David Whyte Quotes

Quotes about:

• What if the world is holding its breath -
  waiting for you to take the place that only you can fill?

  David Whyte

  Waiting, What If, World

  152 Copy quote

• The ultimate touchstone of friendship is not improvement, neither of the other nor of the self: the ultimate touchstone is witness, the privilege of having been seen by someone and the equal privilege of being granted the sight of the essence of another, to have walked with them and to have believed in them, and sometimes just to have accompanied them for however brief a span, on a journey impossible to accomplish alone.

  David Whyte

  Journey, Sight, Self

  FaceBook post by David Whyte from Apr 29, 2013

  155 Copy quote

• Eventually we realize that not knowing what to do is just as real and just as useful as knowing what to do. Not knowing stops us from taking false directions. Not knowing what to do, we start to pay real attention. Just as people lost in the wilderness, on a cliff face or in a blizzard pay attention with a kind of acuity that they would not have if they thought they knew where they were. Why? Because for those who are really lost, their life depends on paying real attention. If you think you know where you are, you stop looking.

  David Whyte

  Inspirational, Real, Thinking

  David Whyte (2009). “The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship”, p.88, Penguin

  148 Copy quote

• Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
  confinement of your aloneness
  to learn
  anything or anyone
  that does not bring you alive
  is too small for you.

  David Whyte

  Sweet, Darkness, Suffering

  "Sweet Darkness". onbeing.org. April 7, 2016.

  139 Copy quote

• Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future. To be courageous, is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.

  David Whyte

  Community, Heartfelt, Courageous

  FaceBook post by David Whyte from Jun 14, 2012

  146 Copy quote

• We withdraw not to disappear, but to find another ground from which to see; a solid ground from which to step, and from which to speak again, in a different way, a clear, rested, embodied voice we begin to remember again as our own.

  David Whyte

  Voice, Different, Way

  118 Copy quote

• The antidote to exhaustion isn't rest.
  It's wholeheartedness.

  David Whyte

  Inspirational, Wholeheartedness, Antidote

  116 Copy quote

• Gratitude arises from paying attention, from being awake in the presence of everything that lives within and without us.

  David Whyte

  Gratitude, Attention, Arise

  104 Copy quote

• A real conversation always contains an invitation. You are inviting another person to reveal herself or himself to you, to tell you who they are or what they want.

  David Whyte

  Real, Want, Conversation

  "Big Questions to Ask Yourself Throughout Your Life" by David Whyte, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 15, 2011.

  7 Copy quote

• Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.

  David Whyte

  Inspirational, Joy, Waiting

  24 Copy quote

• Some things cannot be spoken or discovered until we have been stuck, incapacitated, or blown off course for awhile. Plain sailing is pleasant, but you are not going to explore many unknown realms that way.

  David Whyte

  Life, Discovery, Sailing

  David Whyte (2007). “The Heart Aroused: Poetry and the Preservation of the Soul in Corporate America”, p.93, Crown Business

  97 Copy quote

• We are the only species on earth capable of preventing our own flowering.

  David Whyte

  Earth, Flowering, Species

  30 Copy quote

• Anything that does not bring you alive is too small for you.

  David Whyte

  Doe, Alive

  21 Copy quote

• To have a firm persuasion in our work - to feel that what we do is right for ourselves and good for the world at exactly the same time - is one of the great triumphs of human existence.

  David Whyte

  Triumph, World, Persuasion

  101 Copy quote

• Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation. Pay attention to everything in the world as if it's alive. Realize everything has its own discrete existence outside your story. By doing this, you open to gifts and lessons that the world has to give you.

  David Whyte

  Giving, Attention, Stories

  92 Copy quote

• Start close in,
  don’t take
  the second step
  or the third,
  start with the first
  thing
  close in,
  the step
  you don’t want to take.

  David Whyte

  Want, Firsts, Steps

  "David Whyte: Being at the Frontier of Your Identity". "Insights at the Edge" with Tami Simon, www.soundstrue.com. April 23, 2013.

  27 Copy quote

• I want to know
  if you know
  how to melt into that fierce heat of living
  falling toward
  the center of your longing.

  David Whyte

  Fall, Want, Heat

  David Whyte (2009). “The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationship”, p.60, Penguin

  70 Copy quote

• Heartbreak is our indication of sincerity: in a love relationship, in a work, in trying to learn a musical instrument, in the attempt to shape a better more generous self. Heartbreak is the beautifully helpless side of love and affection and is just as much an essence and emblem of care as the spiritual athlete's quick but abstract ability to let go... But heartbreak may be the very essence of being human, of being on the journey from here to there, and of coming to care deeply for what we find along the way.

  David Whyte

  Letting Go, Spiritual, Athlete

  17 Copy quote

• Enough.
  These few words are enough
  If not these few words, this breath
  If not this breath, this sitting here
  This opening to the life we have refused again and again
  Until now
  Until now.

  David Whyte

  Mindfulness, Sitting, Few Words

  79 Copy quote

• What is precious inside us does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence.

  David Whyte

  Mind, Doe, Care

  20 Copy quote

• It's my contention that there is no sincere path a human being can take without breaking his or her heart...so it can be a lovely, merciful thing to think, 'Actually, there is no path I can take without having my heart broken, so why not get on with it and stop wanting these extra-special circumstances which stop me from doing something courageous?'

  David Whyte

  Heart, Thinking, Broken

  "The Questions that Have No Right to Go Away" By David Whyte, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 18, 2012.

  72 Copy quote

• Our work is to make ourselves visible in the world. This is the soul's individual journey, and the soul would much rather fail at its own life than succeed at someone else's.

  David Whyte

  Journey, Soul, World

  88 Copy quote

• The courageous conversation is the one you don't want to have.

  David Whyte

  Want, Courageous, Conversation

  61 Copy quote

• As human beings we have this immediate gateway - you’ve just to articulate exactly the way that you’re exiled, exactly the way that you don’t belong, exactly the way that you can’t love, exactly the way that you can’t move ... and you’re on your way again. You’re on your way home. If you can just say exactly the way that you’re imprisoned - the door swings open.

  David Whyte

  Moving, Home, Swings

  45 Copy quote

• The greatest tragedy is to live out someone else's life thinking it was your own.

  David Whyte

  Thinking, Tragedy

  15 Copy quote

Page 1 of 5

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin