Thomas Moore Quotes

Thus freedom now so seldom wakes, The only throb she gives, Is when some heart indignant breaks, To show that still she lives. THOMAS MOORE ~ Hugh Laurie

... ongoing care for the soul rather than seek for a cure appreciates the mystery of human suffering and does not offer the illusion of a problem-free life.
I sees every fall into ignorance and confusion as an opportunity to discover that the beast residing at the center of the labyrinth is also an angel.
To approach this paradoxial point of tension where adjustment and abnormality meet is to move closer to the realization of our mystery-filled, star-born nature.
It is a beast this thing that stirs in the core of our being, but it is also the star of our innermost nature.
We have to care for this suffering with extreme reverence so that in our fear and anger at the beast, we do not overlock the star.
~Thomas Moore *Care of the Soul* ~ Thomas Moore

Home is an emotional state, a place in the imagination where feelings of security, belonging, placement, family, protection, memory and personal history abide. -Thomas Moore ~ Louisa Thomsen Brits

A piece of the sky and a chunk of the earth lie lodged in the heart of every human being. ~ Thomas Moore

From plants that wake when others sleep, from timid jasmine buds that keep their odour to themselves all day, but when the sunlight dies away let the delicious secret out to every breeze that roams about. ~ Thomas Moore

I thought that the light-house looked lovely as hope,
That star on life's tremulous ocean. ~ Thomas Moore

And soon, too soon, we part with pain, To sail o'er silent seas again. ~ Thomas Moore

The whole area of religion and spirituality invites flimflam and is filled with ~ Thomas Moore

Love is the means of entry and our guide. Love keeps us on the labyrinthine path. If we can honor love as it presents itself, taking shapes and directions we would never have predicted or desired, then we are on the way toward discovering the lower levels of soul, where meaning and value reveal themselves slowly and paradoxically. ~ Thomas Moore

What's important is finding out what works for you. ~ Thomas Moore

I believe that one day we'll understand that we've lost out on religion because we made it too lofty and distant. I see it as a simple quality of everyday life, and in that simplicity lie its beauty and importance. ~ Thomas Moore

Every repast can have soul and can be enchanting; it asks for only a small degree of mindfulness and a habit of doing things with care and imagination. -Thomas Moore ~ Louisa Thomsen Brits

For great and horrible punishments be appointed for thieves, wheras much rather provision should have been made that there were some means they might get their living, so that no man should be driven to this necessity. ~ Thomas Moore

Usually, the main problem with life conundrums is that we don't bring to them enough imagination ~ Thomas Moore

It's my conviction that slight shifts in imagination have more impact on living than major efforts at change ... deep changes in life follow movements in imagination. ~ Thomas Moore

It is only to the happy that tears are a luxury. ~ Thomas Moore

Body exercise is incomplete if it focuses exclusively on muscle and is motivated by the ideal of a physique unspoiled by fat. ~ Thomas Moore

Music, oh, how faint, how weak,
Language fades before thy spell!
Why should Feeling ever speak,
When thou canst breathe her soul so well? ~ Thomas Moore

A calling is the sense that you are on this earth for a reason, that you have a destiny, no matter how great or small. ~ Thomas Moore

The Jungian analyst Marie-Louise von Franz once observed that a person cutting vegetables while preparing to cook food is full of daydreams and fantasies that nurture the life of the soul. Contemplation can be an absorption in work that is free of self-consciousness and yet rich with imagination. Serious ~ Thomas Moore

It might be better to be more of a skeptic than a believer, less open-minded and more critical. The problem in the modern spiritual ~ Thomas Moore

Rich and rare were the gems she wore, And a bright gold ring on her hand she bore. ~ Thomas Moore

Let me define a garden as the meeting of raw nature and the human imagination in which both seek the fulfillment of their beauty. Every sign indicates that nature wants us and wishes for collaboration with us, just as we long for nature to be fulfilled in us. If our original state was to live in a garden, as Adam and Eve did, then a garden signals our absolute origins as well as our condition of eternity, while life outside the garden is time and temporality. ~ Thomas Moore

The conscious mind is small and weak compared to the emotional and spiritual power that we call daimonic. It may be the urge to create, take risks, and love. Life may be simple when you avoid the daimon of love, but it is also less passionate and meaningful. ~ Thomas Moore

A pretty wife is something for the fastidious vanity of a roue to retire upon. ~ Thomas Moore

For our lives, incarnation means being focused on the spiritual and the eternal but bringing that focus deep into our life. … This is really the heart of the Christmas theological message: Live in two worlds that overlap but are distinct. Don't be materialistic, but don't sacrifice our ordinary physical life for any spiritual ideal. Be lowly and lofty. ~ Thomas Moore

A few moments of silence may be all the meditation we need at times. Our homes could have a little space for withdrawal and quiet, and even a small garden could offer some distance from noise. ~ Thomas Moore

As the religious authorities often say, the institution is human, while the substance of the religion is transcendent. ~ Thomas Moore

When we relate to our bodies as having soul, we attend to their beauty, their poetry and their expressiveness. Our very habit of treating the body as a machine, whose muscles are like pulleys and its organs engines, forces its poetry underground, so that we experience the body as an instrument and see its poetics only in illness. ~ Thomas Moore

All of us must do our best to live gracefully in the present moment. I now see depression as akin to being tied to a chair with restraints on my wrists. It took me a long time to realize that I only magnify my distress by struggling for freedom. My pain diminished when I gave up trying to escape completely from it. However, don't interpret my current approach to depression as utterly fatalistic. I do whatever I can to dull depression's pain, while premising my life on its continuing presence. The theologian and philosopher Thomas Moore puts it well with his distinction between cure and care. While cure implies the eradication of trouble, care "appreciates the mystery of human suffering and does not offer the illusion of a problem-free life. ~ David A. Karp

T'is the last rose of summer,
Left blooming alone. ~ Thomas Moore

Technologies of the soul tend to be simple, bodily, slow and related to the heart as much as the mind. Everything around us tells us we should be mechanically sophisticated, electronic, quick, and informational in our expressiveness - an exact antipode to the virtues of the soul. It is no wonder, then, that in an age of telecommunications - which, by the way, literally means "distant connections" - we suffer symptoms of the loss of soul. We are being urged from every side to become efficient rather than intimate. ~ Thomas Moore

Bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves. ~ Thomas Moore

A man or a woman can inspire such deep fantasy and emotion that through the lovemaking embrace of a partners body we make break through the limits of the human condition to touch upon another level of reality. ~ Thomas Moore

The heart that has truly loved never forgets, But as truly loves on to the close. ~ Thomas Moore

There's nothing half so sweet in life as love's young dream. ~ Thomas Moore

This wretched brain gave way, and I became a wreck at random driven, without one glimpse of reason or heaven. ~ Thomas Moore

Flight usually intensifies the very thing one flees and establishes a special intimacy with it. ~ Thomas Moore

There are places in this world that are neither here nor there, neither up nor down, neither real nor imaginary ... ~ Thomas Moore

The garden reconciles human art and wild nature, hard work and deep pleasure, spiritual practice and the material world. It is a magical place because it is not divided. The many divisions and polarizations that terrorize a disenchanted world find peaceful accord among mossy rock walls, rough stone paths, and trimmed bushes. Maybe a garden sometimes seems fragile, for all its earth and labor, because it achieves such an extraordinary delicate balance of nature and human life, naturalness and artificiality. It has its own liminality, its point of balance between great extremes. ~ Thomas Moore

Love releases us into the realm of divine imagination, where the soul is expanded and reminded of its unearthly cravings and needs. We think that when a lover inflates his loved one he is failing to acknowledge her flaws - "Love is blind." But it may be the other way around. Love allows a person to see the true angelic nature of another person, the halo, the aureole of divinity. Certainly from the perspective of ordinary life this is madness and illusion. But if we let loose our hold on our philosophies and psychologies of enlightenment and reason, we might learn to appreciate the perspective of eternity that enters life as madness, Plato's divine frenzy. ~ Thomas Moore

What though youth gave love and roses, Age still leaves us friends and wine. ~ Thomas Moore

The past, the future: - two eternities! ~ Thomas Moore

Maybe it's true what Thomas Moore said: It is only through mystery and madness that the soul is revealed. ~ Susannah Cahalan

When soul is neglected, it doesn't just go away;
it appears symptomatically in obsessions, addictions,
violence, and loss of meaning. ~ Thomas Moore

It's important to be heroic, ambitious, productive, efficient, creative, and progressive, but these qualities don't necessarily nurture soul. The soul has different concerns, of equal value: downtime for reflection, conversation, and reverie; beauty that is captivating and pleasuring; relatedness to the environs and to people; and any animal's rhythm of rest and activity. ~ Thomas Moore

You might also understand the difference between force and strength, the former pressing too hard to achieve questionable ends, the latter a deep-seated power of soul. You might notice the difference between ego power and soul power, the former anxious and self-centered. Finally, you might appreciate the paradoxes involved, where being more vulnerable in a comfortable way gives you strength, and when you have some deep strength, you can finally feel vulnerable. ~ Thomas Moore

Often care of the soul means not taking sides when there is a conflict at a deep level. It may be necessary to stretch the heart wide enough to embrace contradiction and paradox. ~ Thomas Moore

A small amount of good literature can often teach more about the inner life than volumes of psychology. ~ Thomas Moore

Renaissance philosophers often said that it is the soul that makes us human. We can turn that idea round and note that it is when we are most human that we have greatest access to the soul. ~ Thomas Moore

I sometimes wonder if I'm built from old videotape. I feel archaic, worn from overuse and increasingly obscure. One day I'll get caught up in the grinding wheels of my own life and unravel. ~ David Thomas Moore

A genuine odyssey is not about piling up experiences. It is a deeply felt, risky, unpredictable tour of the soul. ~ Thomas Moore

Nicholas of Cusa said we have to be educated into our ignorance or else the full presence of the divine will be kept at bay. We have to arrive at that difficult point where we don't know what is going on or what we can do. That precise point is an opening to true faith. The ~ Thomas Moore

Taking an interest in one's own soul requires a certain amount of space for reflection and appreciation. ~ Thomas Moore

It isn't comfortable to discover her place and her necessity. And yet what she has to offer is nothing less than the entire deep spiritual realm of the soul, the invisible, unchanging core. ~ Thomas Moore

Fond memory brings the light of other days around me. ~ Thomas Moore

In the fifteenth century, Marsilio Ficino put it as simply as possible. The mind, he said, tends to go off on its own so that it seems to have no relevance to the physical world. At the same time, the materialistic life can be so absorbing that we get caught in it and forget about spirituality. What we need, he said, is soul, in the middle, holding together mind and body, ideas and life, spirituality and the world. ~ Thomas Moore

Soul' is not a thing, but a quality or a dimension of experiencing life and ourselves. ~ Thomas Moore

The light, that lies In woman's eyes, Has been my heart's undoing. ~ Thomas Moore

Your challenge, then, is to create a religion of your own by being secular in a religious way, or religious in a secular way. You can learn how to see the secular from a religious angle, and vice versa. ~ Thomas Moore

Your first task is to find the place where your soul is at home. ~ Thomas Moore

I'm interested in this humbler approach, one that is more accepting of human foibles, and indeed sees dignity and peace as emerging more from that acceptance than from any method of transcending the human condition. ~ Thomas Moore

An enchanted world is one that speaks to the soul, to the mysterious depths of the heart and imagination where we find value, love, and union with the world around us. As mystics of many religions have taught, that sense of rapturous union can give a sensation of fulfillment that makes life purposeful and vibrant ... ~ Thomas Moore

I have made many mistakes and done a lot of foolish things, but when I look back on the person I was, I feel affection for him and laugh at him. ~ Thomas Moore

It is not while beauty
And youth are thine own
And thy cheeks
Unprofaned by a tear
That the ferver and faith
Of a soul can be known
To which time will but
Make thee more dear
No the heart that has truly loved
Never forgets
But as truly loves
On to the close
As the sunflower turns
On her god when he sets
The same look which
She'd turned when he rose. ~ Thomas Moore

We have to start from the ground up and reconsider what education is. In my language, I'd like to see us educate the soul, and not just the mind. The result would be a person who could be in the world creatively, make good friendships, live in a place he loved, do work that is rewarding, and make a contribution to the community. People say that the word "educate" means to "draw out" a person's potential. But I like the "duc" - part in the middle of it. To be educated is to become a duke, a leader, a person of stature and color, a presence and a character. ~ Thomas Moore

She was lost in the breeziness of her secular existence and couldn't land anywhere. Nothing was sacred. Nothing could stop her long enough to reflect sufficiently on her life. ~ Thomas Moore

The devil ... the prowde spirite ... cannot endure to be mocked. ~ Thomas Moore

With what a deep devotedness of woe I wept thy absence - o'er and o'er again Thinking of thee, still thee, till thought grew pain, And memory, like a drop that, night and day, Falls cold and ceaseless, wore my heart away! ~ Thomas Moore

Learn to live small and you will discover great pleasures. You will accomplish more in your life than you could ever predict if you were overly ambitious. ~ Thomas Moore

Any writer who puts his words and thoughts out into the public is going to be criticized. ~ Thomas Moore

You discover that when you are doing the right work, you are the right person. ~ Thomas Moore

The life of the soul, as the structure of dreams reveals, is a continual going over and over of the material of life. In ~ Thomas Moore

Don't take anything literally but always look deeper. For example, if you drink too much, what is your soul looking for in the alcohol? If you eat too much, what part of your soul is in need of nourishing? Think poetically and never respond on a surface level. 4. ~ Thomas Moore

In her extraordinary book, Ordinarily Sacred, Lynda Sexson teaches us how to catch the appearance of the sacred in the most ordinary objects and circumstances. ~ Thomas Moore

According to the normal view, happiness is the summum bonum towards which we're naturally impelled by virtue - which in their definition means following one's natural impulses, as God meant us to do. But this includes obeying the instinct to be reasonable in our likes and dislikes. And reason also teaches us, first to love and reverence Almighty God, to Whom we owe our existence and our potential happiness, and secondly to get through life as comfortably and cheerfully as we can , and help all other members of our species to do so too. ~ Thomas Moore

A friendship that like love is warm; A love like friendship, steady. ~ Thomas Moore

A philosopher being asked what was the first thing necessary to win the love of a woman, answered, Opportunity! ~ Thomas Moore

The young May moon is beaming, love.
The glow-worm's lamp is gleaming, love.
How sweet to rove,
Through Morna's grove,
When the drowsy world is dreaming, love!
Then awake! - the heavens look bright, my dear,
'Tis never too late for delight, my dear,
And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear! ~ Thomas Moore

Romantic love is an illusion. Most of us discover this truth at the end of a love affair or else when the sweet emotions of love lead us into marriage and then turn down their flames. ~ Thomas Moore

Most of the people I know who are having trouble finding their life work are somewhat passive in style. They wait for something good to happen to them rather than make strong positive moves. ~ Thomas Moore

Some early writing say that when people kiss, they exchange the soul, that it's between their mouths and tongues that the soul is exchanged. And so the kiss is more of a soulful connection maybe than intercourse and other ways of being together. A kiss asks a lot from you. I think it asks a lot from a person to really kiss. ~ Thomas Moore

When you sense that your dark night is one of pregnancy and oceanic return, you could react accordingly and be still. Watch and wonder. Take the human embryo as your model. Assume the fetal position, emotionally and intellectually. Be silent. Float in your darkness as if it were the waters of the womb, and give up trying to fight your way out or make sense of it. ~ Thomas Moore

I feel like one
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garland's dead,
And all but he departed! ~ Thomas Moore

But anyone who deliberately tries to get himself elected to a public office is permanently disqualified from holding one. ~ Thomas Moore

Every season hath its pleasure; Spring may boast her flowery prime, Yet the vineyard's ruby treasuries Brighten Autumn's sob'rer time. ~ Thomas Moore

All illness is meaningful, although its meaning may never be translatable into entirely rational terms. The point is not to understand the cause of the disease and then solve the problem, but to get close enough to the disease to restore the particular religious connection with life at which it hints. ~ Thomas Moore

Faith is a gift of spirit that allows the soul to remain attached to its own unfolding. When faith is soulful, it is always planted in the soil of wonder and questioning. It isn't a defensive and anxious holding on to certain objects of belief, because doubt, as its shadow, can be brought into a faith that is fully mature. Imagine ~ Thomas Moore

This heart, my own dear mother, bends,
With love's true instinct, back to thee! ~ Thomas Moore

Magine a trust in yourself, or another person, or in life itself, that doesn't need to be proved or demonstrated, that is able to contain uncertainty. People sometimes put their trust in a spiritual leader and are terribly betrayed if that person then fails to live up to ideals. But a real trust of faith would be to decide whether to trust someone, knowing that betrayal is inevitable because life and personality are never without shadow. The vulnerability that faith demands could be matched by an equal trust in oneself, the feeling that one can survive the pain of betrayal. ~ Thomas Moore

An eternal question about children is, how should we educate them? Politicians and educators consider more school days in a year, more science and math, the use of computers and other technology in the classroom, more exams and tests, more certification for teachers, and less money for art. All of these responses come from the place where we want to make the child into the best adult possible, not in the ancient Greek sense of virtuous and wise, but in the sense of one who is an efficient part of the machinery of society. But on all these counts, soul is neglected. ~ Thomas Moore

A soul mate is someone to whom we feel profoundly connected, as though the communication and communing that take place between us were not the product of intentional efforts, but rather a divine grace. This kind of relationship is so important to the soul that many have said there is nothing more precious in life. ~ Thomas Moore

Like ships that have gone down at sea, when heaven was all tranquillity. ~ Thomas Moore

The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest. ~ Thomas Moore

In our prayer and meditation we hope for fulfilling ordinary life. ~ Thomas Moore

Spring and Autumn
Every season hath its pleasures;
Spring may boast her flowery prime,
Yet the vineyard's ruby treasures
Brighten Autumn's sob'rer time. ~ Thomas Moore

When Time who steals our years away Shall steal our pleasures too, The mem'ry of the past will stay, And half our joys renew. ~ Thomas Moore

If you are often angry, trace the roots in story and then apply your anger as a force and a sharp edge to whatever you do. Don't indulge in venting. Always convert and transform your anger into something worthwhile. Let people see and feel your anger, but don't explode every time you feel it. ~ Thomas Moore

Sweet flowers alone can say what passion fears revealing. ~ Thomas Moore

Came but for friendship, and took away love. ~ Thomas Moore