Spiritual Perspective Quotes

Man suffers only because he takes seriously what the gods made for fun.

Infidelity and faith look both through the perspective glass, but at contrary ends. Infidelity looks through the wrong end of the glass; and, therefore, sees those objects near which are afar off, and makes great things little,-diminishing the greatest spiritual blessings, and removing far from us threatened evils. Faith looks at the right end, and brings the blessings that are far off in time close to our eye, and multiplies God's mercies, which, in a distance, lost their greatness.

One day I met a lady who was dying of cancer in a most terrible condition. And I told her, I say, "You know, this terrible pain is only the kiss of Jesus - a sign that you have come so close to Jesus on the cross that he can kiss you."

Your life is something opaque, not transparent, as long as you look at it in an ordinary human way. But if you hold it up against the light of God's goodness, it shines and turns transparent, radiant and bright. And then you ask yourself in amazement: Is this really my own life I see before me?

Suffering is nothing by itself. But suffering shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift, the most beautiful gift, a token of love.

It may be well to wait a century for a reader, as God has waited six thousand years for an observer.

I think the good Lord is a Yankee.

God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates empirically.

Monotheism makes me grouchy. I don't trust any religion that makes God look like one of the ruling class. I guess I'm a pagan or an animist.

Failure is nothing but the kiss of Jesus.

I do not see my election of 1976 or my defeat in 1980 in the narrow focus of God's will for this specific event. I believe He has a purpose for individual lives as well as for the sweep of human events. He works out those purposes in ways far beyond our understanding. I was His in 1976. I am His in 1980. Now, let's go eat supper.

A low view of God is the cause of a hundred lesser evils. A high view of God is the solution to ten thousand temporal problems.

If I had to pick a hero, it would be Charles Darwin--the size of his mind, which included all that scientific curiosity and knowledge seeking, and the ability to put it all together. There is a genuine spirituality about Darwin's thinking.

God is not a God of the edges, with a vested interest in beginnings. God is the God of the whole show.

Wisdom is the capacity to see things from God's viewpoint.

At the end of the day we're all spirits having a physical experience. That really comes from my relationship with Islam because it just makes me really conscious of my action.

Spiritually, I understand that Trump is an innocent child of God. And before he was a Presidential candidate, I found him to be a kind of entertaining American character. But he is not entertaining anymore; he is frightening. He has been elected to the Presidency of the United States and yet he acts like he is mocking the job.

Zen has an expression, "nothing special." When you understand "nothing special," you realize that everything is special. Everything's special and nothing's special. Everything's spiritual and nothing's spiritual. It's how you see, it's what eyes you're looking through, that matters.

I was shocked when I found out who the biggest failure in the Bible actually is...The biggest one in the whole Bible is God...I mean, He lost His top-ranking, most anointed angel; the first man He ever created; the first woman He ever created; the whole earth and all the fullness therein; a third of the angels, at least - that's a big loss, man....Now, the reason you don't think of God as a failure is He never said He's a failure. And you're not a failure till you say you're one.

'To die is gain!' That kind of talk is absolutely foreign to our modern, spiritual vocabularies. We have become such life worshippers, we have very little desire to depart to be with the Lord.

Living is death; dying is life. We are not what we appear to be. On this side of the grave we are exiles, on that citizens; on this side orphans, on that children.

I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a God-made world, not a manmade world.

Whom God has put asunder, why should man put together?

Science is but a mere heap of facts, not a golden chain of truths, if we refuse to link it to the throne of God.

How my eyes see, perspective, is my key to enter into His gates. I can only do so with thanksgiving. If my inner eye has God seeping up through all things, then can't I give thanks for anything? And if I can give thanks for the good things, the hard things, the absolute everything, I can enter the gates to glory. Living in His presence is fullness of joy- and seeing shows the way in.