Show me your hands. Do they have scars from giving? Show me your feet. Are they wounded in service? Show me your heart. Have you left a place for divine love?
Fulton J. SheenRead
The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True self-improvement requires letting go of ego and embracing humility.
This quote emphasizes the idea that personal growth and self-perfection cannot be achieved through selfishness and ego-centric behaviors. Instead, true transformation comes from a willingness to surrender one's lower instincts and desires, allowing for the emergence of a more noble and enlightened self. It suggests that only by letting go of our ego can we truly evolve and become better individuals.
Themes
Self-ImprovementEgoHumilityGrowthTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming personal challenges.
More from Fulton J. Sheen
All quotes →A woman gets angry when a man denies his faults, because she knew them all along. His lying mocks her affection; it is the deceit that angers her more than the faults.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Many married women who have deliberately spurned the "hour" of childbearing are unhappy and frustrated. They never discovered the joys of marriage because they refused to surrender to the obligation of their state. In saving themselves, they lost themselves!
Fulton J. SheenRead
No one has ever laughed at a pun who did not see in the one word a twofold meaning. To materialists this world is opaque like a curtain; nothing can be seen through it. A mountain is just a mountain, a sunset just a sunset; but to poets, artists, and saints, the world is transparent like a window pane - it tells of something beyond....a mountain tells of the Power of God, the sunset of His Beauty, and the snowflake of His Purity.
Fulton J. SheenRead
The big print giveth, and the fine print taketh away.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Hearing nuns' confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.
Fulton J. SheenRead
Similar quotes
When you resolve to become pious, the devil in your nature cries out at you, "Tread not those paths, O confused one; distress and poverty will overcome you. You will be despised, let down by friends, you will regret it." Dread of the devil has bound their souls; the cries of the devil are the drover of the damned; the call of the Lord is a guardian of the saints.
RumiRead
Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.
Samuel JohnsonRead
I wish I was as sure of anything as he is of everything.
Thomas B. MacaulayRead
Find the sweetness in your own heart, then you may find the sweetness in every heart.
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To beguile the time, look like the time. Bear welcome in your eye, your hand, your tongue.
William ShakespeareRead
Perfectionism is really a manifestation of the belief that one's efforts are never good enough. Imagine: How many of the obstacles standing in your way are the product of your own imagination? What have you convinced yourself that you can't do? What limitations have you come to believe in? Your mind is very powerful and effective. Is it working for you, or against you?
Ralph MarstonRead