40+ Paul Tournier Quotes On Happiness, World And Humanistic

Paul Tournier was a Swiss physician and author. He was a pioneer in the field of narrative medicine and wrote extensively on the importance of understanding the stories of patients. He was also known for his work in the areas of family therapy and pastoral counseling. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Paul Tournier on life, love, happiness.

Top 10 Paul Tournier Quotes

1. Sooner or later, those who win are those who think they can.
2. Everything that is worthwhile in life is scary. Choosing a school, choosing a career, getting married, having kids - all those things are scary. If it is not fearful, it is not worthwhile.
3. That is what marriage really means; helping one another to reach the full status of being persons, responsible and autonomous beings who do not run away from life.
4. The adventurous life is not one exempt from fear, but on the contrary, one that is lived in full knowledge of fears of all kinds, one in which we go forward in spite of our fears.
5. Nothing makes us so lonely as our secrets.
6. Recounting of a life story, a mind thinking aloud leads one inevitably to the consideration of problems which are no longer psychological but spiritual.
7. No one can develop freely in this world and find a full life without feeling understood by at least one person.
8. Marriage teaches you loyalty, forbearance, self-restraint, meekness, and a great many other things you wouldn't need if you had stayed single.
9. We do not posses God. We find him periodically.
10. The worst thing is not being wrong, but being sure one is not wrong.

Paul Tournier Short Quotes

• Let us not seek to bring religion to others, but let us endeavor to live it ourselves.
• The more refined and subtle our minds, the more vulnerable they are.
• If there had been no fear of failure, neither would there be any joy in success.
• To be right is dangerous, it has ever been the source of all intolerance.
• There are two things we cannot do alone. One is to be married and the other is to be a Christian.

Paul Tournier Quotes About Life

Acceptance of one's life has nothing to do with resignation; it does not mean running away from the struggle. On the contrary, it means accepting it as it comes, with all the handicaps of heredity, of suffering, of psychological complexes and injustices. — Paul Tournier

The price that has to be paid for finding truly personal life is a very high one. It is a price in terms of the acceptance of responsibility. And the awareness of responsibility inevitably leads either to despair or to confession and grace. — Paul Tournier

The really important thing in life is not the avoidance of mistakes, but the obedience of faith. By obedience, the man is led step by step to correct his errors, whereas nothing will ever happen to him if he doesn't get going. — Paul Tournier

Many ordinary illnesses are nothing but the expression of a serious dissatisfaction with life. — Paul Tournier

Life can become once more a grand adventure if we will surrender it to god. He brings one adventure to an end, only to open another to us. With him we must be ready for anything. — Paul Tournier

Your manner of life now is already determining your life in those years of old age and retirement, without your realizing it even, and perhaps without your giving enough thought to it. One must therefore prepare oneself for retirement. — Paul Tournier

Paul Tournier Famous Quotes And Sayings

People are reluctant to talk about old age and death because they are afraid of emotion, and they willingly avoid the things they feel most emotional about, though these are the very things they most need to talk about. — Paul Tournier

The most tragic consequence of our criticism of a man is to block his way to humiliation and grace, precisely to drive him into the mechanisms of self justification and into his faults instead of freeing him from them. For him, our voice drowns the voice of God. — Paul Tournier

Most illnesses do not, as is generally thought, come like a bolt out of the blue. The ground is prepared for years through faulty diet, intemperance, overwork, and moral conflicts, slowly eroding the subject's vitality. — Paul Tournier

Woe to the man who tries to remain objective and to maintain a wide perspective: every one will label him as an enemy. — Paul Tournier

...the highest sign of friendship is that of giving another the privilege of sharing your inner thought. — Paul Tournier

God leads us step by step, from event to event. Only afterward, as we look back over the way we have come and reconsider certain important moments in our lives in the light of all that has followed them, or when we survey the whole progress of our lives, do we experience the feeling of having been led without knowing it, the feeling that God has mysteriously guided us. — Paul Tournier

Listen to all the conversations of our world, between nations as well as between individuals. They are, for the most part, dialogues of the deaf. — Paul Tournier

Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either. — Paul Tournier

It is quite clear that between love and understanding there is a very close link...He who loves understands, and he who understands loves. One who feels understood feels loved, and one who feels loved feels sure of being understood. — Paul Tournier

At the heart of personality is the need to feel a sense of being lovable without having to qualify for that acceptance. — Paul Tournier

The real meaning of travel, like that of a conversation by the fireside, is the discovery of oneself through contact with other people, and its condition is self-commitment in the dialogue. — Paul Tournier

The experience of being in between-between the time we leave home and arrive at our destination; between the time we leave adolescence and arrive at adulthood; between the time we leave doubt and arrive at faith. It is like the time when a trapeze artist lets go the bars and hangs in midair, ready to catch another support: it is a time of danger, of expectation, of uncertainty, of excitement, or extraordinary aliveness. — Paul Tournier

We are always looking for a grand program of action full of great ideas, when the thing is to begin by obeying the little ideas. — Paul Tournier

I am convinced that nine out of every ten persons seeing a psychiatrist do not need one. They need someone who will love them with God's love...and they will get well. — Paul Tournier

God's favorites, especially God's favorites, are not immune from the bewildering times when God seems silent. Where there is no longer any opportunity for doubt, there is no longer any opportunity for faith either. Faith demands uncertainty, confusion. The Bible includes many proofs of God's concern - some quite spectacular - but no guarantess. A guarantee would, after all, preclude faith. — Paul Tournier

We are nearly always longing for an easy religion, easy to understand and easy to follow; a religion with no mystery, no insoluble problems,no snags; a religion that would allow us to escape from our miserable human condition; a religion in which contact with God spares us all strife, all uncertainty,all suffering and all doubt; in short, a religion without a cross — Paul Tournier

Our task is to live our personal communion with Christ with such intensity as to make it contagious. — Paul Tournier

Christian faith does not involve repressing one's anxiety in order to appear strong. On the contrary, it means recognizing one's weakness, accepting the inward truth about oneself, confessing one's anxiety, and still to believe, that is to say that the Christian puts his trust not in his own strength, but in the grace of God. — Paul Tournier

In order to really understand, we need to listen, not reply. We need to listen long and attentively. In order to help anybody to open his heart we have to give him time, asking only a few questions, as carefully as possible in order to help him better explain his experience. — Paul Tournier

Life Lessons by Paul Tournier

1. Paul Tournier emphasizes the importance of taking a holistic approach to life, recognizing that physical, mental, and spiritual health are all interconnected.
2. He encourages people to take responsibility for their own lives and to strive to make meaningful connections with others.
3. He also emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and developing a personal understanding of one's own values and beliefs.