Spirituality is one’s deepest belief about what in the end is ultimately important.
Brian Sweasey
This Spirituality Quotes activity explores our unique spiritual journeys and invites conversations about theological diversity. It works well with young folks, adults, and intergenerational groups.
Plan for this conversation to take 30 minutes or longer.
Give each participant a copy of the spirituality quotes sheet. You can also download large, color versions from www.quaker.org.uk/sharing-our-journeys. Print them and place them around the room.
Explain that the collection includes many different quotes. Some come from Quaker Faith & Practice and Advices & Queries. Others come from people who are not Quakers. Each quote offers a perspective on our spiritual lives.
Discern: Some people will find certain quotes especially meaningful. They may feel the words express what is important to them as a Quaker. Other quotes may not connect with them, and that is perfectly fine. Encourage everyone to focus on the quotes they find most helpful.
Give participants time to walk around, read the quotes, and reflect on them. After a short period of worship and reflection, invite each person to choose one or two favorite quotes.
Share: Divide everyone into groups of three. Invite each person to talk about the quote they chose, why they chose it, and what they appreciate about it.
Reflect: Return to the large group. Reflect together on what everyone learned by listening to and sharing with one another.
- What does this activity show us about theological diversity within our meeting?
- What do we have in common?
- Where can we learn from each other?
Adapted with permission from the Sharing Our Journeys resource developed by Friends in Britain Yearly Meeting.
Spirituality Quotes
| “The spiritual quest begins, for most people, as a search for meaning.” | Marilyn Ferguson |
| “Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal.” | Mary Baker Eddy |
| “Religion is a set of social and political institutions and spirituality is a private pursuit which may or may not take place in a church setting.” | D. Patrick Miller |
| “The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.” | Henri J. M. Nouwen |
| “The deepest expression of spirituality is love.” | Robert L. Simpson |
| “We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.” | Stephen Covey |
| “Spiritual development is about getting in touch with the deep parts of life – valuing the experiences of awe and wonder, of hurt and sorrow, relationships with other people and the natural world, and coming to an understanding of what is meant by the term ‘God.’” | Francis Cattermole |
| “Spiritual development is about each person as a unique human being with life-long potential for growth and development.” | John Lee |
| “Spirituality is one’s deepest belief about what in the end is ultimately important.” | Brian Sweasey |
| “Spirituality is an awareness of that which is deepest within us, that which responds to other people and the world around us, that which gives us a direction in life.” | Miranda Salamon |
| “God helps them that help themselves.” | Benjamin Franklin |
| “Spirituality is like a bird: if you hold it too closely, it chokes, and if you hold it too loosely, it escapes.” | Israel Salanter Lipkin |
| “There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness.” | The Dalai Lama |
| “The religious life is not a dull, grim drive towards moral virtues, but a response to a vision of greatness.” | Thomas F. Green |
| “It is because the learning process is continued throughout life that Friends are seekers as well as finders – not one or the other, but both. One only has to think of the need for a continual search for fresh language to know that we must, if we care about truth, continue to be seekers.” | Ruth Fawell |
| “There is a principle which is pure, placed in the human mind, which in different places and ages hath different names; it is, however, pure and proceeds from God. It is deep and inward, confined to no forms of religion nor excluded from any where the heart stands in perfect sincerity. In whomsoever this takes root and grows, of what nation so ever, they become brethren.” | John Woolman |
| “I should like to change the name ‘seekers’ to ‘explorers’. We do not seek the Atlantic, we explore it. The whole field of religious experience has to be explored, and has to be described in a language understandable to modern men and women.” | Ole Olden |
| “I do not know the course I am to run, all is hid in mystery, but I try to do right in everything… I must not despair or grow sceptical if I do not always feel religious. I felt God as it were, and I must seek to find Him again.” | Elizabeth Fry |
| “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine! This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine!” | African American Spiritual |
| “These things we do not lay upon you as a rule or form to walk by, but that all, with the measure of light which is pure and holy, may be guided; and so in the light walking and abiding, these may be fulfilled in the Spirit, not from the letter, for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.” | The Elders of Balby, 1656 |
Spirituality Quotes