John O'Donohue Quotes

If you send out goodness from yourself, or if you share that which is happy or good within you, it will all come back to you multiplied ten thousand times. In the kingdom of love there is no competition; there is no possessiveness or control. The more love you give away, the more love you will have.

2782

Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition.

3827

We do not need to go out and find love; rather, we need to be still and let love discover us.

2074

When one flower blooms spring awakens everywhere

4061

We do not need to grieve for the dead. Why should we grieve for them? They are now in a place where there is no more shadow, darkness, loneliness, isolation, or pain. They are home.

1592

Real intimacy is a sacred experience. It never exposes its secret trust and belonging to the voyeuristic eye of a neon culture. Real intimacy is of the soul, and the soul is reserved.

3299

Inspiration is always a surprising visitor.

1854

When time is reduced to linear progress, it is emptied of presence.

3809

...the only difference between a young person at the height of their exuberance and a very old person who is frail and physically wasted is time.

3537

History is an amazing presence-it is the place where vanished time gathers. While we are in the flow of time, it is difficult to glean its significance, and it is only in looking back that we can recognize the hidden dimensions at work within a particular era or epoch.

3795

Take time to see the quiet miracles that
seek no attention

4135

Beauty is the illumination of your soul.

2670

We were sent into the world alive with beauty. As soon as we choose Beauty, unseen forces conspire to guide and encourage us towards unexpected forms of compassion, healing and creativity.

1049

The ancient rhythms of the earth have insinuated themselves into the rhythms of the human heart. The earth is not outside us; it is within: the clay from where the tree of the body grows.

4021

the search for meaning is really the search for the lost chord. When the lost chord is discovered by humankind, the discord in the world will be healed and the symphony of the universe will come into complete harmony with itself.

2592

When you steal a people's language, you leave their soul bewildered.

4963

One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.

3965

Your noble friend will not accept pretension but will gently and very firmly confront you with your own blindness. Such friendship is creative and critical; it is willing to negotiate awkward and uneven territories of contradiction and woundedness.

1522

It could be a meeting on the street, or a party or a lecture, or just a simple, banal introduction, then suddenly there is a flash of recognition and the embers of kinship glow. There is an awakening between you, a sense of ancient knowing.

4447

Friendship is a creative and subversive force. It claims that intimacy is the secret law of life and universe.

1022

Your soul knows the geography of your destiny. Your soul alone has the map of your future, therefore you can trust this indirect, oblique side of yourself. If you do, it will take you where you need to go, but more important it will teach you a kindness of rhythm in your journey.

2103

One of the deepest longings of the human soul is to be seen.

1013

All you can ever achieve is a sense of your soul. You gain little glimpses of its light, colors, and contours. You feel the inspiration of its possibilities and the wonder of its mysteries.

1091

Your soul is the priestess of memory, selecting, sifting, and ultimately gathering your vanishing days toward presence.

1205

The secret and the sacred are sisters. When the secret is not respected, the sacred vanishes. Consequently, reflection should not shine too severe or aggressive a light on the world of the soul.

1060

Each of us is an artist of our days; the greater our integrity and awareness, the more original and creative our time will become.

3964

When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you. Your forgotten or neglected wealth begins to reveal itself. You come home to yourself and learn to rest within. Thoughts are our inner senses. Infused with silence and solitude, they bring out the mystery of inner landscape.

4410