73 Spiritual Quotes about Life

Browsing through the spirituality section of my bookshelf, I found myself reflecting on some of my favorite spiritual quotes about life. They reminded me to pause. In the rush of a fast-paced world, there’s something more grounding than taking a moment to settle into a comforting phrase or idea.

Spiritual quotes can offer meaning and insight when life feels overwhelming or uncertain. They can reconnect us to our essence and affirm the idea that we’re all part of something greater—a universal life source.

I’ve gathered a collection of my favorite spiritual quotes with the hope of creating a little nourishment for the soul. Whether you’re navigating a tough decision, looking for inspiration, or simply taking a moment to reflect, I invite you to explore these quotes as anchors—gentle reminders to return to center and be reminded you are not only resilient but a spiritual being.

As we go, I’ll share snippets of my personal connections to the authors, the concepts, and the books that inspired these insights.

My First Steps into Spirituality

My earliest introduction to spirituality came through the United Church of Canada. My grandmother played the organ, my mother taught Sunday School, and both were active community leaders in the United Church Women. Sundays were marked by time spent in a church pew. I cherished singing Jesus Loves Me, and many of Jesus Christ’s teachings continue to resonate with me to this day.

Jesus Christ Spiritual Quotes

1. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31)
2. “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44)
3. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
4. “Let the little children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
5. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7)

Note: “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” is from the Book of Proverbs, often credited to Jesus’ teachings, and inspired James Allen to write his famous, little book, As a Man Thinketh, which enforces the concept that our thoughts determine our behavior. 

How an MA Included Spiritual Quotes about Life

Christianity was tested when I chose to marry a self-proclaimed agnostic. I had to learn what that meant—a person who neither fully believes nor disbelieves in God. Over time, our marriage faced its own challenges. In the 1970s, I struggled with mental health issues, and my therapeutic journey eventually led me to pursue an MA in Humanistic and Clinical Psychology at The Center for Humanistic Studies, now part of Wayne State University.

The director of this small educational institution, Dr. Clarke Moustakas, was a founder of the Humanistic Psychology movement and left a lasting impression. I remember meeting him for the first time. He was in the lobby, cleaning up a mess, and I mistook him for the janitor. His humility, kindness, and wisdom were unmistakable. Moustakas introduced me and my student-freinds to the works of philosophers such as Hillel the Elder, Martin Buber, and Søren Kierkegaard.

One of my favorite quotes, which I often share with clients, comes from Hillel, a Jewish sage born around 110 BCE:

If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
I sometimes paraphrase it as, “If I am not for me, who will be? And if I am only for me, what is the point?”

Moustakas also emphasized the importance of Martin Buber’s philosophy, particularly his concept of the I and Thou relationship. Buber, a Jewish existentialist philosopher, taught that there is a sacredness in reciprocal relationships—when we truly see the divine in one another. The I-Thou relationship continues to shape my approach to counseling and the way I view human connection.

Martin Buber Quotes:

1. “To be sure, God does not live in me as I am. He dwells wherever man lets Him in.”
2. “Spirit is not in the I but between I and You. Through the Thou, a person becomes I.”

The Danish philosopher, Søren Kierkegaard, was another Moustakas favourite.

Søren Kierkegaard Quotes

1. “Now, with God’s help, I shall become myself.”
2. “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

And of course I treasured Moustache’s own words. Here are three pearls from his book, Rhythms, Rituals and Relationships.

Clark Moustakas Quotes

1. “I know clearly and fully that to move any human being, i must touch, within the person, rhythms of life itself, rhythms that will create a shift with reference to movement, energy, and actions.”
2. “Ultimately there is a bridge, a lifeline, a flow that transcends all distinctions of self and other and fosters a single reality of harmony and oneness.”
3. “Like Martin Buber, I believe that one’s own affirmation of oneself is crucial, even if that means that one will not be confirmed by others.”

Les and Patricia’s Spiritual Journeys Start to Converge

Les and I began to align spiritually as my curiosity about spirituality expanded beyond Christianity, while he became drawn to the writings of Richard Bach. Les often gifted friends copies of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. From Bach’s Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah come these profound spiritual messages.

Richard Bach Quotes

1. “What the caterpillar calls the end of the world; the master calls a butterfly.”
2. “The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other’s life.”
3. “Here is a test to find whether your mission on Earth is finished: If you’re alive, it isn’t.”

An Accidental Spiritual Book Encounter

While visiting a friend, I came across Ram Dass’s book Be Here Now. At the time, it made no sense to me—it felt almost psychedelic. Fast forward about five years, and during a visit to the library, a book fell on my head. It was Be Here Now again! But this time, the cryptic images and puzzling sentences drew me in. I thought to myself, “I now understand these paradoxical messages, and I need to own this book.”

Ram Dan Spiritual Quotes

1. “The quieter you become, the more you can hear.”
2. “We’re all just walking each other home.”
3. “Your problem is you’re too busy holding on to your unworthiness.”
4. “When you know how to listen, everybody is the guru.”
5. “Don’t think about the past. Just be here now. Don’t think about the future. Just be here now.”
6. “I would like my life to be a statement of love and compassion—and where it isn’t, that’s where my work lies.”

The Impact of Centers for Spiritual Living

In 1987, Les, our children, and I moved to Calgary. I had a sense that this city, with its sizable population, would have a community dedicated to spiritual development. I began exploring different faiths and eventually, we joined the Calgary Centre for Spiritual Living (known at the time as the Centre for Positive Living). Les and I completed an eight-week class based on Dr. Ernest Holmes’ Science of Mind: A Philosophy, A Faith, A Way of Life, a book of over 700 pages.

This teaching emphasizes the power of thought and universal principles, which complemented my background in psychology. It highlights the influence of our thoughts and beliefs on mental health, healing, and resilience. The Science of Mind philosophy is supported by notable figures such as Louise Hay, Michael Beckwith, and Raymond Charles Barker.

More than thirty years later, Les and I are still members of the Centers for Spiritual Living.

Dr. Ernest Holmes Spiritual Quotes about Life

1. “Life is a mirror and will reflect back to the thinker what he thinks into it.”
2. “We are surrounded by an infinite Possibility. It is goodness, life, law, and reason. In expressing itself through us, it becomes more fully conscious of its own being.”
3. “Change your thinking, change your life.”
4. “The spirit is the actor, the body is the stage, and the physical form is but the vehicle through which the invisible passes into the visible.”
5. “True imagination is not fanciful daydreaming; it is fire from heaven.”
6. “We must consciously know that we can use the creative power of the universe for good—and then proceed to do so.”

Sunday Journalling of Spiritual Quotes about Life

For many years I wrote in my journal during Sunday service at the Calgary Centre for Spiritual Living. For most of those years the pages were filled with quotations from our spiritual guide, The Reverend Doctor Carol Carnes, author of The Way In.  Here is but a sample.

Carol Carnes Spiritual Quotes 

1. “Spirituality is about men and women declaring their wholeness.”
2. “The best we can do for others is to affirm All Is Well.”
3. “Peace is the spot between your thoughts and between your breath.”
4. “Most people believe they are a victim of someone or some circumstance. Being a victim is a perception of powerlessness and is a lie we tell ourselves.”
5. “It is our spiritual duty to love and embrace our essential self.”
6. “The universe depends on movement, on action and on self-initiating.”
7. “What in you needs to get moving? What thought, belief or feeling has you stuck?”
8. “Life gives us what we pay attention to. What we focus on expands and becomes real.”
9. “Chaos provides an opportunity for things to come apart, while meditation stabilizes you, your home, and your world.”
10. “Vitality trumps age. Vitality is an eagerness to learn, to engage in new activities and to put our minds and bodies to a test”.
11. “The challenge to modern religion is to love humanity more than its dogma.”
12. “The reason we feel frustrated with ourselves is there is something desiring to develop inside.”
13. “If you are in love with yourself, you have nothing to hide.”
14. “There is nothing to fix but something to know. There is nothing to heal but something to reveal. God doesn’t fix but reveals our wholeness.”
15. “You are greater than your experience. You are always creating your experience.”
16. “The way in is the way out of what troubles you.”
17. “The first step to becoming conscious is noticing what you add after the phrase, I AM.”

Here is an old video clip of me giving tribute to Reverend Carol Carnes before she left Alberta to return to the United States.

An Uneventful Spiritual Workshop

One evening, The Calgary Centre of Spiritual Living hosted a workshop by a little-known spiritual sage, Eckhart Tolle. He came to Calgary to promote his book The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment. I recall a timid-looking, gentle man, who won us over with life-earned wisdom.

Eckhart Tolle Spiritual Quotes

1. “Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.”
2. “When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life.”
3. “You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
4. “The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.”
5. “Surrender is the simple but profound wisdom of yielding to rather than opposing the flow of life.”
6. “All the things that truly matter—beauty, love, creativity, joy, inner peace—arise from beyond the mind.”

Hollyhock Heavenly Awakening

When I had the opportunity to spend four days with Jean Houston, PhD, at Hollyhock—a retreat center nestled in the lush, green landscape of Cortes Island, British Columbia—I didn’t hesitate to sign up. Houston is a scholar, philosopher, and researcher, widely recognized as a visionary thinker and one of the founders of the Human Potential movement.

During the retreat, I experienced an out-of-body moment that deepened my belief in a way of knowing that transcends the need for logical understanding. Houston’s teachings effortlessly weave together history, culture, science, human development, and spirituality, creating a uniquely transformative experience.

Of her 26 books, my favorite is A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story. Years later, when Houston—then in her seventies—visited Calgary to deliver the keynote address at a Centers for Spiritual Living conference, I jumped at the chance to attend. I even had the honor of leading a breakout session during the event.

Jean Houston Spiritual Quotes

1. “May I be so bold as to offer you a gift? If I may, read on. I gift you with the courage to be, to know deeply the divine design of your life.”
2. “By being wounded, you became vulnerable and available; by being lost, you were able to be found; by dying, you learned the power of new birth; by forgetting, you gained the joy of remembering.”
3. “And because the universe dances, as the man from Ghana explains to me later, ‘he who does not dance does not know what happens.'”
4. “I have come to believe that life is allied with myth in order that we may advance along an evolutionary path that carries us nearer to the spiritual source of life.”
5. “The wounding becomes sacred when we are willing to release our old stories and to become the vehicles through which the new story may emerge into time.”
6. “We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released.”

Finding Spiritual Quotes about Life in Findhorn

My friend, Dianne Edwards, had completed her training as a Science of Mind minister and was living in Findhorn, an eco-village and spiritual community in northern Scotland. She invited me to visit. Expecting a “woo-woo” culture, I was surprised to learn that, for its population size, Findhorn boasted the lowest ecological footprint in the industrialized world.

During my visit, medical intuitive and spiritual teacher Carolyn Myss happened to be leading a personal development session. Although I was an open skeptic, I decided to attend. The experience broadened my beliefs, and I later used one of Myss’s archetype theories to thoughtfully resolve an ongoing conflict with our youngest daughter.

Myss’s book, Sacred Contracts: Awakening Your Divine Potential, continued to fuel my learning, self-discovery, and spiritual growth long after the visit.

Carolyn Myss Spiritual Quotes

1. “To achieve the greatest success, you have to embrace the prospect of failure.”
2. “Every choice we make, every thought and feeling we have, is an act of power that has biological, environmental, social, personal, and global consequences.
3. “Healing requires self-honesty, and with that comes self-responsibility.”
4. “Every life has a spiritual purpose, and every person plays a role in the spiritual development of others.”
5. “The power of your words is a sacred gift. Use them wisely.”
6. “Archetypes are the psychic lenses through which we view ourselves and the world around us. They shape our inner and outer perceptions and provide a spiritual language to understand our life’s purpose.”

Conclusion

I hope you found one or more spiritual quotes about life of personal meaning or inspiration. Breathe in the concept. Find a place in your heart to have it land and ground. Share with others what the quotation means to you. When a spiritual quote resonates, it can enrich your life, heal or be life changing.

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