Pierre Teilhard de Chardin Quotes

A collection of quotes by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a French Jesuit priest, philosopher, and paleontologist who lived from 1881 to 1955. He is widely recognized for his groundbreaking work in integrating science and spirituality. Born in Orcines, France, Teilhard de Chardin showed early interest in archaeology and the natural sciences, which eventually led him to pursue a career as a paleontologist.

He participated in several scientific expeditions, including the discovery of the Peking Man in China. Through his scientific studies, Teilhard de Chardin developed a profound understanding of evolution and the interconnectedness of all living beings. However, he believed that reductionist approaches to science overlooked the spiritual dimension of existence.

As a Jesuit priest, Teilhard de Chardin sought to reconcile his scientific knowledge with his religious beliefs. He developed a unique theology that emphasized the concept of the "divine milieu," which refers to the interplay between matter and spirit. According to Teilhard de Chardin, both science and spirituality are essential aspects of human experience, and they are ultimately converging towards a unified understanding of the universe.

Although some of his ideas were initially met with resistance from the Catholic Church, Teilhard de Chardin's writings and teachings continue to inspire many today. His works, including "The Phenomenon of Man" and "The Divine Milieu," explore the relationship between evolution, consciousness, and divine transcendence. Teilhard de Chardin's holistic approach to science and spirituality has had a lasting impact, influencing the fields of theology, philosophy, and the sciences.

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We ar

We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

In the spiritual life, as in all organic processes, everyone

In the spiritual life, as in all organic processes, everyone has their optimum and it is just as harmful to go beyond it as not to attain it.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world see

Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other so that the world may come to being.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

He recognized with absolute certainty the empty fragility of

He recognized with absolute certainty the empty fragility of even the noblest theorizings as compared with the definitive plenitude of the smallest fact grasped in its total, concrete reality.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Truth Philosophy

The most telling and profound way of describing the evolutio

The most telling and profound way of describing the evolution of the universe would undoubtedly be to trace the evolution of love.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Spirituality Science

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way

Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to gi

The most satisfying thing in life is to have been able to give a large part of one's self to others.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happe

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the lim

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We have only to believe. And the more threatening and irredu

We have only to believe. And the more threatening and irreducible reality appears, the more firmly and desperately we must believe. Then, little by little, we shall see the universal horror unbend, and then smile upon us, and then take us in its more than human arms.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experienc

You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Someday, after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we

Someday, after mastering winds, waves, tides and gravity, we shall harness the energy of love; and for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elem

Love is the affinity which links and draws together the elements of the world... Love, in fact, is the agent of universal synthesis.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Love alone can unite living beings so as to complete and ful

Love alone can unite living beings so as to complete and fulfill them... for it alone joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are one, after all, you and I. Together we suffer, togeth

We are one, after all, you and I. Together we suffer, together exist, and forever will recreate each other.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Evolution is gaining the psychic zones of the world... life

Evolution is gaining the psychic zones of the world... life, being and ascent of consciousness, could not continue to advance indefinitely along its line without transforming itself in depth. The being who is the object of his own reflection, in consequence, of that very doubling back upon himself becomes in a flash able to raise himself to a new sphere.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to ou

Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if limits to our ability did not exist. We are collaborators in creation.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.

The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiri

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin