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
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"Any friendship – between two or between a hundred – entails a new emergent unity, where each of the constituent selves is far more in its functional oneness with the rest than it ever was in its apartness." Gregory Vlastos (b. 1909), Canadian professor of philosophy, 'The Religious Way'
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"I do want to think in terms of the whole world. My patriotism includes the good of mankind in general….Isolated independence is not the goal of the world States; it is voluntary interdependence. The better mind of the world desires today not absolutely independent States, warring one against another, but a federation of friendly, interdependent States." Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948), Indian statesman, mystic
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"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."
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"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'
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"All souls of all things do but compose the body of God." D. H. Lawrence (1885-1940), English novelist and poet, from a letter to Lady Ottoline Morrell, February, 1915
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"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
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"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'
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"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
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"God can show Himself as He really is only to real people. And that means not simply to people who are individually good, but to people who are united together in a body, loving one another, helping one another, showing Him to one another. For that is what God meant humanity to be like; like players in one band, or organs in one body." C. S. Lewis (1898-1963), English professor, author, 'Beyond Personality'
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"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'
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"Freedom comes through complete acceptance of reality." Alan W. Watts (1915-1973), American philosopher and author, 'The Spirit of Zen'
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"That we must give if we are to receive is not a rule, as is so oftern supposed, in defiance of Nature. Rather all the processes of Nature reflect its unconscious action. Life could sustain its being in no other way." Hugh l'Anson Fausset (1895-1965), English critic, poet, 'Proving of Psyche'
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"The Self may be thought of as the heart at the centre of personality." Fritz Kunkel, M.D. (1889-1956), American Psychiatrist, 'How Character Develops'
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"Live in simple faith….just as this trusting cherry flowers, fades, and falls." Issa (1763-1827), Japanese poet, 'Japanese Haiku'
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"As a matter of fact, the factor of conscious choice, of deliberate decision is the constituent element of human wholeness." Gerhard Adler (b. 1904), English Jungian analyst, 'Studies in Analytical Psychology'
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"Now I find hidden, somewhere away in my nature, something that tells me that nothing in the whole world is meaningless, and suffering least of all." Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), English author, 'De Profundis'
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"In broadest outline we see the universe evolving life and life evolving to continually extended awareness. We see our individuality as a phase – perhaps a hairpin bend in the zig-zag spiral of ascent – and we see that our task in cooperating with the purpose of life and the universe is so to act and to think that we become increasingly aware of our extra-individuality – that is, the common life which unites us with our fellow creatures with all life and the universe." Gerald Heard (1889-1972), English philosopher and author, 'The Third Morality'
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"When any community is devoted to the vitality of the Center of and beyond each individual, there will be no danger of damaging consensus, for the particular 'color' of the Center as it expresses itself through each personality will contribute richness to the whole. This will bring relatedness and cooperation." Elizabeth Boyden Howes, Jungian analyst, written for this anthology
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"Do whatever stirs the chords of genuine We-feeling. Seek to set them vibrating more and more until they become the dominating or sole satisfactions in your experience." Fritz Kunkel (1889-1956), American psychiatrist, 'How Character Develops'
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"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'
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"In the depths of the human multitude there slumbers an immense spiritual power which will manifest itself only when we have learned how to break through the dividing walls of our egoism and raise ourselves up to an entirely new perspective, so that habitually and in a practical fashion we fix our gaze on the universal realities." Pierre Teilhard deChardin (1881-1955), priest and paleontologist, 'Hymn of the Universe'
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"All things are simply channels of the divine and spiritual." Meister Johannes Eckhart (1260-1327), German scholar and mystic
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"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."
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"Deep in the psychic structure of every individual there is an urge for the kind of fulfillment which will yield meaning, joy and creativity. Men and women, consciously or unconsciously, desire to obtain the insight whereby they can resolve their own pesonal turbulences, achieve an organic interdependence with other human beings and gain a sense of the end for which they were created."
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"Know that, by nature, every creature seeks to become like God….Secretly nature seeks, hunts, tries to ferret out the track on which God may be found." Meister Eckhart (1260-1327)
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We are gathering together the primary insights of spirituality and bringing them together into one place.
This archive contains 11,754 quotes, taken from 635 references,
organized in terms of 39 primary categories. Quotes are randomized and appear in a different way at every click.
Explore the navigation options to review these insights.
We include
- All major spiritual and religious traditions, from all cultures, and all historical epochs
- Major psychologists, philosophers, writers, scholars and leading religious personalities
- Sources in classical religion as well as voices from new consciousness, esotericism and mysticism
- Choices are guided by the spirit of oneness, love, kindness, inclusion and community
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