Top 500 Henri J.M. Nouwen Quotes (2026 Update)
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301. “God wants you to live for others and to live that presence well.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

302. “Our God is a God who cares, heals, guides, directs, challenges, confronts, corrects. To discern means first of all to listen to God, to pay attention to God’s active presence, and to obey God’s prompting, direction, leadings, and guidance.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

303. “We might be competent in many subjects, but we cannot become an expert in the things of God. God is greater than our minds and cannot be caught within the boundaries of our finite concepts. Thus, spiritual formation leads not to a proud understanding of divinity, but to docta ignorantia, an “articulate not-knowing.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

304. “The main problem of service is to be the way without being “in the way.” And if there are any tools, techniques and skills to be learned they are primarily to plow the field, to cut the weeds and to clip the branches, that is, to take away the obstacles for real growth and development.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

305. “Building a vocation on the expectations of concrete results, however conceived, is like building a house on sand instead of on solid rock, and even takes away the ability to accept successes as free gifts.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

306. “A happy life is a life for others.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

307. “Prayer, which is breathing with the Spirit of Jesus, leads us to this immense knowledge.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

308. “Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change in contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks about a change of heart.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

309. “Christ invites us to remain in touch with the many sufferings of every day and to taste the beginning of hope and new life right there, where we live amid our hurts and pains and brokenness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

310. “We will encounter great obstacles and splendid views, long dry deserts and shadow-rich trees. We will have to fight against those who try to attack and rob us. We will also make wonderful friends. We will often wonder if we will ever make it, but one day we will see coming to us the One who has been waiting for all eternity to welcome us home.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

311. “Jesus promises a life in which we increasingly have to stretch out our hands and be led into places where we would rather not go.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

312. “Doctors, lawyers, and psychologists study to become qualified professionals who are paid to know what to do. A well-trained theologian or minister is only able to point out the universal tendency to narrow God down to our own little conceptions and expectations, and to call for an open mind and heart for God to be revealed.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

313. “With a friend we don’t have to say or do something special. With a friend we can be still and know that God is there with both of us.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

314. “Writing is not just a job. It helps me to pray. It’s a way of being.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

315. “There are many elder sons and elder daughters who are lost while still at home.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

316. “Following Jesus means to let go of the “I” and move toward the “other.” Following Jesus means to dare to move out of ourselves and to slowly let go of building our “self” up.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

317. “I am a good person, known and cherished by the One who brought me to my existence. Before I was hurt, I was a beloved.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

318. “To be chosen as the Beloved of God is something radically different. Instead of excluding others, it includes others. Instead of rejecting others as less valuable, it accepts others in their own uniqueness. It is not a competitive, but a compassionate choice.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

319. “I am convinced that healing is often so difficult because we don’t want to know the pain.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

320. “But our task is the opposite of distraction. Our task is to help people concentrate on the real but often hidden event of God’s active presence in their lives. Hence, the question that must guide all organizing activity in a parish is not how to keep people busy, but how to keep them from being so busy that they can no longer hear the voice of God who speaks in silence.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

321. “We may have only a few talents, but we have many gifts. Our gifts are the many ways in which we express our humanity. They are part of who we are: friendship, kindness, patience, joy, peace, forgiveness, gentleness, love, hope, trust and many others. These are the true gifts we have to offer to each other.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

322. “Community as discipline is the effort to create a free and empty space among people where together we can practice true obedience.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

323. “Our primary task in solitude, therefore, is not to pay undue attention to the many faces which assail us, but to keep the eyes of our mind and heart on him who is our divine savior.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

324. “Jesus’ first temptation was to be relevant: to turn stones into bread.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

325. “The real mystery of marriage is not that husband and wife love each other so much that they can recognize God in each other’s lives, but more because God loves them so much that they can discover each other more and more as living reminder’s of God’s presence.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

326. “Our lives are unique stones in the mosaic of human existence – priceless and irreplaceable.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

327. “In the face of the oppressed I recognize my own face, and in the hands of the oppressor I recognize my own hands. Their flesh is my flesh, their blood is my blood, their pain is my pain, their smile is my smile.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

328. “I’ve had a tremendous problem with depression in my life. I’d rather not talk about it, because it’s over. But depression is real.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

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329. “The world is waiting for new saints, ecstatic men and women who are so deeply rooted in the love of God that they are free to imagine a new international order.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

330. “Jesus didn’t say, ‘Blessed are those who care for the poor.’ He said, ‘Blessed are we where we are poor, where we are broken.’ It is there that God loves us deeply and pulls us into deeper communion with himself.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

331. “The world says, “When you were young you were dependent and could not go where you wanted, but when you grow old you will be able to make your own decisions, go your own way, and control your own destiny.” But Jesus has a different vision of maturity: It is the ability and willingness to be led where you would rather not go.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

332. “The great illusion of leadership is to think that man can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there. Our lives are filled with examples which tell us that leadership asks for understanding and that understanding requires sharing.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

333. “Life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

334. “I witness many signs of hope. I don’t have to wait until all is well, but I can celebrate every little hint of the Kingdom that is at hand.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

335. “Who can listen to a story of loneliness and despair without taking the risk of experiencing similar pains in his own heart and even losing his precious peace of mind? In short: “Who can take away suffering without entering it?”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

336. “The joy that compassion brings is one of the best-kept secrets of humanity. It is a secret known only to a very few people, a secret that has to be rediscovered over and over again.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

337. “Exhaustion, burnout, and depression are not signs that you are doing God’s will. God is gentle and loving. God desires to give you a deep sense of safety in God’s love. Once you have allowed yourself to experience that love fully, you will be better able to discern who you are being sent to in God’s name.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

338. “We are called to witness, always with our lives and sometimes with our words, to the great things God has done for us.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

339. “Good families always ritualize the table. You can say, “This is a Christmas meal; this is a birthday meal.””

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

340. “Just as words lose their power when they are not born out of silence, so openness loses its meaning when there is no ability to be closed.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

341. “To live in the present, we must deeply believe that what is most important is in the here and now.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

342. “Every time you close another door – be it the door of immediate satisfaction, the door of distracting entertainment, the door of busyness, the door of guilt and worry, or the door of self-rejection – you commit yourself to go deeper into your heart and thus deeper into the heart of God.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

343. “Our society is so fragmented, our family lives so sundered by physical and emotional distance, our friendships so sporadic, our intimacies so ‘in-between’ things and often so utilitarian, that there are few places where we can feel truly safe.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

344. “In their poverty, the mentally handicapped reveal God to us and hold us close to the gospel.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

345. “Your true identity is as a child of God. This is the identity you have to accept. Once you have claimed it and settled in it, you can live in a world that gives you much joy as well as pain. You can receive the praise as well as the blame that comes to you as an opportunity for strengthening your basic identity, because the identity that makes you free is anchored beyond all human praise and blame. You belong to God, and it is as a child of God that you are sent into the world.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

346. “When you can look into the face of another human being and you have enough light in you to recognize your brother or you sister. Until then it is night, and darkness is still with us.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

347. “People with handicaps teach me that being is more important than doing, the heart is more important than the mind, and caring together is better than caring alone.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

348. “To console does not mean to take away the pain but rather to be there and say, “You are not alone, I am with you. Together.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

349. “Our salvation comes from something small, tender, and vulnerable, something hardly noticeable. The Lord, who is the creator of the universe, comes to us in smallness, weakness, and hiddenness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

350. “Without trust, I cannot let myself be found. Trust is that deep inner conviction that the Father wants me home. As long as I doubt that I am worth finding and put myself down as less loved than my younger brothers and sisters, I cannot be found. I have to keep saying to myself, “God is looking for you. He will go anywhere to find you. He loves you, he wants you home, he cannot rest unless he has you with him.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen