Quotes from Donald Miller

I heard once that real love doesn't ask what is in it for me; it just gives unconditionally. It just tries to take the weight out of somebody else's pack, lessen his load, and if it gets reciprocated, that's great, but that isn't what you did it for.

The same principles that make up a good story also make up a good life.

I talk about love, forgiveness, social justice; I rage against American materialism in the name of alturism, but have I even controlled my own heart? The overwhelming majority of time I spend thinking about myself, pleasing myself, reassuring myself, and when I am done there is nothing to spare for the needy. Six billion people live in this world, and I can only muster thoughts for one. Me.

I love this about Christian spirituality. It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul.

The words alone, lonely, and loneliness are three of the most powerful words in the English language...those words say that we are human; they are like the words hunger and thirst. But they are not words about the body, they are words about the soul.

When you build a city near no mountains and no ocean, you get materialism and traditional religion. People have too much time and lack inspiration.

We were made to be distracted by life, by story.

When you live countless stories in which you play a sedentary role, it's an odd feeling to switch stories.

How can we be loved if we are always in hiding?

But it's better when you have somebody to go home to and talk about it with, somebody who is more in love with you than impressed by you.

Then, Paul remembered a Bible verse from 1 John. He said that John, in summarizing all that he'd learned about God, said this: "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all." "When you are with God," Paul said, "there is no darkness, ho hiding, no pretending. When you are with God, you have the freedom and courage to be yourself.

The harshest people I've met over the years have had two things in common: they don't fully trust anybody, and they view relationships as a means to an end.