Quote

We are always looking for a grand program of action full of great ideas, when the thing is to begin by obeying the little ideas.

Paul Tournier

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Paul Tournier
Age: 88 †
Born: 1898
Born: May 12
Died: 1986
Died: October 7
Physician
Physician Writer
Genève
Littles
Obeying
Ideas
Grand
Little
Motivation
Great
Program
Thing
Begin
Always
Full
Looking
Action

More quotes by Paul Tournier

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Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.
Paul Tournier
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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.
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The most tragic consequence of our criticism of a man is to block his way to humiliation and grace, precisely to drive him into the mechanisms of self justification and into his faults instead of freeing him from them. For him, our voice drowns the voice of God.
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Our task is to live our personal communion with Christ with such intensity as to make it contagious.
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At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance.
Paul Tournier
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Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
Paul Tournier
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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
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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
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Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single.
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People are reluctant to talk about old age and death because they are afraid of emotion, and they willingly avoid the things they feel most emotional about, though these are the very things they most need to talk about.
Paul Tournier
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The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.
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Sickness may be the solemn occasion of God's intervention in a person's life.
Paul Tournier
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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.
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The really important thing in life is not the avoidance of mistakes, but the obedience of faith. By obedience, the man is led step by step to correct his errors, whereas nothing will ever happen to him if he doesn't get going.
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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.
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The real meaning of travel, like that of a conversation by the fireside, is the discovery of oneself through contact with other people, and its condition is self-commitment in the dialogue.
Paul Tournier
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We do not posses God. We find him periodically.
Paul Tournier
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Most illnesses do not, as is generally thought, come like a bolt out of the blue. The ground is prepared for years through faulty diet, intemperance, overwork, and moral conflicts, slowly eroding the subject's vitality.
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Woe to the man who tries to remain objective and to maintain a wide perspective: every one will label him as an enemy.
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If there had been no fear of failure, neither would there be any joy in success.
Paul Tournier