clothing the body.

If one marries out of necessity, he will have to reincarnate to reach the point where he wants to live only for God.

I think there is a longing in everyone for a personal relationship with God.

Faith is the ticket to the feast, not the feast.

There's a huge yearning in our culture for something more... it's being more in touch with God... and what we were created to be.

The soul must long for God in order to be set aflame by God's love; but if the soul cannot yet feel the longing, then it must long for the longing. To long for the longing is also from God.

When the faith is strong enough, it is sufficient just to be. It's a journey towards simplicity, towards quietness, towards a kind of joy that is not in time. It's a journey that has taken us from primary identification with our body and our psyche, on to an identification with God, and ultimately beyond identification.

The soul... may have many symbols with which it reaches toward God.

I'm convinced we all have a God-shaped space in us, and until we fill that space with God, we'll never know what it is to be whole.

Wanting to feel good is synonymous with wanting to feel God.

Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe.

I had not yet gotten into the world of light. But I felt as one who, standing outside, could knock against the wall and hear an answering knock from within.

All that spirits desire, spirits attain.

Prayer opens the heart to God, and it is the means by which the soul, though empty, is filled by God.

The wound is the place where the light enters you.

I used to say, 'There is a God-shaped hole in me.' For a long time I stressed the absence, the hole. Now I find it is the shape which has become more important.

I had a Guru. He was a great saint and most merciful. I served him long - very, very long; still, he would not blow any mantra in my ears. I had a keen desire never to leave him but to stay with him and serve him and at all cost receive some instruction from him.

There's no need for shadows when the Light has come, when the Star and the Sun have appeared - and Christ is both - bringing light to day and night.

A Prayer of Anselm My God, I pray that I may so know you and love you that I may rejoice in you. And if I may not do so fully in this life let me go steadily on to the day when I come to that fullness . . . Let me receive That which you promised through your truth, that my joy may be full.

O eternal truth and true love and beloved eternity! You are my God; to you I sigh by day and by night. And when I first knew you, you raised me up so that I could see that there was something to see and that I still lacked the ability to see it. And you beat back the weakness of my sight, blazing upon me with your rays, and I trembled in love and in dread.

When our deepest desire is not the things of God, or a favor from God, but God Himself, we cross a threshold.

My relationship with God has gotten so much stronger. He's always had his hand on me. He always guided me. I didn't always go where he wanted me to go. But He always had me. Now that I'm actually listening and being obedient, life is so much better.

The soul can split the sky in two and let the face of God shine through.

We learn this by the precepts that Jesus left. He observed that the people were looking outward, and assured them that the kingdom of God cometh not with outward observation; and for this reason, that it was only to be known in man.

We can no more do without spirituality than we can do without food, shelter, or clothing.