Top 500 Henri J.M. Nouwen Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 10

51. “God doesn’t give us just enough. God gives us more than enough: more bread and fish than we can eat, more love than we dared to ask for.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

52. “The Lord is coming, always coming. When you have ears to hear and eyes to see, you will recognize him at any moment of your life. Life is Advent; life is recognizing the coming of the Lord.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

53. “I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted; then I realized that the interruptions were my work.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

54. “In a strange way the spiritual life isn’t “useful” or “successful.” But it is meant to be fruitful. And fruitfulness comes out of brokenness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

55. “From the moment we claim the truth of being the beloved, we are faced with the call to become who we are.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

56. “For Jesus, there are no countries to be conquered, no ideologies to be imposed, no people to be dominated. There are only children, women and men to be loved.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

57. “Hope is willing to leave unanswered questions unanswered and unknown futures unknown. Hope makes you see God’s guiding hand not only in the gentle and pleasant moments but also in the shadows of disappointment and darkness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

58. “God’s Kingdom is a place of abundance where every generous act overflows its original bounds and becomes part of the unbounded grace of God at work in the world.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

59. “Compassion can never coexist with judgement because judgement creates the distance, the distinction, which prevents us from really being with the other.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

60. “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

61. “Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work, and not mine.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

62. “The spiritual life is a reaching out to our innermost self, to our fellow human and to our God.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

63. “Every time I take a step in the direction of generosity, I know I am moving from fear to love.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

64. “Those who keep speaking about the sun while walking under a cloudy sky are messengers of hope, the true saints of our day.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

65. “Becoming the beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am, in fact, thinking of, talking about and doing from hour to hour.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

66. “Friends share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

67. “Dare to love and to be a real friend. The love you give and receive is a reality that will lead you closer and closer to God as well as those whom God has given you to love.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

68. “Our brokenness has no other beauty but the beauty that comes from the compassion that surrounds it.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

69. “Once you are in communion with God, you have the eyes to see and the ears to hear other people in whom God has also found a dwelling place.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

70. “Our greatest fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

71. “The only feelings that do not heal are the ones you hide.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

72. “Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

73. “That’s the temptation of the devil: “Turn stones into bread! Be relevant!””

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

74. “Peacemaking is a full-time vocation that includes each member of God’s people.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

75. “Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved and that nothing-sicknes s, failure, emotional distress, oppression, war, or even death – can take that love away.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

76. “Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable, and powerless with the powerless. Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

77. “To receive spiritual direction is to recognize that God does not solve our problems or answer all our questions, but leads us closer to the mystery of our existence where all questions cease.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

78. “Discipline in the spiritual life is the concentrated effort to create the space and time where God can become our master and where we can respond freely to God’s guidance.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

79. “In solitude we become aware that our worth is not the same as our usefulness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

80. “The story of the prodigal son is the story of a God who goes searching for me and who doesn’t rest until he has found me.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

81. “Peace is first of all the art of being.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

82. “Christian life is not a life divided between times for action and times for contemplation. No. Real social action is a way of contemplation, and real contemplation is the core of social action.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

83. “To the degree that we embrace the truth that our identity is not rooted in our success, power, or popularity, but in God’s infinite love, to that degree can we let go of our need to judge.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

84. “Real greatness is often hidden, humble, simple, and unobtrusive. It is not easy to trust ourselves and our actions without public affirmation. We must have strong self-confidence combined with deep humility.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

85. “So I am praying while not knowing how to pray. I am resting while feeling restless, at peace while tempted, safe while still anxious, surrounded by a cloud of light while still in darkness, in love while still doubting.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

86. “Joy is hidden in sorrow and sorrow in joy. If we try to avoid sorrow at all costs, we may never taste joy, and if we are suspicious of ecstasy, agony can never reach us either. Joy and sorrow are the parents of our spiritual growth.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

87. “We are all healers who can reach out and offer health, and we are all patients in constant need of help.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

88. “When we become aware that we do not have to escape our pains, but that we can mobilize them into a common search for life, those very pains are transformed from expressions of despair into signs of hope.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

89. “Learning to weep, learning to keep vigil, learning to wait for the dawn. Perhaps this is what it means to be human.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

90. “Resentment and gratitude cannot coexist, since resentment blocks the perception and experience of life as a gift. My resentment tells me that I don’t receive what I deserve. It always manifests itself in envy.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

91. “One of the tragedies of our life is that we keep forgetting who we are.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

92. “Solitude is the furnace of transformation.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

93. “Once we deeply trust that we ourselves are precious in God’s eyes, we are able to recognize the preciousness of others and their unique places in God’s heart.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

94. “God is a God of the present. God is always in the moment, be that moment hard or easy, joyful and painful.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

95. “If you meet God in solitude, you discover the God you meet is the God who embraces all people.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

96. “Today I personally believe that while Jesus came to open the door to God’s house, all human beings can walk through that door, whether they know about Jesus or not. Today I see it as my call to help every person claim his or her own way to God.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

97. “Every time you listen with great attentiveness to the voice that calls you the Beloved, you will discover within yourself a desire to hear that voice longer and more deeply. It is like discovering a well in the desert. Once you have touched wet ground, you want to dig deeper.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

98. “Joy is the experience of knowing that you are unconditionally loved.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

99. “Dear God, I am so afraid to open my clenched fists! Who will I be when I have nothing left to hold on to? Who will I be when I stand before you with empty hands? Please help me to gradually open my hands and to discover that I am not what I own, but what you want to give me.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

100. “As we read spiritually about spiritual things, we open our hearts to God’s voice. Sometimes we must be willing to put down the book we are reading and just listen to what God is saying to us through our words.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen