Gerald May Quotes

• Peace is not something you can force on anything or anyone... much less upon one's own mind. It is like trying to quiet the ocean by pressing upon the waves. Sanity lies in somehow opening to the chaos, allowing anxiety, moving deeply into the tumult, diving into the waves, where underneath, within, peace simply is.

  Gerald May

  Peace, Lying, Ocean

  52 Copy quote

• We have this idea that everyone should be totally independent, totally whole, totally together spiritually, totally fulfilled. That is a myth. In reality, our lack of fulfillment is the most precious gift we have. It is the source of our passion, our creativity, our search for God. All the best of life comes out of our human yearning, our not being satisfied.

  Gerald May

  Passion, Creativity, Independent

  40 Copy quote

• Grief is neither a disorder nor a healing process; it is a sign of health itself, a whole and natural gesture of love. Nor must we see grief as a step toward something better. No matter how much it hurts-and it may be the greatest pain in life-grief can be an end in itself, a pure expression of love.

  Gerald May

  Love, Hurt, Pain

  57 Copy quote

• To be alive is to be addicted, and to be alive and addicted is to stand in need of grace.

  Gerald May

  Life, Addiction, Grace

  Gerald G. May (2009). “Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions”, p.16, Harper Collins

  57 Copy quote

• Honesty before God requires the most fundamental risk of faith we can take: the risk that God is good, that God does love us unconditionally. It is in taking this risk that we rediscover our dignity. To bring the truth of ourselves, just as we are, to God, just as God is, is the most dignified thing we can do in this life.

  Gerald May

  Honesty, Risk, Doe

  Gerald G. May (1988). “Addiction and Grace”, Harper San Francisco

  50 Copy quote

• Blessings sometimes come through brokenness that could never come in any other way.

  Gerald May

  Blessing, Way, Sometimes

  40 Copy quote

• Seek the truth, not what is comfortable. Seek the real, not the easy.

  Gerald May

  Real, Silence, Telling The Truth

  30 Copy quote

• I would prefer a thousand mistakes in extravagance of love to any paralysis in wariness of fear.

  Gerald May

  Mistake, Extravagance, Thousand

  44 Copy quote

• True growth is a process which one allows to happen rather than causes to happen.

  Gerald May

  Growth, Causes, Process

  21 Copy quote

• Willfulness must give way to willingness and surrender. Mastery must yield to mystery.

  Gerald May

  Yield, Giving, Mastery

  Gerald G. May (2009). “Will and Spirit”, p.8, Harper Collins

  54 Copy quote

• When the desire is too much to bear, we often bury it beneath frenzied thoughts and activities or escape it by dulling our immediate consciousness of living. It is possible to run away from the desire for years, even decades, at a time, but we cannot eradicate it entirely. It keeps touching us in little glimpses and hints in our dreams, our hopes, our unguarded moments.

  Gerald May

  Running, Dream, Years

  39 Copy quote

• Mysterious as it may be, there is something wonderful at the heart of our existence, and it is about nothing other than love; love for God, love for one another, love for creation, love for life itself.

  Gerald May

  Heart, Love Life, May

  Gerald G. May (2009). “The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth”, p.6, Zondervan

  23 Copy quote

• In every feeling, look deeply. Explore without ceasing. At bottom, love is.

  Gerald May

  Love Is, Feelings, Looks

  Gerald G. May (1977). “Simply Sane: Stop Fixing Yourself and Start Really Living”

  30 Copy quote

• But love's true nature remains forever beyond the grasp of all our faculties. It is far greater than any feeling or emotion and completely surpasses any act of human kindness. It is the one sheer gift of contemplation, completely unattainable by autonomous human effort. The realization of this love always remains mysterious.

  Gerald May

  Love, Kindness, Forever

  "The Dark Night of the Soul: A Psychiatrist Explores the Connection Between Darkness and Spiritual Growth".

  14 Copy quote

• The difference between work and play is only a matter of attitude. Work, fully done, is play.

  Gerald May

  Attitude, Work, Play

  Gerald G. May (1977). “Simply Sane: Stop Fixing Yourself and Start Really Living”

  21 Copy quote

• Addiction is not something we can simply take care of by applying the proper remedy. For it is in the very nature of addiction to feed on our attempts to master it.

  Gerald May

  Addiction, Care, Masters

  Gerald G. May (2009). “Addiction and Grace: Love and Spirituality in the Healing of Addictions”, p.10, Harper Collins

  18 Copy quote

• Zen is not about eliminating thoughts but illuminating them.

  Gerald May

  May, Eliminating, Illuminating

  18 Copy quote

• To experience a little hunger now and then can be a beautiful reminder of the deeper hunger of our souls.

  Gerald May

  Beautiful, Soul, Littles

  14 Copy quote

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