Paul Tournier Quotes

Quotes about:

• We are nearly always longing for an easy religion, easy to understand and easy to follow; a religion with no mystery, no insoluble problems,no snags; a religion that would allow us to escape from our miserable human condition; a religion in which contact with God spares us all strife, all uncertainty,all suffering and all doubt; in short, a religion without a cross

  Paul Tournier

  Doubt, Suffering, Mystery

  Paul Tournier (1982). “Reflections: a personal guide for life's most crucial questions”, Westminster John Knox Press

  18 Copy quote

• I am convinced that nine out of every ten persons seeing a psychiatrist do not need one. They need someone who will love them with God's love...and they will get well.

  Paul Tournier

  Get Well, Needs, Nine

  69 Copy quote

• Christian faith does not involve repressing one's anxiety in order to appear strong. On the contrary, it means recognizing one's weakness, accepting the inward truth about oneself, confessing one's anxiety, and still to believe, that is to say that the Christian puts his trust not in his own strength, but in the grace of God.

  Paul Tournier

  Christian, Strong, Believe

  Paul Tournier (2012). “Learn to Grow Old”, p.222, Wipf and Stock Publishers

  34 Copy quote

• In order to really understand, we need to listen, not reply. We need to listen long and attentively. In order to help anybody to open his heart we have to give him time, asking only a few questions, as carefully as possible in order to help him better explain his experience.

  Paul Tournier

  Heart, Order, Long

  Paul Tournier (1967). “To Understand Each Other”, p.25, Westminster John Knox Press

  46 Copy quote

• God leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterward, as we look back over the way we have come and reconsider certain important moments in our lives in the light of all that has followed them, or when we survey the whole progress of our lives, do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us.

  Paul Tournier

  Light, Knowing, Feelings

  Paul Tournier (1982). “Reflections: a personal guide for life's most crucial questions”, Westminster John Knox Press

  46 Copy quote

• Everything that is worthwhile in life is scary. Choosing a school, choosing a career, getting married, having kids - all those things are scary. If it is not fearful, it is not worthwhile.

  Paul Tournier

  Life, Family, Marriage

  61 Copy quote

• It is quite clear that between love and understanding there is a very close link...He who loves understands, and he who understands loves. One who feels understood feels loved, and one who feels loved feels sure of being understood.

  Paul Tournier

  Understanding, Links, Clear

  39 Copy quote

• The adventurous life is not one exempt from fear, but on the contrary, one that is lived in full knowledge of fears of all kinds, one in which we go forward in spite of our fears.

  Paul Tournier

  Inspirational, Adventurous Life, Kind

  41 Copy quote

• There are two things we cannot do alone. One is to be married and the other is to be a Christian.

  Paul Tournier

  Christian, Two, Married

  50 Copy quote

• The experience of being in between-between the time we leave home and arrive at our destination; between the time we leave adolescence and arrive at adulthood; between the time we leave doubt and arrive at faith. It is like the time when a trapeze artist lets go the bars and hangs in midair, ready to catch another support: it is a time of danger, of expectation, of uncertainty, of excitement, or extraordinary aliveness.

  Paul Tournier

  Letting Go, Home, Artist

  42 Copy quote

• Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.

  Paul Tournier

  Positive, Sports, Confidence

  100 Copy quote

• Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices.

  Paul Tournier

  Life, Change, Running

  Paul Tournier (1957). “The Meaning of Persons”

  75 Copy quote

• That is what marriage really means; helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life.

  Paul Tournier

  Love, Inspirational, Marriage

  Paul Tournier (1957). “The Meaning of Persons”

  52 Copy quote

• Life can become once more a grand adventure if we will surrender it to god. He brings one adventure to an end, only to open another to us. With him we must be ready for anything.

  Paul Tournier

  Faith, Adventure, Surrender

  29 Copy quote

• Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either.

  Paul Tournier

  Opportunity, Doubt

  41 Copy quote

• Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single.

  Paul Tournier

  Loyalty, Self, Needs

  13 Copy quote

• Our task is to live our personal communion with Christ with such intensity as to make it contagious.

  Paul Tournier

  Tasks, Christ, Intensity

  35 Copy quote

• At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance.

  Paul Tournier

  Heart, Acceptance, Personality

  35 Copy quote

• No one can develop freely in this world and find a full life without feeling understood by at least one person.

  Paul Tournier

  Understanding, Feelings, World

  Paul Tournier (1967). “To Understand Each Other”, p.29, Westminster John Knox Press

  17 Copy quote

• Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.

  Paul Tournier

  Love, Dream, Lonely

  42 Copy quote

• The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.

  Paul Tournier

  Worst, Worst Things, Being Wrong

  Paul Tournier (1978). “The Violence Within”, HarperCollins Publishers

  14 Copy quote

• God's favorites, especially God's favorites, are not immune from the bewildering times when God seems silent. Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either. Faith demands uncertainty, confusion. The Bible includes many proofs of God's concern - some quite spectacular - but no guarantess. A guarantee would, after all, preclude faith.

  Paul Tournier

  Faith, Religious, Opportunity

  13 Copy quote

• To be right is dangerous, it has ever been the source of all intolerance.

  Paul Tournier

  Intolerance, Source, Dangerous

  34 Copy quote

• Your manner of life now is already determining your life in those years of old age and retirement, without your realizing it even, and perhaps without your giving enough thought to it. One must therefore prepare oneself for retirement.

  Paul Tournier

  Retirement, Years, Giving

  Paul Tournier (2012). “Learn to Grow Old”, p.13, Wipf and Stock Publishers

  7 Copy quote

• Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.

  Paul Tournier

  Religion, Endeavor

  8 Copy quote

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