Wendell Berry is a conservationist, farmer, essayist, novelist, professor of English and poet. Below is a collection of my favorite wisdom offered by Mr. Berry.
(click image to enlarge)
(click image to enlarge)
“I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.”
"We must learn to celebrate. I say learn to celebrate, because celebration is not just a spontaneous event. We have to discover what celebration is. Our world doesn't know much about celebration. We know quite a bit about parties, where we are artificially stimulated with alcohol to have fun. We know what movies and distractions are. But do we know what celebration is? Do we know how to celebrate our togetherness, our being one body? Do we really know how to use all that is human and divine to celebrate together?
“This evolution towards a real responsibility for others is sometimes blocked by fear. It is easier to stay on the level of a pleasant way of life in which we keep our freedom and our distance. But that means that we stop growing and shut ourselves up in our own small concerns and pleasures.” ― Jean Vanier
“To love someone is to show to them their beauty, their worth and their importance.” ― Jean Vanier
“But let us not put our sights too high. We do not have to be saviours of the world! We are simply human beings, enfolded in weakness and in hope, called together to change our world one heart at a time. ” ― Jean Vanier, Becoming Human
“Every child, every person needs to know that they are a source of joy; every child, every person, needs to be celebrated. Only when all of our weaknesses are accepted as part of our humanity can our negative, broken self-images be transformed.” ― Jean Vanier, Becoming Human
“Love doesn't mean doing extraordinary or heroic things. It means knowing how to do ordinary things with tenderness.” ― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
“If we are to grow in love, the prisons of our egoism must be unlocked. This implies suffering, constant effort and repeated choices.” ― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
“A community that is growing rich and seeks only to defend its goods and its reputation is dying. It has ceased to grow in love. A community is alive when it is poor and its members feel they have to work together and remain united, if only to ensure that they can all eat tomorrow!” ― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
“We discover that we are at the same time very insignificant and very important, because each of our actions is preparing the humanity of tomorrow; it is a tiny contribution to the construction of the huge and glorious final humanity” ― Jean Vanier, Community And Growth
“When we love and respect people, revealing to them their value, they can begin to come out from behind the walls that protect them.” ― Jean Vanier, Finding Peace
“Happiness comes when we choose to be who we are, to be ourselves, at this present moment in our lives.” ― Jean Vanier, Finding Peace
“True peace can rarely be imposed from the outside; it must be born within and between communities through meetings and dialogue and then carried outward.” ― Jean Vanier, Finding Peace
“We work for peace every time we exercise authority with wisdom and authentic love.” ― Jean Vanier, Finding Peace
“A society which discards those who are weak and non-productive risks exaggerating the development of reason, organisation, aggression and the desire to dominate. It becomes a society without a heart, without kindness - a rational and sad society, lacking celebration, divided within itself and given to competition, rivalry and, finally, violence.” ― Jean Vanier, Man and Woman He Made Them