Quotes About Soul

Men can be divided into those who make their life complicated to gain their soul and those who waste their soul to make their life easier.

Die Intellektuelle Geschichte Deutschlands lehrt uns, daß der Geist mit Vorliebe in den Seelen weht, die ihre Größe durch ein Leben der eintönigen Routine erkämpfen.

Civilization is what is born when the soul does not surrender to its congenital vulgarity.

Man has as much of a soul as he believes he has. When that belief dies, man becomes an object.

The fact that nothing in this world fulfills us does not prevent us from longing for a world that is less ignoble and less ugly. In a well-tended garden the soul observes with nobler tranquility the initial onslaught of winter.

To educate the soul consists in teaching it to transform its envy into admiration.

Let us repudiate the abominable suggestion that we should renounce friendship and love in order to banish misfortune. On the contrary, let us mingle our souls just as we weave our bodies together. May the beloved be the land of our shattered roots.

Ingratitude, disloyalty, resentment, rancor define the plebeian soul in every age and characterize this century.

Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.

That day, I really believed that I had grasped something and that henceforth my life would be changed. But insights cannot be held for ever. Like water, the world ripples across you and for a while you take on its colours. Then it recedes, and leaves you face to face with the void you carry inside yourself, confronting that central inadequacy of soul which you must learn to rub shoulders with and to combat, and which, paradoxically, may be our surest impetus.

Comme une eau, le monde vous traverse et pour un temps vous prête ses couleurs. Puis se retire, et vous replace devant ce vide qu'on porte en soi, devant cette espèces d'insuffisance centrale de l'âme qu'il faut bien apprendre à côtoyer, à combattre, et qui, paradoxalement, est peut-être notre moteur le plus sûr.

C'est une belle allégorie, dans la Bible, que cet arbre de la science du bien et du mal qui produit la mort. Cet emblème ne veut-il pas dire que lorsqu'on a pénétré le fond des choses, la pert des illusions amène la mort de l'âme, c'est-à-dire un désintéressement complet sur tout ce qui touches les autres hommes?

God joins us together by means of the body, in consequence of the laws of the communication of movements. He affects us with the same feelings in consequence of the laws of the conjunction of body and soul.

Although religion was around me my whole life I never felt it was forced upon me. It is my centring, my grounding, the soul of me. I feel I'm nothing without it.

Selling my soul would be a lot easier if I could just find it.

He who has talent in him must be purer in soul than anyone else. Another will be forgiven much, but to him it will not be forgiven. A man who leaves the house in bright, festive clothes needs only one drop of mud splashed from under a wheel, and people all surround him, point their fingers at him, and talk about his slovenliness, while the same people ignore many spots on other passers-by who are wearing everyday clothes. For on everyday clothes the spots do not show.

F]or contemporary judgment does not recognize that much depth of soul is needed to light up the picture drawn from contemptible life and elevate it into a pearl of creation...

But there is nothing enduring in the world, and therefore even joy in the second minute is already not as acute as in the first; in the third minute it becomes still weaker and finally merges unnoticeably with the usual condition of the soul, as a circle on the water, caused by the fall of a pebble, finally merges with the smooth surface.

Russia! Russia! What is the incomprehensible, mysterious force that draws me to you? Why does your mournful song, carried along your whole length and breadth from sea to sea, each and re-echo incessantly in my ears? What is there in that song? What is it that calls, and sobs, and clutches at my heart? What are those sounds that caress me so poignantly, that go straight to my soul and twine about my heart? Russia! What do you want from me? What is that mysterious, hidden bond between us?

Our country is the one our soul longs for, the one which is dearest of all to us. My country is—you! That is my native land, and I bear that country in my heart.

He was an artist of rare ability, a self-taught artist, without teachers or schools, principles and rules, carried away only by the thirst for perfection, and treading a path indicated by his own instincts, for reasons unknown, perchance, even to himself. Through some lofty and secret instinct he perceived the presence of a soul in every object.

Only when he died did they find out, with regret, that the Public Prosecutor had had a soul, although out of modesty he had never flaunted it.

God, how beautiful some posts and jobs are! how they elevate and delight the soul! but, alas! I am not in the civil service and am denied the pleasure of beholding my superiors' refined treatment of me.

But nothing on this earth lasts for a long time, and thus even joy is not as vivid the second moment as it is the first; the third moment, it becomes still weaker, and finally it merges unnoticeably with the normal state of one's soul,