Henri Nouwen Quotes

Are we truly being our sisters' keepers? Initially, that dog-eat-dog mentality within us may bark and say that we aren't responsible for other people, but if that was truly the case, then why are we even here? We have so much to offer and give to this world.

Sometimes if you expose your vulnerability, someone else will feel comforted. It's like we're all in this boat together.

Love is - OK, it's 20 things, but it isn't 19. And I think that love reaches for something which is very, very deep in us and is very easily obscured, and is also very easily denied, which is the instinct towards the other person, other than toward the self.

I think that a lot of times, we all want to help each other and be a part of each other's lives. It's just - we don't allow ourselves into each other's lives.

I believe now that love is letting people in. Love is bigger than all of us.

I would just say that human beings are stronger together. Relying on someone else is not a sign of weakness; it shows strength that you're able to accept that you need help.

What the warrior renounces is anything in his experience that is a barrier between himself and others. In other words, renunciation is making yourself more available, more gentle and open to others.

To help all created things, that is the measure of all our responsibility; to be helped by all, that is the measure of our hope.

Everyone of us needs to show how much we care for each other and, in the process, care for ourselves.

I have vanity and greed enough for one person. But at the same time, I feel in my bones you lose a lot of life's value if you don't see yourself as a member of the family of man.

Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy finally for you too.

Sometimes people don't trust the force of kindness. They think love or compassion or kindness will make you weak and kind of stupid and people will take advantage of you; you won't stand up for other people.

Our contribution purely depends on our consciousness and our willingness to support those in need, to show vulnerability and accept the support of others, to share without expecting the credit, to give it our all and allow our hard work to decide the outcome, to understand that control can only be achieved with a shared responsibility.

Love is the difficult realization that something other than oneself is real.

Love is the expansion of two natures in such fashion that each include the other, each is enriched by the other.

I write little quotes all the time to help encourage people to come together, like this one: 'If fate happens to toss you a lightbulb, use it to light the path of others, for they will use theirs to light the path of you. With your light together with mine, it's two times as bright and twice as strong.'

Joy is prayer; joy is strength: joy is love; joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.

We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each other's happiness, not by each other's misery.

Prayer reminds me it's not just about me. It's about all the people with whom I share this planet, and all of whom God has created, and all of whom he cares just as much about as he cares about me.

For me, love is not about froufrou New Age-ism. It's about a way of living and honoring the interconnectedness of life and accepting our responsibility and our power to change the world for the better.

Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love.

I have an interesting perspective on depending on others. I think it gives people a chance to serve. And I'm not so much big on independence, as I am on interdependence. I'm not talking about co-dependency, I'm talking about giving people the opportunity to practicing love with its sleeves rolled up.

We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.

Our failings sometimes bind us to one another as closely as could virtue itself.

Tears shed for self are tears of weakness, but tears shed for others are a sign of strength.