Top 500 Henri J.M. Nouwen Quotes (2026 Update)
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351. “The fruits of your labors may be reaped two generations from now. Trust, even when you don’t see the results.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

352. “I have also learned to catch the darkness early, not to allow sadness to grow into depression or let a sense of being rejected develop into a feeling of abandonment. Even in the renewed and deepened friendship, I feel the freedom to point to the little clouds and ask for help in letting them pass by.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

353. “Hiddenness is the place of purification. In hiddenness we find our true selves.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

354. “Yes, there is that voice, the voice that speaks from above and from within and that whispers softly or declares loudly: “You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests.” It certainly is not easy to hear that voice in a world filled with voices that shout: You are no good, you are ugly; you are worthless; you are despicable, you are nobody – unless you can demonstrate the opposite.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

355. “The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation...”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

356. “Life is a gift to be grateful for and not a property to cling to.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

357. “Emit gratitude as though it was done.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

358. “The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

359. “The more we touch the intimate love of God which creates, sustains, and guides us, the more we recognize the multitude of fruits that come forth from that love.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

360. “I have found over and over again how hard it is to be truly faithful to Jesus when I am alone.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

361. “The journey from teaching about love to allowing myself to be loved proved much longer than I realised.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

362. “The resistance to praying is like the resistance of tightly clenched fists. This image shows a tension, a desire to cling tightly to yourself, a greediness which betrays fear.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

363. “As long as we have our stories there is hope.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

Featured in: Quotes About Stories

364. “The man who can articulate the movements of his inner life need no longer be a victim of himself, but is able slowly and consistently to remove the obstacles that prevent the spirit from entering.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

365. “To care for others requires an ever-increasing acceptance.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

366. “In our production-oriented society, being busy, having an occupation, has become one of the main ways, if not the main way, of identifying ourselves. Without an occupation, not just our economic security but our very identity is endangered.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

367. “To give someone a blessing is the most significant affirmation we can offer. It is more than a word of praise or appreciation; it is more than pointing out someone’s talents or good deeds; it is more than putting someone in the light. To give a blessing is to affirm, to say ‘yes’ to a person’s Belovedness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

368. “A friend is more than a therapist or confessor, even though a friend can sometimes heal us and offer us God’s forgiveness. A friend is that other person with whom we can share our solitude, our silence, and our prayer. A friend is that other person with whom we can look at a tree and say, “Isn’t that beautiful,” or sit on the beach and silently watch the sun disappear under the horizon. 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

369. “Do not tell everyone your story. You will only end up feeling more rejected. People cannot give you what you long for in your heart. The more you expect from people’s response to your experience of abandonment, the more you will feel exposed to ridicule. You have to close yourself to the outside world so you can enter your own heart and the heart of God through your pain. God will send to you the people with whom you can share your anguish, who can lead you closer to the true source of love.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

370. “What is forgotten cannot be healed, and that which cannot be healed easily becomes the cause of greater evil.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

371. “People who have come to know the joy of God do not deny the darkness, but they choose not to live in it.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

372. “The world is evil only when you become its slave. The world has a lot to offer – just as Egypt did for the children of Jacob – as long as you don’t feel bound to obey it. The great struggle facing you is not to leave the world, to reject your ambitions and aspirations, or to despise money, prestige, or success, but to claim your spiritual truth and to live in the world as someone who doesn’t belong to it.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

373. “Spiritual greatness has nothing to do with being greater than others. It has everything to do with being as great as each of us can be. True sanctity is precisely drinking our own cup and trusting that by thus fully claiming our own, irreplaceable journey, we can become a source of hope for many.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

374. “The mystery of one man is too immense and too profound to be explained by another man.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

375. “Although I am a committed Catholic priest, and nowhere hide that fact, my focus is very much a spiritual journey.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

376. “Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

377. “When love chooses, it chooses with a perfect sensitivity for the unique beauty of the chosen one, and it chooses without making anyone else feel excluded.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

378. “When we live with a solitude of heart, we can listen with attention to the words and the worlds of others, but when we are driven by loneliness, we tend to select just those remarks and events that bring immediate satisfaction to our own craving needs. Our.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

379. “Active waiting is essential to the spiritual life.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

380. “The first task of seeking guidance then is to touch your own struggles, doubts, and insecurities – in short, to affirm your life as a quest.8 Your life, my life, is given graciously by God. Our lives are not problems to be solved but journeys to be taken with Jesus as our friend and finest guide.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

381. “Grateful people learn to celebrate even amid life’s hard and harrowing memories because they know that pruning is no mere punishment, but preparation.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

382. “Today worrying means to be occupied and preoccupied with many things, while at the same time being bored, resentful, depressed, and very lonely.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

383. “When we have nothing to cling to as our own and cease thinking of ourselves as people who must defend privileges, we can open ourselves freely to others with the faithful expectation that our strength will manifest itself in our shared weakness.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

384. “What I do know with unwavering certainty is the heart of the father. It is a heart of limitless mercy.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

385. “The Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self. That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love. The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God’s Word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

386. “Ministry is a very confronting service. It does not allow people to live with illusions of immortality and wholeness. It keeps reminding others that they are mortal and broken, but also that with the recognition of this condition, liberation starts.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

387. “Not being welcome is your greatest fear. It connects with your birth fear, your fear of not being welcome in this life, and your death fear, your fear of not being welcome in the life after this. It is the deep-seated fear that it would have been better if you had not lived.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

388. “Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently from the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it. What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

389. “Too many of us are lonely ministers practicing a lonely ministry.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

390. “When we have sold our identity to the judges of this world, we are bound to become restless, because of a growing need for affirmation and praise.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

391. “Every time you do something that comes from your needs for acceptance, affirmation, or affection, and every time you do something that makes these needs grow, you know that you are not with God. These needs will never be satisfied; they will only increase when you yield to them.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

392. “When we see ourselves in a relationship of love with God, there is always something of a lover’s dilemma, a struggle to give and receive, to trust and obey the call.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

393. “Solitude is an essential element for the spiritual health of a child. If we only stimulate our children – keep them busy with endless stories with no space to be alone – that’s not good.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

394. “Trust in God allows us to live with active expectation, not cynicism.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

395. “The people who most affected me were the ones who got right in there with me, who cried with me, but who also had a certain authority, who dared to say what needed saying.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

396. “The more we become sensitive to our own journey the more we realize that we are leaving and coming back every day, every hour. Our minds wander away but eventually return; our hearts leave in search of affection and return sometimes broken; our bodies get carried away in their desires then sooner or later return. It’s never one dramatic life moment but a constant series of departures and returns.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

397. “I am very grateful that I am in touch with so many different church groups. I am always very moved by the fact that so many people – practically over the spectrum of the Christian world – are responding to my writing.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

398. “The Father’s love does not force itself on the beloved.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

399. “The paradox of prayer is that it asks for a serious effort while it can only be received as a gift. We cannot plan, organize or manipulate God; but without a careful discipline, we cannot receive him either.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen

400. “The evangelical movement has become just a bit victimized by a success-oriented culture, wanting the church – like the corporation – to be successful.”

— Henri J.M. Nouwen