Parker J. Palmer Quotes about Heart

Community is a place where the connections felt in our hearts make themselves known in the bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts.

Community is a place where the connections felt in our hearts make themselves known in the bonds between people, and where the tuggings and pullings of those bonds keep opening our hearts.

Parker J. Palmer

Heart, People, Community

Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening. I must listen to my life and try to understand what it is truly about-quite apart from what I would like it to be about-or my life will never represent anything real in the world, no matter how earnest my intentions…..Before I can tell my life what I want to do with it, I must listen to my life telling me who I am. I must listen for the truths and values at the heart of my own identity, not the standards by which I must live-but the standards by which I cannot help but live if I am living my own life.

Parker J. Palmer

Real, Heart, Who I Am

Parker J. Palmer (2015). “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation”, p.13, John Wiley & Sons

The power for authentic leadership is found not in external arrangements, but in the human heart.

Parker J. Palmer

Heart, Found, Humans

Parker J. Palmer (1999). “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation”, p.76, John Wiley & Sons

Storytelling has always been at the heart of being human because it serves some of our most basic needs: passing along our traditions, confessing failings, healing wounds, engendering hope, strengthening our sense of community.

Parker J. Palmer

Healing, Heart, Community

Parker J. Palmer (2009). “A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life”, p.122, John Wiley & Sons

It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.

Parker J. Palmer

Fall, Heart, One Day

Parker J. Palmer (2011). “Healing the Heart of Democracy: The Courage to Create a Politics Worthy of the Human Spirit”, p.102, John Wiley & Sons

Relational trust is built on movements of the human heart such as empathy, commitment, compassion, patience, and the capacity to forgive.

Parker J. Palmer

Heart, Commitment, Compassion

Parker J. Palmer (2012). “The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life”, p.17, John Wiley & Sons

Don't let anyone or anything rob you of the beauty and meaning at the heart of life. It's your birthright gift.

Parker J. Palmer

Heart, Birthright

Authority is granted to people who are perceived as authoring their own words, their own actions, their own lives, rather than playing a scripted role at great remove from their own hearts.

Parker J. Palmer

Heart, People, Roles

Parker J. Palmer, Megan Scribner (2007). “The Courage to Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal”, p.117, John Wiley & Sons

Disabused of our illusions by much travel and travail, we awaken one day to find that the sacred center is here and now - in every moment of the journey, everywhere in the world around us, and deep within our own hearts.

Parker J. Palmer

Heart, Journey, One Day

Parker J. Palmer (2015). “Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation”, p.24, John Wiley & Sons

The academic bias against subjectivity not only forces our students to write poorly ("It is believed...," instead of, "I believe..."), it deforms their thinking about themselves and their world. In a single stroke, we delude our students into believing that bad prose turns opinions into facts and we alienate them from their own inner lives.

Parker J. Palmer

Believe, Writing, Heart

Parker J. Palmer (2017). “The Courage to Teach Guide for Reflection and Renewal”, p.113, John Wiley & Sons