Henri Nouwen Quotes

All of our great traditions, religious, contemplative and artistic, say that you must a learn how to be alone - and have a relationship with silence. It is difficult, but it can start with just the tiniest quiet moment.

The word must be heard in silence; there must be darkness to see the stars.

The heart beats louder and the soul hears quicker in silence and solitude.

Every man whose business it is to think knows that he must for part of the day create about himself a pool of silence.

While doing centering prayer, the practice is to let go of any thought or perception. The priority is to be as silent as possible and when that is not possible to let the noise of the thoughts be the sacred symbol for a while, without analyzing them.

I think I'm a spiritual person. I don't really go to church often when services are on, but I like going in when they are empty and quiet, and just sitting there and thinking for a little while.

Real action is in silent moments.

It is to this silence [contemplative prayer] that we all are called.

Meditation is silence, energising and fulfilling. Silent is the eloquent expression of the inexpressible.

I named this place Listening Point because only when one comes to listen, only when one is aware and still, can things be seen and heard. Everyone has a listening point somewhere. It does not have to be in the north or close to the wilderness, but someplace of quiet where the universe can be contemplated with awe.

The first requirement for prayer is silence. People of prayer are people of silence.

Above anything, welcome silence, for it brings fruits that no tongue can speak of, neither can it be explained.

We switch to another language-- not our invented language or the language we've learned from our lives. As we walk further up the mountain, we speak the language of silence. This language gives us time to think and move. We can be here and elsewhere at the same time.

Take time to be quiet.

Listening to the eternal involves a silence within us.

Silence is the Sabbath of the soul. Therein we rest, and therein we hear everything.

We sit silently and watch the world around us. This has taken us a lifetime to learn...for silence is pure. Silence is holy. It draws people together...this is the great paradox.

He got right down in the dark between heartbeats, and rested there. And then he saw that another one wasn't going to come. That's it. That's the last. He looked at the dark. I would like to take this opportunity, he said, to pray for another human being.

The ancient spiritual tradition is that God gives himself fully to us in silence and solitude.

The root of prayer is interior silence.

Silence is God's language, and it's a very difficult language to learn.

Stillness is our most intense mode of action. It is in our moments of deep quiet that is born every idea, emotion, and drive which we eventually honor with the name of action. We reach highest in meditation, and farthest in prayer. In stillness every human being is great.

Instead of yielding to idle conversation it might profit one to cultivate silence and contemplation.

I have a real problem with stillness. With just stopping and being quiet.