A man doesn’t grow old because he has lived a certain number of years. A man grows old when he deserts his ideal. The years may wrinkle his skin, but deserting his ideal wrinkles his soul.
—Brennan Manning
The trouble with our ideals is that if we live up to all of them, we become impossible to live with.
—Brennan Manning
To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary. Please, this is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.
—Brennan Manning
When our inner child is not nurtured and nourished, our minds gradually close to new ideas, unprofitable commitments and the surprises of the Spirit.
—Brennan Manning
The men and women who are truly filled with light are those who have gazed deeply into the darkness of their own imperfect existence.
—Brennan Manning
What makes authentic disciples is not visions, ecstasies, biblical mastery of chapter and verse, or spectacular success in the ministry, but a capacity for faithfulness.
—Brennan Manning
If we maintain the open-mindedness of children, we challenge fixed ideas and established structures, including our own. We listen to people in other denominations and religions. We don’t find demons in those with whom we disagree. We don’t cozy up to people who mouth our jargon. If we are open, we rarely resort to either-or: either creation or evolution, liberty or law, sacred or secular, Beethoven or Madonna. We focus on both-and, fully aware that God’s truth cannot be imprisoned in a small definition.
—Brennan Manning
Topics: Open-mindedness
Usually we see other people not as they are, but as we are.
—Brennan Manning
The alternative to confronting the truth is always some form of self-destruction.
—Brennan Manning
The tragedy is that our attention centers on what people are not, rather than on what they are and who they might become.
—Brennan Manning
Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself.
—Brennan Manning
Our hearts of stone become hearts of flesh when we learn where the outcast weeps.
—Brennan Manning
As we come to grips with our own selfishness and stupidity, we make friends with the impostor and accept that we are impoverished and broken and realize that, if we were not, we would be God. The art of gentleness toward ourselves leads to being gentle with others—and is a natural prerequisite for our presence to God in prayer.
—Brennan Manning
The temptation of the age is to look good without being good.
—Brennan Manning
Humble men and women do not have a low opinion of themselves; they have no opinion of themselves, because they so rarely think about themselves. The heart of humility lies in undivided attention to God and a de-selfing of our plans, projects, ambitions and soul. Humility is an indifference to our own well-being and a carefree disregard of the image we present. No longer concerned with appearing to be good, we can move freely in the mystery of who we really are, aware of the sovereignty of God and of our absolute insufficiency and yet moved by a spirit of radical self-acceptance without self-concern.
—Brennan Manning
Topics: Humility
The dominant characteristic of an authentic spiritual life is the gratitude that flows from trust
—Brennan Manning
Topics: Suffering
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
—Brennan Manning
Topics: Life, Ideas, Control
With a strong affirmation of our goodness and a gentle understanding of our weakness, God is loving us—you and me—this moment, just as we are and not as we should be.
—Brennan Manning
Topics: Love, Christianity
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- David Halberstam American Journalist, Historian
- Cynthia Ozick American Novelist, Essayist
- Helen Gurley Brown American Publisher
- Lama Surya Das American Buddhist Scholar
- Thomas Keating American Trappist Monk
- Emmet Fox American New Thought Leader
- Gene Wolfe American Science Fiction, Fantasy Writer
- Joseph Campbell American Mythologist, Writer
- Donald Trump American Businessperson, Head of State
- Thomas Merton American Trappist Monk
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