Many / One

A database of 11,000+ illuminated guiding quotations in 40 categories from 600+ inspired books by our most brilliant and influential authors.
Compiled by JoAnn Kite

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The Choice Is Always Ours
Dorothy B. Phillips, Chief Editor
An anthology about the spiritual Way, chosen from psychological, religious, philosophical, poetical and biographical sources

1 "Everything I do is like the pebble thrown into a pool, making larger and larger ripples in the waters of other lives." Joshua Loth Liebman (1907-1948), American rabbi, educator, 'Peace of Mind'

2 "There exists an ultimate Reality that is by nature both transcendent and immanent. The immanent aspect, this something of God in man, traces its ancestry to early Hindu sources, thence to the Socratic movement in philosophy, and on to the teaching of Jesus. Since then it has been variously expressed as: 'the deep center', 'the ground of the soul', 'the inward Voice', the Real Self', 'the inner Vocation', 'that something which binds us to the deeper processes of consciousness', 'that potentiality of an extension of consciousness', et cetera."

3 "There is inherent in man a longing and tendency towards wholeness, and only when this longing is stilled is his negative state of tension wiped out and neutralized." Gerhard Adler (b. 1904), English Jungian analyst, 'Studies in Analytical Psychology'

4 "Somehow we are part of a creative destiny, reaching backward and forward to infinity – a destiny that reveals itself…in our striving, in our love, our thought, our appreciation. We are the fruition of a process that stretches back to star dust. We are material in the hands of the Genius of the universe for a still larger destiny that we cannot see in the everlasting rhythm of worlds." John Elof Boodin, (1869-1950), American philosopher, 'Cosmic Evoltuion'

5 "In the final good designed by Him not a cell of Being will be found missing or unfulfilled." R. H. J. Steuart, S.J. (1874-1948), English priest, 'The Inward Vision'

6 "The miracle of rebirth seems to be a natural element in human life….we feel behind the sunrise of the new life a higher Living Power who brings it about." Fritz Kunkel, M.D. (1889-1956), American psychiatrist, 'How Character Develops'

7 "All of us are individual spirits created to evolve into a common union." Anonymous

8 "Buddha proclaimed the unity of all living things." Alan W. Watts (1915-1973), American philosopher and author, 'The Spirit of Zen'

9 "The idea of wholeness is an archetype of deep significance." Gerhard Adler (b. 1904), English Jungian analyst, 'Studies in Analytical Psychology'

10 "I feel myself part of eternity, part of the Being which was eons of years before I was born, and will be eons of years after I die. This is an expression, it seems to me, of 'The peace of God which passes understanding.'" Rollo May (b. 1909), American psychoanalyst, 'Paulus'

11 "The whole gist of the matter lies in the will, and this is what our Dear Lord meant by saying, 'The Kingdom of God is within you.' It is not a question of how much we know, how clever we are…. it all depends upon the heart's love. External actions are the results of love, the fruit it bears; but the source, the root, is in the deep of the heart." Francois Fenelon (1651-1715), French Archbishop of Cambray

12 "The Kingdom of God is not imminent but immanent; it is not 'among you', about suddenly to break like a thunderstorm, but 'within you', ready to be expressed the moment you understand your latent, common nature and how you must and can transcend your individuality, your egotism, which makes the world the obstacle it proves today to be to you." Gerald Heard (1889-1971), English author and philosopher, 'The Third Morality'

13 "Whatever the approach, and however complicated the philosophical, psychological or theological superstructure erected upon it, the essentials of the Way whereby the suprapersonal reality becomes transformingly effective in the individual life are found to be virtually identical and universal."

14 "I can see that in the midst of death, life persists; in the midst of untruth, truth persists; in the midst of darkness, light persists. Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is Love. He is the supreme Good." Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), Hindu statesman and mystic, 'Gandhi's Ideas'

15 "The world lives by its incarnation of God in itself." Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), English mathematician and philosopher, 'Religion in the Making'

16 "It is human to go through negative experiences, disappointments and frustrations. It is one of the ways leading us to maturity. Indeed, it is the opportunity to become We-feeling, objective, creative." Fritz Kunkel, M.D. (1889-1956), American psychiatrist, 'How Character Develops'

17 "Live in simple faith….just as this trusting cherry flowers, fades, and falls." Issa (1763-1827), Japanese poet, 'Japanese Haiku'

18 "Tao acts without assertion, yet all things proceed in conformity with it." Laotzu, 6th century bce Chinese philosopher, 'Laotzu's Tao and Wu-Wei'

19 "Self [capital S] is the focal point of the psyche in which God's image shows itself most plainly and the experience of which gives us the knowledge, as nothing else does, of the significance and nature of our likeness to God." Jolande Jacobi

20 "This Form of the good must be seen by whosoever would act wisely in public or in private." Plato, 'The Republic'

21 "The relation of each to all, through God, is real, objective, existential. It is an eternal relationship which is shared in by every stick and stone and bird and beast and saint and sinner of the universe." Thomas R. Kelly (1893-1941), American philosopher, 'A Testament of Devotion'

22 "Love is the result of an identification – the identifying of our wills with the will of God, and our fate with that of all men, however obscure, fallen and needy." Rose Terlin, contemporary American editor and writer, 'Christian Faith and Social Action'

23 "There is nothing real where the One Sole Good is not." Francois Fenelon (1651-1715), French Archbishop of Cambray, 'Spiritual Letters of Archbishop Fenelon'

24 "The command to love is written in the material structure of our everyday life. Mutuality is not just a shiny ideal that catches the eye of a few idealists. It is the demand of the historic process. It is not merely a moral obligation, which can be set aside because of more urgent practical necessities. It is the most urgently practical need of our life. It is a moral obligation precisely because it is also a material necessity." Gregory Vlastos (b. 1909), Canadian professor of philosophy, 'Christian Faith and Democracy'

25 "The deepest and most profound and most hidden of all human desires: The desire to love and to give oneself in love and to be part of the living stream we call brotherhood." Fritz Kunkel, M.D. (1889-1956), American psychiatrist, 'In Search of Maturity', quoted in 'The Choice Is Always Ours', edited by Dorothy B. Phillips, Pillar Books 1975, p. 105

This body of quotes compiled by JoAnn Kite