Jean Vanier Quotes

Spiritual formation is for everyone. Just as there is an 'outer you' that is being formed and shaped all the time, like it or not, by accident or on purpose, so there is an 'inner you.' You have a spirit.

A spiritual person tries less to be godly than to be deeply human.

People don't see this side of me. They don't know I read, like, 800 million spiritual books. Lately I am just really getting into a lot of spirituality.

I have always been fond of recognizing the spiritual side of someone's personality. It's a very lovely concept.

The key to success is to keep growing in all areas of life - mental, emotional, spiritual, as well as physical.

We are three dimensional beings: body, mind, spirit.

I'm always trying to find ways to evolve. Evolution, for me, is a very spiritual thing, getting closer to the creator, closer to God, and becoming a better version of yourself.

I just need to be on the path to my own self-cultivation, my own self-actualisation.

The older I get, the more I meet people, the more convinced I am that we must only work on ourselves, to grow in grace. The only thing we can do about people is to love them.

Your lower self sees you as the center of the universe- your higher self sees you as a cell in the body of humanity.

We have long struggles with ourself, of which the outcome is one of our actions; they are, as it were, the inner side of human nature. This inner side is God's; the outer side belongs to men.

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.

There is nothing more harmful to you than improving only your material, animal side of life. There is nothing more beneficial, both for you and for others, than activity directed to the improvement of your soul.

For human beings, the most daunting challenge is to become fully human. For to become fully human is to become fully divine.

We can deceive ourselves into thinking we are developing spirituality when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques.

It was not really possible to understand oneself, let alone another human being.

When you become fully responisble for your life, you can become fully human; once you become human, you may discover what it mens to be a warrior.

I have no interest in problematizing things. So what I am writing to is that simple sense of being human in myself.

It is not human to be without shame and without desire.

We must remember that knowledge of one’s own deep nature is also simultaneously knowledge of human nature in general.

Although I am a pious man, I am not the less a man.

It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person's life.

The more holy a man becomes, the more conscious he is of unholiness.

Take your well-disciplined strengths, stretch them between the two great opposing poles, because inside human beings is where God learns.

Our ego never wants to die and it will do anything to prolong its life. But the truth is, we are both spirit and ego and you have to have a balance between the two. Your spirit never dies, but the ego is all about beginnings and ends.