Of the three prerequisites of genius; the first is soul; the second is soul; and the third is soul.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
Who can map out the various forces at play in one soul? Man is a great depth, O Lord. The hairs of his head are easier by far to count than his feeling, the movements of his heart.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
The one thing in the world, of value, is the active soul.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Give yourself the gift of time in coming to answers for your life…It takes time, and a lot of introspection and soul-searching, to get clear about what you really want to manifest in your life.
—David Emerald
Ahimsa is the attribute of the soul, and therefore, to be practiced by everybody in all affairs of life. If it cannot be practiced in all departments, it has no practical value.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
Nothing can so pierce the soul as the uttermost sigh of the body.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
The lusts and greeds of the body scandalize the Soul; but it has to come to heel.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
If we expended all our energies solely on taking care of our own needs we would stop growing. In that respect what we call “soul” can be viewed as the surplus energy that can be invested into change and transformation. As such, it is the cutting edge of evolution.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
There seems to be an unalterable contradiction between the human mind and its employments. How can a soul be a merchant? What relation to an immortal being have the price of linseed, the brokerage on hemp? Can an undying creature debit petty expenses and charge for carriage paid? The soul ties its shoes; the mind washes its hands in a basin. All is incongruous.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
I consider the soul of man as the ruin of a glorious pile of buildings; where, amidst great heaps of rubbish, you meet with noble fragments of sculpture, broken pillars and obelisks, and a magnificence in confusion.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.
—Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869–1948) Indian Hindu Political leader
The countenance is the portrait of the soul, and the eyes mark its intentions.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Some tension is necessary for the soul to grow, and we can put that tension to good use. We can look for every opportunity to give and receive love, to appreciate nature, to heal our wounds and the wounds of others, to forgive, and to serve.
—Joan Borysenko
The soul, like the body, lives by what it feeds on.
—Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819–81) American Editor, Novelist
Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
The destiny of man is in his own soul.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God.
—John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish Roman Catholic Mystic
The blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold and it’s overturned the order of the soul…
—Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian Singer, Songwriter, Poet, Novelist
The soul gives unity to what it looks at with love.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
Go, Soul, the body
—Walter Raleigh (1552–1618) English Courtier, Navigator, Poet
The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Mythologist, Writer, Lecturer
This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
I sought my soul, but my soul I could not see. I sought my God, but my God eluded me. I sought my brother and I found all three.
—Unknown
A leader will find it difficult to articulate a coherent vision unless it expresses his core values, his basic identity…one must first embark on the formidable journey of self-discovery in order to create a vision with authentic soul.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
To expect a personality to survive the disintegration of the brain is like expecting a cricket club to survive when all of its members are dead.
—Bertrand A. Russell (1872–1970) British Philosopher, Mathematician, Social Critic
The man who is always worrying whether or not his soul would be damned generally has a soul that isn’t worth a damn.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure: that when the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.
—William Faulkner (1897–1962) American Novelist
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbow’d.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Lies but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
—William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) English Poet, Critic, Editor
The soul that is attached to anything however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union. For whether it be a strong wire rope or a slender and delicate thread that holds the bird, it matters not, if it really holds it fast; for, until the cord be broken the bird cannot fly.
—John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish Roman Catholic Mystic
Since our inner experiences consist of reproductions and combinations of sensory impressions, the concept of a soul without a body seems to me to be empty and devoid of meaning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
How shall the soul of a man be larger than the life he has lived?
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950) American Poet, Novelist
I am fully convinced that the soul is indestructible, and that its activity will continue through eternity. It is like the sun, which, to our eyes, seems to set in night; but it has in reality only gone to diffuse its light elsewhere.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
The problem of restoring to the world original and eternal beauty is solved by the redemption of the soul.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Each stone, each bend cries welcome to him. He identifies with the mountains and the streams, he sees something of his own soul in the plants and the animals and the birds of the field.
—Paulo Coelho (b.1947) Brazilian Songwriter, Novelist
Either we have an immortal soul, or we have not. If we have not, we are beasts; the first and wisest of beasts it may be; but still beasts. We only differ in degree, and not in kind; just as the elephant differs from the slug. But by the concession of the materialists, we are not of the same kind as beasts; and this also we say from our own consciousness. Therefore, methinks, it must be the possession of a soul within us that makes the difference.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
It seems to me as if not only the form but the soul of man was made to walk erect and look upon the stars.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
One may have a blazing hearth in one’s soul and yet no one ever came to sit by it. Passers-by see only a wisp of smoke from the chimney and continue on their way.
—Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) Dutch Painter
What the inner voice says will not disappoint the hoping soul.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
In childhood’s pride I said to Thee:
O Thou, who mad’st me of Thy breath,
Speak, Master, and reveal to me
Thine inmost laws of life and death.
Give me to drink each joy and pain
Which Thine eternal hand can mete,
For my insatiate soul can drain
Earth’s utmost bitter, utmost sweet.
Spare me no bliss, no pang of strife,
Withhold no gift or grief I crave,
The intricate lore of love and life
And mystic knowledge of the grave.
Lord, Thou didst answer stern and low:
Child, I will hearken to thy prayer,
And thy unconquered soul shall know
All passionate rapture and despair.
Thou shalt drink deep of joy and fame,
And love shall burn thee like a fire,
And pain shall cleanse thee like a flame,
To purge the dross from thy desire.
So shall thy chastened spirit yearn
To seek from its blind prayer release,
And spent and pardoned, sue to learn
The simple secret of My peace.
I, bending from my sevenfold height,
Will teach thee of My quickening grace,
Life is a prism of My light,
And Death the shadow of My face.
—Sarojini Naidu (1879–1949) Indian Feminist, Poet, Political Leader
What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Begin to do small things in a great way…You must put the whole power of your great soul into every act.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
Your purpose is to act on the resources God gives you. If God gives you a bucket of fish, you have to distribute those fish. If you don’t, they’re going to rot, attract a bunch of flies, and start stinking up your soul.
—Russell Simmons (b.1957) American Music Promoter
Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul.
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964) American Military Leader
The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves.
—Common Proverb
He who commends the nature of the soul as the supreme good, and condemns the nature of the flesh as evil, at once both carnally desires the soul, and carnally flies the flesh, because he feels thus from human vanity, not from divine truth.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
Whatever that be which thinks, which understands, which wills, which acts, it is something celestial and divine, and on that account must necessarily be eternal.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
To look upon the soul as going on from strength to strength, to consider that she is to shine forever with new accessions of glory, and brighten to all eternity; that she will be still adding virtue to virtue, and knowledge to knowledge,—carries in it something wonderfully agreeable to that ambition which is natural to the mind of man.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul.
—Anonymous