
Henri Nouwen: Inspiring Quotes & Life Lessons from the Spiritual Writer
Henri Nouwen: Info
Henri Jozef Machiel Nouwen (1932–1996) was a Dutch Catholic priest, professor, writer, and theologian renowned for his profound spiritual writings and pastoral care. Nouwen taught at prestigious institutions such as Yale, Harvard, and the University of Notre Dame. He authored over 40 books on spirituality, community, and compassion, including The Wounded Healer, Life of the Beloved, and The Return of the Prodigal Son. His writings continue to inspire readers worldwide with their emphasis on vulnerability, solitude, and the transformative power of love.
10 Inspiring Henri Nouwen Quotes
- “What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.”
- “The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.”
- “Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.”
- “When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.”
- “You don’t think your way into a new kind of living. You live your way into a new kind of thinking.”
- “Much of our suffering comes from our resistance to the life we are living.”
- “Solitude is the furnace of transformation.”
- “Our life is full of empty spaces that we try to fill up with things that can never satisfy us.”
- “Community is the place where the person you least want to live with always lives.”
- “We are not what we do, we are not what we have, we are not what other people say about us. We are the beloved children of God.”