The mind is never right but when it is at peace within itself; the soul is in heaven even while it is in the flesh, if it be purged of its natural corruptions, and taken up with divine thoughts and contemplations.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
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
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
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
What the inner voice says will not disappoint the hoping soul.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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
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
Food may be essential as fuel for the body, but good food is fuel for the soul.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
No iron chain, or outward force of any kind, could ever compel the soul of man to believe or disbelieve.
—Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish Historian, Essayist
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
When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flown at it to hold it back from flight.
—James Joyce (1882–1941) Irish Novelist, Poet
I have to confess that I had gambled on my soul and lost it with heroic insouciance and lightness of touch. The soul is so impalpable, so often useless, and sometimes such a nuisance, that I felt no more emotion on losing it than if, on a stroll, I had mislaid my visiting card.
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–67) French Poet, Art Critic, Essayist, Translator
How shall the soul of a man be larger than the life he has lived?
—Edgar Lee Masters (1869–1950) American Poet, Novelist
It is the soul’s duty to be loyal to its own desires. It must abandon itself to its master passion.
—Rebecca West (1892–1983) English Author, Journalist, Literary Critic
The downside, of course, is that over time religions become encrusted with precepts and ideas that are the antithesis of soul, as each faith tries to protect its doctrines and institution instead of nurturing the evolution of consciousness. If one is not careful to distinguish the genuine insights of a religion from its irrelevant accretions, one can go through life following an inappropriate moral compass.
—Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1934–2021) Hungarian-American Psychologist
Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
We know now that the soul is the body, and the body the soul. They tell us they are different because they want to persuade us that we can keep our souls if we let them make slaves of our bodies.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation.
—Joseph Campbell (1904–87) American Author, Mythologist
To be rooted is perhaps the most important and least recognized need of the human soul.
—Simone Weil (1909–1943) French Philosopher, Political Activist
The soul is born old but grows young. That is the comedy of life. And the body is born young and grows old. That is life’s tragedy.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
What your heart thinks is great, is great. The soul’s emphasis is always right.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Each man has his own vocation. The talent is the call. There is one direction in which all space is open to him. He has faculties silently inviting him thither to endless exertion. He is like a ship in a river; he runs against obstructions on every side but one; on that side all obstruction is taken away, and he sweeps serenely over a deepening channel into an infinite sea. This talent and this call depend on his organization, or the mode in which the general soul incarnates itself in him. He inclines to do something which is easy to him, and good when it is done, but which no other man can do. He has no rival. For the more truly he consults his own powers, the more difference will his work exhibit from the work of any other. His ambition is exactly proportioned to his powers. The height of the pinnacle is determined by the breadth of the base. Every man has this call of the power to do somewhat unique, and no man has any other call. The pretence that he has another call, a summons by name and personal election and outward “signs that mark him extraordinary, and not in the roll of common men,” is fanaticism, and betrays obtuseness to perceive that there is one mind in all the individuals, and no respect of persons therein.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The destiny of man is in his own soul.
—Herodotus (c.485–425 BCE) Ancient Greek Historian
Nothing can so pierce the soul as the uttermost sigh of the body.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
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
Genius is the union of man and God in the acts of the soul. Great men are always greater than their deeds. They are in connection with a reserve power that is without limit.
—Wallace Wattles (1860–1911) American New Thought Author
One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words in order that worldly cares may not obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human soul.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
A soul is not something that you have. It is what you are. I usually use the term.
—Jane Roberts (1929–84) American Poet, Spirit Medium
It is heartening to realize that although we may crave comfort and routine, we nourish the soul’s growth primarily through what is hard. As Darwin saw it, it’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but those who are most responsive to change.
—Robert K. Cooper (b.1957) American Author, Psychologist
Leave a Reply