Evelyn Underhill Quotes & Sayings

The practical life of a vast number of people is not, as a matter of fact, worth while at all. It is like an impressive fur coat with no one inside it. One sees many of these coats occupying positions of great responsibility. Hans Andersen's story of the king with no clothes told one bitter and common truth about human nature; but the story of the clothes with no king describes a situation just as common and even more pitiable. — Evelyn Underhill

The note we end on is and must be the note of inexhaustible possibility and hope. — Evelyn Underhill

Mysticism is the passionate longing of the soul for God ... — Evelyn Underhill

It is significant that many of these experiences are reported to us from periods of war and distress: that the stronger the forces of destruction appeared, the more intense grew the spiritual vision which opposed them. We learn from these records that the mystical consciousness has the power of lifting those who possess it to a plane of reality which no struggle, no cruelty, can disturb: of conferring a certitude which no catastrophe can wreck. Yet it does not wrap its initiates in a selfish and otherworldly calm, isolate them from the pain and effort of the common life. Rather, it gives them renewed vitality; administering to the human spirit not--as some suppose--a soothing draught, but the most powerful of stimulants. — Evelyn Underhill

We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do ... forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so far as they are transcended by and included in , the fundamental verb, to Be. — Evelyn Underhill

Religion, like beauty, cannot be experienced in cold blood. — Evelyn Underhill

We have descended into the garden and caught three hundred slugs. How I love the mixture of the beautiful and the squalid in gardening. It makes it so lifelike. — Evelyn Underhill

We spend most of our lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have, and to do. — Evelyn Underhill

When the vivid reality which is meant by these rather abstract words is truly possessed by us, when that which is unchanging in ourselves is given its chance, and emerges from the stream of succession to recognise its true home and goal, which is God - then, though much suffering may, indeed will, remain; apprehension, confusion, instability, despair, will cease. — Evelyn Underhill

God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament. — Evelyn Underhill

For a lack of attention a thousand forms of loveliness elude us everyday — Evelyn Underhill

Many people feel unaware of any guidance, unable to discern or understand the signals of God; not because the signals are not given, but because the mind is too troubled, clouded, and hurried to receive them. — Evelyn Underhill

The business and method of mysticism is love. — Evelyn Underhill

After all it is those who have a deep and real inner life who are best able to deal with the irritating details of outer life. — Evelyn Underhill

Mysticism is the art of union with Reality. — Evelyn Underhill

As to the most prudent logicians might venture to deduce from a skein of wool the probable existence of a sheep; so you, from the raw stuff of perception, may venture to deduce a universe which transcends the reproductive powers of your loom. — Evelyn Underhill

The primary declaration of Christianity is not "This do!" but "This happened! — Evelyn Underhill

If by losing the spirit of prayer, you mean losing the heavenly sensations of deep devotion, I am afraid that does not matter a scrap. — Evelyn Underhill

Deliberately seek opportunities for kindness, sympathy, and patience. — Evelyn Underhill

When we are in good health, we all feel very real, solid, and permanent; and this is of all our illusions the most ridiculous, and also the most obviously useful from the point of view of the efficiency and preservation of the race. — Evelyn Underhill

I have an idea heaven will be both absolutely happy and absolutely dark, to protect us from the blaze of God. — Evelyn Underhill

The determined fixing of our will upon God, and pressing toward him steadily and without deflection; this is the very center and the art of prayer. — Evelyn Underhill

Nothing in all nature is so lovely and so vigorous, so perfectly at home in its environment, as a fish in the sea. Its surroundings give to it a beauty, quality, and power which are not its own. We take it out, and at once a poor, limp dull thing, fit for nothing, is gasping away its life. So the soul, sunk in God, living the life of prayer, is supported, filled, transformed in beauty, by a vitality and a power which are not its own. — Evelyn Underhill

Have you ever noticed that Jesus is never recorded as taking a holiday? He retired for the purposes of his mission, not from it. He was never destroyed by his work; he was always on top of it. He moved among people as the master of every situation. He was busier than anyone; the multitudes were always at him, yet he had time, for everything and everyone. He was never hurried, or harassed, or too busy. He had complete supremacy over time; he never let it dictate to him. He talked of my time; my hour. He knew exactly when the moment had come for doing something and when it had not. — Evelyn Underhill

Grace is God himself, his loving energy at work within his church and within our souls. — Evelyn Underhill

My growth depends on my walls coming down. — Evelyn Underhill

As the genuine religious impulse becomes dominant, adoration more and more takes charge. 'I come to seek God because I need Him', may be an adequate formula for prayer. 'I come to adore His splendour, and fling myself and all that I have at His feet', is the only possible formula for worship. — Evelyn Underhill

Here we part from the "nature mystics," the mystic poets, and all who shared in and were contented with the illuminated vision of reality. Those who go on are the great and strong spirits, who do not seek to know, but are driven to be. — Evelyn Underhill

Worship is the one, total adoring response of man to the one Eternal God. — Evelyn Underhill

A wise man has said: 'Only a Christian can live wholly in the present, for to him the past is pardoned and the future is safe in God.' ... the Christian life must be a life without regrets, without remorse. — Evelyn Underhill

God is acting on your soul all the time, whether you have spiritual sensations or not. — Evelyn Underhill

If God were small enough to be understood, He would not be big enough to be worshipped. — Evelyn Underhill

A simple rule, to be followed whether one is in the light or not, gives backbone to one's spiritual life, as nothing else can. — Evelyn Underhill

Adoration is caring for God above all else. — Evelyn Underhill

The soul's house is not built on such a convenient plan; there are few soundproof partitions in it. Only when the conviction - not merely the idea - that the demand of the Spirit, however inconvenient, rules the whole of it, will those objectionable noises die down which have a way of penetrating into the nicely furnished little oratory and drowning all the quieter voices by their din. — Evelyn Underhill

He goes because he must, as Galahad went towards the Grail: knowing that for those who can live it, this alone is life. — Evelyn Underhill

To elude nature, to refuse her friendship, and attempt to leap the river of life in the hope of finding God on the other side, is the common error of a perverted mysticality. It is as fatal in result as the opposite error of deliberately arrested development, which, being attuned to the wonderful rhythms of natural life, is content with this increase of sensibility; and, becoming a "nature-mystic," asks no more. — Evelyn Underhill

Delicate humor is the crowning virtue of the saints. — Evelyn Underhill

The will is what matters - as long as you have that, you are safe. — Evelyn Underhill

It looks impossible until you do it, and then you find it is possible. — Evelyn Underhill

Mysticism, according to its historical and psychological definitions, is the direct intuition or experience of God; and a mystic is a person who has, to a greater or less degree, such a direct experience
one whose religion and life are centered, not merely on an accepted belief or practice, but on that which the person regards as first hand personal knowledge. — Evelyn Underhill

No metaphysician has yet shaken the ordinary individual's belief in his own existence. The uncertainties only begin for most of us when we ask what else is. — Evelyn Underhill

All things are perceived in the light of charity, and hence under the aspect of beauty; for beauty is simply reality seen with the eyes of love. — Evelyn Underhill

All artist of some measure contemplative. — Evelyn Underhill

The life, beauty and meaning of the whole created order, from the tomtit to the Milky Way, refers back to the Absolute Life and Beauty of its Creator: and so lived, every bit has spiritual significance. — Evelyn Underhill

In the created world around us we see the Eternal Artist, Eternal Love at work. — Evelyn Underhill

In prayer the soul comes nearest the experience of absolute love: in belief it ascends by means of symbols towards absolute truth. — Evelyn Underhill

The life of prayer is so great and various there is something in it for everyone. It is like a garden which grows everything, from alpines to potatoes. — Evelyn Underhill

The spiritual life is not a special career, involving abstraction from the world of things. It is a part of every man's life; and until he has realised it he is not a complete human being, has not entered into possession of all his powers. It — Evelyn Underhill

It is far easier, though not very easy, to develop and preserve a spiritual outlook on life than it is to make our everyday actions harmonize with that spiritual outlook. For though we may renounce the world for ourselves, refuse the attempt to get anything out of it, we have to accept it as the sphere in which we are to co-operate with the Spirit, and try to do the Will. — Evelyn Underhill

In mysticism that love of truth which we saw as the beginning of all philosophy leaves the merely intellectual sphere, and takes on the assured aspect of a personal passion. Where the philosopher guesses and argues, the mystic lives and looks; and speaks, consequently, the disconcerting language of first-hand experience, not the neat dialectic of the schools. Hence whilst the Absolute of the metaphysicians remains a diagram - impersonal and unattainable - the Absolute of the mystics is lovable, attainable, alive. — Evelyn Underhill

Idealism, though just in its premises, and often daring and honest in their application, is stultified by the exclusive intellectualism of its own methods: by its fatal trust in the squirrel-work of the industrious brain instead of the piercing vision of the desirous heart. It interests man, but does not involve him in its processes: does not catch him up to the new and more real life which it describes. Hence the thing that matters, the living thing, has somehow escaped it; and its observations bear the same relation to reality as the art of the anatomist does to the mystery of birth. — Evelyn Underhill

Christian history looks glorious in retrospect; but it is made up of constant hard choices and unattractive tasks, accepted under the pressure of the Will of God. — Evelyn Underhill

Christianity is a religion which concerns us as we are here and now, creatures of body and soul. We do not "follow the footsteps of his most holy life" by the exercise of a trained religious imagination, but by treading the firm, rough earth, up hill and down dale. — Evelyn Underhill

The world of religion is no longer a concrete fact proposed for our acceptance and adoration. It is an unfathomable universe which engulfs us, and which lives its own majestic uncomprehended life: and we discover that our careful maps and cherished definitions bear little relation to its unmeasured reality. — Evelyn Underhill

Do not suppose from this that your new career is to be perpetually supported by agreeable spiritual contacts, or occupy itself in the mild contemplation of the great world through which you move. True, it is said of the Shepherd that he carries the lambs in his bosom: but the sheep are expected to walk, and put up with the inequalities of the road, the bunts and blunders of the flock. It — Evelyn Underhill

God is much in the difficult home problems as in the times of quiet and prayer. — Evelyn Underhill

Your dreamer may do without a creed, but he always wants a ritual ... — Evelyn Underhill

Never let yourself think that because God has given you many things to do for Himpressing routine jobs, a life full up with duties and demands of a very practical sort
that all these need separate you from communion with Him. God is always coming to you in the Sacrament of the Present Moment. Meet and receive Him there with gratitude in that sacrament; however unexpected its outward form may be receive Him in every sight and sound, joy, pain, opportunity and sacrifice. — Evelyn Underhill

The individual is reminded that in him, no less than in the Archetypal Universe, real life must be born if real life is to be lived. — Evelyn Underhill

Though humility and acknowledgement of one's real failings is good, the gratuitous eating of worms not put before us by God does not nourish our souls a bit - merely in fact upsets the spiritual tummy. — Evelyn Underhill

But so many Christians are like deaf people at a concert. They study the programme carefully, believe every statement make in it, speak respectfully of the quality of the music, but only really hear a phrase now and again. So they have no notion at all of the mighty symphony which fills the universe, to which our lives are destined to make their tiny contribution, and which is the self-expression of the Eternal God. — Evelyn Underhill

Meditation is a half-way house between thinking and contemplating ... — Evelyn Underhill

Therefore it is to a practical mysticism that the practical man is here invited: to a training of his latent faculties, a bracing and brightening of his languid consciousness, an emancipation from the fetters of appearance, a turning of his attention to new levels of the world. Thus he may become aware of the universe which the spiritual artist is always trying to disclose to the race. This amount of mystical perception - this "ordinary contemplation," as the specialists call it - is possible to all men: without it, they are not wholly conscious, nor wholly alive. It is a natural human activity, no more involving the great powers and sublime experiences of the mystical saints and philosophers than the ordinary enjoyment of music involves the special creative powers of the great musician. — Evelyn Underhill

Eternity is with us, inviting our contemplation perpetually, but we are too frightened, lazy, and suspicious to respond; too arrogant to still our thought, and let divine sensation have its way. It needs industry and goodwill if we would make that transition; for the process involves a veritable spring-cleaning of the soul, a turning-out and rearrangement of our mental furniture, a wide opening of closed windows, that the notes of the wild birds beyond our garden may come to us fully charged with wonder and freshness, and drown with their music the noise of the gramaphone within. Those who do this, discover that they have lived in a stuffy world, whilst their inheritance was a world of morning-glory:where every tit-mouse is a celestial messenger, and every thrusting bud is charged with the full significance of life. — Evelyn Underhill

Here the further question of the relation of spiritual life to public life and politics comes in. It must mean, for all who take it seriously, judging public issues from the angle of eternity, never from that of national self-interest or expediency; backing our conviction, as against party of prejudice, rejecting compromise, and voting only for those who adopt this disinterested point of view. Did we act thus, slowly but surely a body of opinion - a spiritual party, if you like - might be formed; and in the long run make its influence felt in the State. But such a programme demands much faith, hope, and charity; and courage too. — Evelyn Underhill

Why, after all, take as our standard a material world whose existence is affirmed by nothing more trustworthy than the sense-impressions of "normal men"; those imperfect and easily cheated channels of communication? — Evelyn Underhill

As the social self can only be developed by contact with society, so the spiritual self can only be developed by contact with the spiritual world. — Evelyn Underhill

True contemplation can only thrive when defended from two opposite exaggerations: quietism on the one hand, and spiritual fuss upon the other. Neither from passivity nor from anxiety has it anything to gain. — Evelyn Underhill

Spiritual reading is a regular, essential part of the life of prayer, and particularly is it the support of adoring prayer. — Evelyn Underhill

Saints are the great teachers of the loving-kindness and fascination with God. — Evelyn Underhill

The first question here, then, is not "What is best for my soul?" nor is it even "What is most useful to humanity?" But-transcending both these limited aims-what function must this life fulfill in the great and secret economy of God? — Evelyn Underhill

The London streets are paths of loveliness; the very omnibuses look like colored archangels, their laps filled full of little trustful souls. — Evelyn Underhill

When you let intution have its way with you, you open up new levels of the world. Such opening-up is the most practical of all activities. — Evelyn Underhill

I do not think reading the mystics would hurt you myself: you say you must avoid books which deal with 'feelings' - but the mystics don't deal with feelings but with love which is a very different thing. You have too many 'feelings,' but not nearly enough love. — Evelyn Underhill

For the most part, of course, the presence of the great spiritual universe surrounding us is no more noticed by us than the pressure of air on our bodies, or the action of light. Our field of attention is not wide enough for that; our spiritual senses are not sufficiently alert. Most people work so hard at developing their correspondence with the visible world, that their power of correspondence with the invisible is left in a rudimentary state. — Evelyn Underhill

Sometimes I think the resurrection of the body, unless much improved in construction, a mistake! — Evelyn Underhill

The spiritual life of individuals has to be extended both vertically to God
and horizontally to other souls; and the more it grows in both directions, the less merely individual and therefore more truly personal it will become. — Evelyn Underhill

Every minute you are thinking of evil, you might have been thinking of good instead. Refuse to pander to a morbid interest in your own misdeeds.
Pick yourself up, be sorry, shake yourself, and go on again. — Evelyn Underhill

It is immediately apparent, however, that this sense-world, this seemingly real external universe - though it may be useful and valid in other respects - cannot be the external world, but only the Self's projected picture of it ... The evidence of the senses, then, cannot be accepted as evidence of the nature of ultimate reality; useful servants, they are dangerous guides. — Evelyn Underhill

Love makes the whole difference between an execution and a martyrdom. — Evelyn Underhill

Art is the link between appearance and reality. — Evelyn Underhill

Spiritual achievement costs much, though never as much as it is worth. — Evelyn Underhill

Do not entertain the notion that you ought to advance in your prayer. If you do, you will only find you have put on the brake instead of the acceleration. All real progress in spiritual things comes gently, imperceptibly, and is the work of God. Our crude efforts spoil it. Know yourself for the childish, limited and dependent soul you are. Remember that the only growth which matters happens without our knowledge and that trying to stretch ourselves is both dangerous and silly. Think of the Infinite Goodness, never of your own state. — Evelyn Underhill

Towards my husband, I often fail to show interest in his affairs and amusements, not rousing myself to respond when I'm tired or concerned with other things, forgetting he is very patient with me. — Evelyn Underhill

On every level of life, from housework to heights of prayer, in all judgment and efforts to get things done, hurry and impatience are sure marks of the amateur. — Evelyn Underhill

Much is now being said about evangelism; but before we get effective evangelism, we have to get effective evangelists. Evangelism is useless unless it is the work of one devoted to God, willing and glad to suffer all things for God, penetrated by the attractiveness of God. New machinery, adaptations and adjustments, are not the first need ... but more devoted, adoring, sacrificial souls. — Evelyn Underhill

This is the secret of joy. We shall no longer strive for our own way; but commit ourselves, easily and simply, to God's way, acquiesce in His will, and in so doing find our peace. — Evelyn Underhill

The spiritual life is a stern choice. It is not a consoling retreat from the difficulties of existence; but an invitation to enter fully into that difficult existence, and there apply the Charity of God and bear the cost. — Evelyn Underhill

As the beautiful does not exist for the artist and poet alone - though these can find in it more poignant depths of meaning than other men - so the world of Reality exists for all; and all may participate in it, unite with it, according to their measure and to the strength and purity of their desire. — Evelyn Underhill

I do hope your Christmas has had a little touch of Eternity in among the rush and pitter patter and all. It always seems such a mixing of this world and the next - but that after all is the idea! — Evelyn Underhill

The Incarnation, which is for traditional Christianity synonymous with the historical birth and earthly life of Christ, is for mystics of a certain type, not only this but also a perpetual Cosmic and personal process. It is an everlasting bringing forth, in the universe and also in the individual ascending soul, of the divine and perfect Life, the pure character of God, of which the one historical life dramatized the essential constituents. Hence the soul, like the physical embryo, resumes in its upward progress the spiritual life-history of the race. "The one secret, the greatest of all," says Patmore, is "the doctrine of the Incarnation, regarded not as an historical event which occurred two thousand years ago, but as an event which is renewed in the body of every one who is in the way to the fulfilment of his original destiny." 239 — Evelyn Underhill

The mystic lives and looks; and speaks the disconcerting language of first-hand experience. — Evelyn Underhill

All artist are of necessity in some measure contemplatives. — Evelyn Underhill

The direction and constancy of the will is what really matters, and intellect and feeling are only important insofar as they contribute to that. — Evelyn Underhill

If we ask of the saints how they achieved spiritual effectiveness, they are only able to reply that, insofar as they did it themselves, they did it by love and prayer. — Evelyn Underhill

It seems so much easier in these days to live morally than to live beautifully. Lots of us manage to exist for years without ever sinning against society, but we sin against loveliness every hour of the day. — Evelyn Underhill

The Christian is the person who sees every time and every situation, however dreary and repetitive, as God sees it - a fresh creation from his hand, demanding its own response in perhaps a wholly new and creative way. Under God he is free over it. He has won through to a purchase over events; he has risen with Christ. — Evelyn Underhill

It is important to increase our sense of God's richness and wonder by reading what his great lovers have said about him. — Evelyn Underhill

Never forget that the key to the situation lies in the will and not in the imagination. — Evelyn Underhill