John O'Donohue
Irish poet, philosopher, and former Catholic priest, one of the most beloved spiritual writers of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Born in 1956 in County Clare, on the limestone Burren of Ireland's western coast, he wrote his doctoral thesis on Hegel and spent two decades as a parish priest before leaving the priesthood to write full-time. His 1997 book Anam Cara — Gaelic for 'soul friend' — introduced English-speaking readers to the Celtic spiritual imagination and became one of the most quoted contemporary spiritual texts. His subsequent books, especially To Bless the Space Between Us (his collected blessings, published the year of his sudden death in 2008), made him a household name in the global contemplative community. His blessings — 'For a New Beginning,' 'For Solitude,' 'Beannacht' — are read at weddings, funerals, and ordinary mornings around the world.
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Quotes by John O'Donohue
107 quotes“Where there is friendship, time stands still.”
“Imagination must be carried with us into every encounter.”
“To live deeply is to allow the soul to ripen.”
“There is a beautiful attentiveness in the presence of trees.”
“Trees give the most beautiful image of how to bring grace into your life.”
“In the geography of the soul, every person is a country.”
“The eternal echoes call from within and without.”
“To be human is to bear the longing.”
“Longing is the deepest expression of the spirit.”
“You are involved in the dramatic mystery of becoming.”
“There is a gentleness in beauty that softens the hardest heart.”
“Where life ripens to beauty, the divine is at work.”
“In a fragmented world, beauty asks us to slow down.”
“Sometimes the words don't come, and we must wait in silence.”
“Even when you cannot pray, the prayer of the universe surrounds you.”
“Stillness is the source of every word.”
“In the dawn of words, the silence is fullest.”
“The greatest sin is to live without ever being born to your true self.”
“To experience beauty is to come into harmony with one's own true nature.”
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