40 Quotes by Howard Thurman
Howard Thurman, a profound theologian and civil rights leader, left an indelible mark on the quest for social justice and spiritual understanding. As a mentor to Martin Luther King Jr., Thurman's philosophy of nonviolent resistance and his emphasis on the interconnectedness of all humanity provided a moral foundation for the civil rights movement. His influential work "Jesus and the Disinherited" addressed the spiritual challenges faced by marginalized communities and advocated for a spirituality that empowered individuals to resist oppression. Thurman's fusion of theology, ethics, and social activism paved the way for a more inclusive and compassionate understanding of spirituality's role in social change. His legacy continues to inspire those striving for justice and equality, showcasing the profound impact that spirituality and moral courage can have on transforming society.
Howard Thurman Quotes
Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. (Meaning)
Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies. (Quote Meaning)
There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful. (Meaning)
The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. (Quote Meaning)
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace. (Meaning)
Follow the grain in your own wood. (Quote Meaning)
He who fears is literally delivered to destruction. (Meaning)
The measure of a man's estimate of your strength is the kind of weapons he feels that he must use in order to hold you fast in a prescribed place. (Quote Meaning)
A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope. (Meaning)
In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair. (Quote Meaning)
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. (Meaning)
The religion of Jesus makes the love-ethic central. (Quote Meaning)
During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable, even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism. (Meaning)
The contradictions of life are neither final nor ultimate; they are simply steps along the way to the final triumph of the human spirit. (Quote Meaning)
Do not be silent; there is no limit to the power that may be released through you. (Meaning)
Ask yourself what makes you come alive. (Quote Meaning)
What the world need is people who have come alive. (Meaning)
keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve. (Quote Meaning)
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.
Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive
In the stillness of the quiet, if we listen, we can hear the whisper of the heart giving strength to weakness, courage to fear, hope to despair.
The movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of men and women often calls them to act against the spirit of their times or causes them to anticipate a spirit which is yet in the making. In a moment of dedication they are given wisdom and courage to dare a deed that challenges and to kindle a hope that inspires.
Do not be silent; there is no limit to the power that may be released through you.
The hard thing when you get old is to keep your horizons open. The first part of your life everything is in front of you, all your potential and promise. But over the years, you make decisions; you carve yourself into a given shape. Then the challenge is to keep discovering the green growing edge.
I will light candles this Christmas, Candles of joy, despite all sadness, Candles of hope where despair keeps watch. Candles of courage where fear is ever present, Candles of peace for tempest-tossed days, Candles of grace to ease heavy burdens. Candles of love to inspire all my living, Candles that will burn all the year long.
There are two questions that we have to ask ourselves. The first is 'Where am I going?' and the second is 'Who will go with me?'
It cannot be denied that too often the weight of the Christian movement has been on the side of the strong and the powerful and against the weak and oppressed-this, despite the gospel.
Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers.
Love has no awareness of merit or demerit; it has no scale... Love loves; this is its nature.
Whatever may be the tensions and the stresses of a particular day, there is always lurking close at hand the trailing beauty of forgotten joy or unremembered peace.
There is a quiet courage that comes from an inward spring of confidence in the meaning and significance of life. Such courage is an underground river, flowing far beneath the shifting events of one's experience, keeping alive a thousand little springs of action.
Jesus rejected hatred because he saw that hatred meant death to the mind, death to the spirit, and death to communion with his Father. He affirmed life; and hatred was the great denial.
During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.
Prayer is a form of communication between God and man and man and God... I am always impressed by the fact that it is recorded that the only thing that the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to do was to pray.
In whatever sense this year is a new year for you, may the moment find you eager and unafraid, ready to take it by the hand with joy and gratitude.
Follow the grain in your own wood.
At the core of life is a hard purposefulness, a determination to live.
There must be always remaining in every life, some place for the singing of angels, some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful.
Often, to be free means the ability to deal with the realities of one's own situation so as not to be overcome by them.
Fate is the raw materials of experience. They come uninvited and often unanticipated. Destiny is what a man does with these raw materials.
There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself.
A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.
Ask yourself what makes you come alive.
Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies.
The years, the months, the days, and the hours have flown by my open window. Here and there an incident, a towering moment, a naked memory, an etched countenance, a whisper in the dark, a golden glow these and much more are the woven fabric of the time I have lived.
What the world need is people who have come alive.
The measure of a man's estimate of your strength is the kind of weapons he feels that he must use in order to hold you fast in a prescribed place.
Growth always involves the risk of failure.
A bigot is a person who makes an idol of his commitments.
The radical tension between good and evil, as man sees it and feels it, does not have the last word about the meaning of life and the nature of existence. There is a spirit in man and in the world working always against the thing that destroys and lays waste.
Keep fresh before me the moments of my high resolve.
If a man knows precisely what he can do to you or what epithet he can hurl against you in order to make you lose your temper, your equilibrium, then he can always keep you under subjection.
To love is to make of one's heart a swinging door.
He who fears is literally delivered to destruction.
Twilight: a time of pause when nature changes her guard. All living things would fade and die from too much light or too much dark, if twilight were not.
Christmas is waiting to be born: in you, in me, in all mankind.
Christmas is a mood, a quality, a symbol. It is never merely a fact.
And this is the strangest of all paradoxes of the human adventure; we live inside all experience, but we are permitted to bear witness only to the outside. Such is the riddle of life and the story of the passing of our days.
What I have written is but a fleeting intimation of the outside of what one man sees and may tell about the path he walks. No one shares the secret of a life; no one enters into the heart of the mystery.
Life wears down the edges of the mind.
Perfect love is long delayed.
There were long stretches where each of us was engaged in a private world of rapidly shifting vignettes. Always I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of human beings ebbing and flowing like the tides of the sea.
― Howard Thurman Quotes
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an author, founder, and impact-driven entrepreneur at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own daring design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 major life goals around the globe. His journey and most recent book, The Art of Fully Living, has led him to found Elevate Society.
