Ernest Kurtz Quotes

• If we learn to accept our imperfections with humor, as the reflection of our very humanity, we will experience humility and tolerance, we will understand that we are already filled with forgiveness, we will see the gift of our lives, the chains will fall away, and we will be free -- free not so much from fear or 'dependence,' but free for love, for life itself.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Fall, Love Life, Humility

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• Yet again, an ancient answer echoes across the centuries: Listen! Listen to stories! For what stories do, above all else, is hold up a mirror so that we can see ourselves. Stories are mirrors of human be-ing, reflecting back our very essence. In a story, we come to know precisely the both/and, mixed-upped-ness of our very being. In the mirror of another's story, we can discover our tragedy and our comedy-and therefore our very human-ness, the ambiguity and incongruity, that lie at the core of the human condition.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Lying, Echoes, Mirrors

  Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.63, Bantam

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• [A] journey becomes a pilgrimage as we discover, day by day, that the distance traveled is less important than the experience gained.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Distance, Journey, Important

  Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.133, Bantam

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• Spirituality points, always, beyond: beyond the ordinary, beyond possession, beyond the narrow confines of the self, and - above all - beyond expectations. Because "the spiritual" is beyond our control, it is never exactly what we expect.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Spiritual, Self, Expectations

  Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.31, Bantam

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• Baseball teaches that errors are part of the game.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Baseball, Errors, Games

  9 Copy quote

• To acknowledge, to accept, and to forgive one's parents - both what they gave and what they did not give, both one's dependence upon them and one's independence of them - is the ultimate hallmark of maturity: a perception as valid for institutions as for individuals.

  Ernest Kurtz

  Inspirational, Maturity, Giving

  Ernest Kurtz (2010). “Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous”, p.131, Hazelden Publishing

  8 Copy quote

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