Henri Nouwen Quotes

If you spend enough time with yourself in silence, you'll be surprised what goes through your head.

We need quiet time to examine our lives openly and honestly - spending quiet time alone gives your mind an opportunity to renew itself and create order.

Getting close to books, and spending time by myself, I was obliged to think about things I would never have thought about if I was busy romping around with a brother and sister.

You can't fake it when you're alone with God, you know.

Silence, you know, is the best place to get close to spirit for me.

Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall - that of our consciousness - between the world and ourselves.

Being alone & actually sitting with our own thoughts can lead to such growth and realizations that are rare in our everyday busy lives.

I had friends but I was spending a great deal of my time alone and for me that was vital because there's an awful lot you learn about yourself when you're alone.

To really be centered and to really work well and to think about the kinds of things that I need to think about, I need to spend large amounts of time alone.

I don't think we spend enough time in silence, just realizing what's floating around in our noggin.

The only time a man thinks is when he's alone.

When I'm writing, I separate from everyone. Even my band. I push myself, and I'm alone with my thoughts. Separating from friends and comforts and family lets you think a lot deeper about subject matter. Working alone drives me a little crazy, but it makes the writing as honest as possible.

I enjoy my own thoughts sometimes.

Every one should find some suitable time, day or night, to sink into his depths, each according to his own fashion. Not every one is able to engage in contemplative prayer.

You spend all this time reading or thinking or praying or searching or exploring.Maybe there's an Omega Point of love.

You can listen to 'Cosmic' and truly get to know me, which I think is special.

I don't think people take enough time to themselves or like to be alone anymore, but it's really important.

I use solitude as a judge and as a person - a lot.

In solitude, where we are least alone.

The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.

We've known about the transcendent power of solitude for centuries; it's only recently that we've forgotten it.

The most important habit is solitude, quiet time. People who enter their day by taking 45 minutes or an hour for themselves - meditation, prayer, inspirational reading, taking a walk - before they go for it in the real world do best.

I find the practice of yoga very spiritual and taking the time to just be and to reflect through meditation and chanting helps me to connect to a higher energy.

Certain springs are tapped only when we are alone. Women need solitude in order to find again the true essence of themselves; that firm strand which will be the indispensable center of a whole web of human relationships.

I have to stay alone in order to fully contemplate and feel nature.