Henri Nouwen

"Loneliness is the pain of being alone, solitude is the glory of being alone."

"Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives."

"Hospitality is not to change people, but to offer them space where change can take place."

"The spiritual life is not a life before, above, or beyond the physical life. Rather it is the deepest dimension of all life."

"Prayer is the most powerful thing we can do."

"Gratitude is the most fruitful way of deepening your consciousness."

"Our task is not to fight evil but to create the conditions for good."

"The root of all human sin is the refusal to accept ourselves as we are."

"Real love is not a feeling but a commitment to care for another person."

"To love someone deeply gives you strength, being loved by someone deeply gives you courage."

"Hope is being able to see that there is a light despite all the darkness."

"The mystery of ministry is that we are trying to heal people to whom we cannot relate."

"Compassion grows when I go beyond the fragment of someone's life that I see."

"Friendship is a gift we give ourselves by giving it to others."

"Patience is not the ability to wait, but how we act while waiting."

"The greatest illusion is that life should be problem free."

"Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love imperfectly."

"Let your greatest ambition be to glorify God by serving others."

"The wounds of life are the places where God enters."

"Leadership is not about power, but about empowerment."

"Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding."

"Silence is where God dwells."

"The most important thing is to keep the most important thing the most important thing."

"Crying out loudly helps us to avoid the temptation to internalize the pain."

"The spiritual life is not a life of doing but of being."

"True freedom is freedom from within."

"Love without boundaries is not love but absorption."

"The task of the leader is to help people see beyond their own immediate self-interest."

"Art is the expression of inner truth and feeling."

"Every human being is a unique expression of the divine."