Quotes about Devotion

True strength lies in submission which permits one to dedicate his life, through devotion, to something beyond himself.

But when nothing is valued for what it is, everything is destined to be wasted. Once the values of things refer only to their future usefulness, then an infinite withdrawal of value from the living present has begun. Nothing (and nobody) can then exist that is not theoretically replaceable by something (or somebody) more valuable. The country that we (or some of us) had thought to make our home becomes instead 'a nation rich in natural resources'; the good bounty of the land begins its mechanical metamorphosis into junk, garbage, silt, poison, and other forms of 'waste.' "The inevitable result of such an economy is that no farm or any other usable property can safely be regarded by anyone as a home, no home is ultimately worthy of our loyalty, nothing is ultimately worth doing, and no place or task or person is worth a lifetime's devotion. 'Waste,' in such an economy, must eventually include several categories of humans--the unborn, the old, 'disinvested' farmers, the unemployed, the 'unemployable.' Indeed, once our homeland, our source, is regarded as a resource, we are all sliding downward toward the ashheap or the dump.

He who ignores the infinite and is devoted to the finite abandons a pleasure-garden and seeks the thorny bush.

True love is like religion. It is full of devotion and free of doubt.

Is devotion to others a cover for the hungers and the needs of the self, of which one is ashamed? I was always ashamed to take. So I gave. It was not a virtue. It was a disguise.

In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail you'll begin to see something, maybe. Probably not.

Devote your life to proving that love is the greatest thing in the world.

The more successful you and your organization become, the more humble and devoted to your customers you need to be.

Practice love until you remember that you are love.

d.b. tuesday april 20 1742

I hardly ever so longed to live to God and to be altigether devoted to Him. i want to wear out my life in His service, and for His Glory!!

I want to have a lasting experience of God... Sometimes I feel like I understand the divinity of this world, but then I lose it because I get distracted by my petty desires and fears.  I want to be with God all the time, but I don't want to be a monk, or totally give up worldly pleasures.  I guess what I want to learn is how to live in this world and enjoy its delights, but also devote myself to God.

The true mystic is not a devotee lost in ecstatic communion with the One, or a reclusive saint who avoids others. The true mystic lives alongside other people - coming and going, eating and sleeping, buying and selling, marrying and chatting - but not for a moment does he forget God.

He decided then that he would love her forever no matter what came to pass. It was not so much a matter of deciding as accepting the inevitability of it. It made him feel better, though he felt perturbed, too, worried that this kiss was wrong. But from his point of view, at fourteen years old, their love was entirely unavoidable. It had started on the day they’d clung to his glass box and kissed in the sea, and now it must go on forever. He felt certain of this.