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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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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.
Paul Tournier
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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.
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Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.
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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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Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
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.
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The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.
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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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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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What happens then is like what happens when we separate a jigsaw puzzle into its fuve hundred pieces: The over-all picture disappears. This is the state of modern medicine: It has lost the sense of the unity of man. Such is the price it has paid for its scientific progress. It has sacrificed art to science.
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Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
Paul Tournier
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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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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
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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.
Paul Tournier
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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.
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The price that has to be paid for finding truly personal life is a very high one. It is a price in terms of the acceptance of responsibility. And the awareness of responsibility inevitably leads either to despair or to confession and grace.
Paul Tournier
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We do not posses God. We find him periodically.
Paul Tournier
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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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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
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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.
Paul Tournier