I read J. Francis Stroud’s Praying Naked quite some time ago. It was an interesting book, but I wonder why he feels the need to speak through Anthony de Mello? It also felt just a tad too new-agish for me. But there were lots of cool quotes used in the book which I’ve been meaning to jot down before I shelve the book…
- When I pray for something, I do not pray. When I pray for nothing, I really pray. ~ Anthony de Mello
- A neurotic is someone who worries about things in the past that never happened. Not like us normal people who only worry about things in the future that won’t happen. ~ Anthony de Mello
- The tragedy of life is not how much we suffer, but how much we miss. ~ Thomas Carlyle
- To understand things equals learning; to understand others equals wisdom; but to understand yourself, that is enlightenment. ~ J. Francis Stroud, S.J.
- Whatever one believes to be true either is true, or becomes true in one’s mind. ~ John C. Lilly
- Success is not the result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. ~ Reggie Leach
- To fall into a habit is to begin to cease to be. ~ Miguel de Unamuno
- The consciousness of divinity comes only with quietude. ~ Meister Eckhart
- Pain is the bitter pill of the inner physician that cracks the shell of our understanding. And, after all, how can a seed grow into a flower unless the seed swells and dies? ~ Kahlil Gibran
- Great men are they that see that the spiritual is stronger than any material force, that thoughts rule the world. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The only thing that we can know is that we know nothing. And that is the highest flight of wisdom. ~ Leo Tolstoy
- Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it. ~ Robert Frost
- What can you say to a close friend who is about to die? There is only one thing you can say to give the deepest comfort. Say that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you go also. He is not alone. ~ J. Krishnamurti
- We become the God we adore. If we make a monster of him, then we become monsters, also. ~ J. Francis Stroud, S.J.
- Three stages of a person’s development: I believe in Santa Claus. I don’t believe in Santa Claus. I am Santa Claus. ~ unknown
- A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and will sing it back to you when you forget it. ~ W.N. Clarke