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

SHOW detailed search and navigation | Quotes | References | JoAnn

1		"Anything can become a disclosure of grace. We experience intimations of the divine in a lover's embrace, a rainbow, a baby's smile, a bird's flight overhead, a friend's forgiveness, a dolphin's leap, or the selfless service of a volunteer."

2		"Everything is multiplicity within unity….In the image of God who created them, all beings are at once one and many from the galaxy to the electron." Ernesto Cardenal, Nicaraguan poet and priest, 'Abide in Love'

3		"To pray is to take notice of the wonder, to regain a sense of the mystery that animates all beings, the divine margin in all our attainments." Abraham Joshua Heschel, Jewish theologian

4		"The interrelationship of all of Creation is sensitive in a way we are just beginning to understand." Madeleine L'Engle, 'A Stone for a Pillow'

5		"We are embedded in communities, circles within circles of communities, both small and large, focused and abstract. Holding up the ideal of unity, we strive to break down the walls which separate us from others – not only other nations and peoples, but other species and the natural world."

6		"Take good care of the best that is within you. Self-exploration and personal growth continue throughout our lifetimes and equip us to tend to the needs of others."

7		"Why does anybody tell a story? It does indeed have something to do with faith, faith that the universe has meaning, that our little human lives are not irrelevant, that what we choose or say or do matters, matters cosmically." Madeleine L'Engle

8		"We are here to awaken from the illusion of separateness." Thich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist poet

9		"This is the heart of our humanity – being here, open and giving to others."

10		"The Great Spirit is the life that is in all things – all creatures and plants and even rocks and the minerals. All things – and I mean all things – have their own will and their own way and their own purpose." Rolling Thunder, Native American elder

11		"The Weaver of Oneness wants us to be united with each other – neighbors with neighbors, communities with communities, religions with religions, nations with nations."

12		"I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." Mother Teresa

13		"In every moment of genuine love, we are dwelling in God and God in us." Paul Tillich, contemporary Protestant theologian

14		"Fall in love over and over again every day. Love your family, your neighbors, your enemies and yourself. And don't stop with humans. Love animals, plants, stones, even the galaxies."

15		"I have often felt myself to be a point of light, connected to everyone I have ever loved or mattered to, each also being a point of light, in turn connected to those they love, so that somehow we are all part of a vast web of twinkling lights." Jean Shinoda Bolen, 'Crossing to Avalon'

16		"If you wish to know the Divine, feel the wind on your face and the warm sun on your hand." Buddha

17		"I believe in the essential unity of all people and for that matter, of all that lives. Therefore, I believe that if one person gains spiritually, the whole world gains, and if one person falls, the whole world falls to that extent." Mahatma Gandhi

18		"We are vessels containing the Holy One."

19		"The real world…is not a world of isolate things, but of processes in concert." William Bryant Logan, 'Dirt'

20		"Every happening great and small is a parable whereby God speaks to us." Malcolm Muggeridge, Christian journalist

21		"All the inhabitants of the world – the trees, flowers, fields, streams, hills, rocks, dolphins, bears, birds, and babies – are our relations, as Native Americans express it."

22		"One day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it came to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all….I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed." Alice Walker, 'The Color Purple'

23		"Life is a sacred adventure. Every day we encounter signs that point to the active presence of Spirit in the world around us."

24		"Treat everyone you meet just like you would if you just had your breath taken away by the most beautiful person in the world. Treat each situation in the day as though you were head-over-heels in love." Scout Cloud Lee, Native American elder

25		"I am called to seek wholeness inside of myself. Healing begins here, in myself. Wholeness and unity begin inside of myself. If I am growing toward wholeness, then I'll be an agent of wholeness. If our community is an agent of wholeness, then it will be a source of life for the world around it." Jean Vanier, 'From Brokenness to Community'