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Ernest Kurtz Quotes

If we learn to accept our imperfections with humor, as the reflection of our very humanity, we will experience humility and tolerance, we will understand that we are already filled with forgiveness, we will see the gift

If we learn to accept our imperfections with humor, as the reflection of our very humanity, we will experience humility and tolerance, we will understand that we are already filled with forgiveness, we will see the gift of our lives, the chains will fall away, and we will be free -- free not so much from fear or 'dependence,' but free for love, for life itself.

Ernest Kurtz
Fall, Love Life, Humility

Yet again, an ancient answer echoes across the centuries: Listen! Listen to stories! For what stories do, above all else, is hold up a mirror so that we can see ourselves. Stories are mirrors of human be-ing, reflecting back our very essence. In a story, we come to know precisely the both/and, mixed-upped-ness of our very being. In the mirror of another's story, we can discover our tragedy and our comedy-and therefore our very human-ness, the ambiguity and incongruity, that lie at the core of the human condition.

Ernest Kurtz
Lying, Echoes, Mirrors
Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.63, Bantam

[A] journey becomes a pilgrimage as we discover, day by day, that the distance traveled is less important than the experience gained.

Ernest Kurtz
Distance, Journey, Important
Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.133, Bantam

Spirituality points, always, beyond: beyond the ordinary, beyond possession, beyond the narrow confines of the self, and - above all - beyond expectations. Because "the spiritual" is beyond our control, it is never exactly what we expect.

Ernest Kurtz
Spiritual, Self, Expectations
Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham (2009). “The Spirituality of Imperfection: Storytelling and the Search for Meaning”, p.31, Bantam

Baseball teaches that errors are part of the game.

Ernest Kurtz
Baseball, Errors, Games

To acknowledge, to accept, and to forgive one's parents - both what they gave and what they did not give, both one's dependence upon them and one's independence of them - is the ultimate hallmark of maturity: a perception as valid for institutions as for individuals.

Ernest Kurtz
Inspirational, Maturity, Giving
Ernest Kurtz (2010). “Not God: A History of Alcoholics Anonymous”, p.131, Hazelden Publishing

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