552 Quotes by Richard Rohr

People who know how to creatively break the rules also know why the rules were there in the first place.

What if Christ is another name for everything—inits fullness?

The human art form is in uniting fruitful activity with a contemplative stance, not one or the other, but always both at the same time.

I have often wondered why people never want to put a stone monument of the Eight Beatitudes on a courthouse lawn. Then I realize that the Eight Beatitudes of Jesus would probably not be very good for any war, any macho worldview, the wealthy, or our consumer economy.

You ironically have to have a very strong ego structure to let go of your ego. You need to struggle with the rules more than a bit before you throw them out. You only internalize values by butting up against external values for a while.

Often it takes outer authority to send us on the path to our own inner authority.

Any attempt to engineer or plan your own enlightenment is doomed to failure because it will be ego driven. You will only see what you have already decided to look for, and you cannot see what you are not ready or told to look for. So failure and humiliation force you to look where you never would otherwise. . . . So we must stumble and fall, I'm sorry to say.

Our wounds are the only thing humbling enough to break our attachment to our false self.

We do not handle suffering. Suffering handles us.