Quotes from John O'Donohue

The poor have been doubly impoverished by the ugliness that surrounds them.

The art of disappearing certainly has its own kind of value. In a strange way, in modern society we seem to be inhabiting the world of absence more than presence through the whole world of technology and virtual reality. Very often it seems that the driven nature of contemporary society is turning us into the ultimate harvesters of absence, that is, ghosts in our own lives.

May I have the courage today to live the life that I would love, to postpone my dream no longer but do at last what I cam here for and waste my heart on fear no more.

And here are we, even if we are old, we still have time, and time is always full of possibility. It would really be a great gift that an old person could give to themselves, the gift of recognizing the possibilities that are in that time, and to use their imagination. The imagination is the gateway to a full life, and people who awaken their imagination come in to a force field of possibility and there are doors opening everywhere. I think it is unknown what you can do if you begin to see it.

At a deeper level, time is but eternity living dangerously.

When you are in rhythm with your nature, nothing destructive can touch you. Providence is at one with you; it minds you and brings you to new horizons. To be spiritual is to be in rhythm.

In each person, there is a point of absolute nonconnection with everything else and with everyone. This is fascinating and frightening. It means that we cannot continue to seek outside ourselves for the things we need from within.

There is a desperate hunger for belonging. People feel isolated and cut off. Perhaps this is why a whole nation can assemble around the images of celebrities. They have no acquaintance with these celebrities personally. They look at them from a distance and project all their longings onto them. When something happens to a celebrity, they feel as if it is happening to themselves. There is an acute need for the reawakening of the sense of community.

If we could be mindful of how short our time is, we might learn how precious each day is.

Person als Vermittlung (The Person as Mediator)

As we grow old, that twilight Would illuminate treasure In the fields of memory.

So much depends not on how awkward destiny is, but rather on how openly it is embraced. This is what the "sheltering wall" of blessing can enable.

Cottage I sit, alertbehind the small windowof my mind and watchthe days pass,strangers,who have no reasonto look in.

Many of us get very afraid and we eventually compromise. We settle for something that is safe, rather than engaging the danger and the wildness that is in our own hearts. We should never forget that death is waiting for us

It is such a great moment of liberation when you learn to forgive yourself, let the burden go, and walk out into a new path of promise and possibility. Self-compassion is a wonderful gift to give yourself. You should never reduce the mystery and expanse of your presence to a haunted fixation with something you did or did not do.

breakthroughs in the evolution of human consciousness will be the recognition of the subtle complexity and the hidden inner world that animals carry around with them. The innocence and silence of the animal world has a huge subtlety to it that is anything but dumb, but rather notices everything and is present in everything. Animals carry a huge ministry of witness to the silence of time and to the depth of nature. They are like the landscape in a sense: they live too in the mode of silence.

I feel that fear is negative wonder. It is the point at which wonder begins to consume itself and scrape off the essence of things.

Where the imagination is alive, wonder is completely alive. Where the imagination is alive, possibility is awake because imagination is the great friend of possibility. Possibilities are always more interesting than their facts.

The real mystery is not that things are the way they are, but that there is something rather than nothing.

All thinking that is imbued with wonder is graceful and gracious thinking. Thought

Each one of us is the custodian of an inner world that we carry around with us.

and warm awareness, you are going to have an incredible life. You are going to have sufferings as well, but you will always return to that place of warmth and fire within yourself.

When you celebrate, you are taking time to recognize, to open your eyes and behold in your life the quiet miracles and gifts that seek no attention; yet each day they nourish, shelter, and animate your life.

Beauty cannot be forced. It alone decides when it will come and sometimes it is the last thing we expect and the very last thing to arrive. Creative artists know this well. Great skill and inspiration set the context or scene where beauty might emerge. But it is not the mind of the artist alone that can determine whether beauty will arrive or not.