Quotes by Howard Thurman

About Howard Thurman:

Howard Thurman was an influential African American author, philosopher, theologian, educator and civil rights leader. He was Dean of Chapel at Howard University and Boston University for more than two decades, wrote 21 books, and in 1944 helped found a multicultural church. Thurman, along with Mordecai Johnson and Vernon Johns, was considered one of the three greatest African-American preachers in the early 20th-century.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

A dream is the bearer of a new possibility, the enlarged horizon, the great hope.

Howard Thurman

At the core of life is a hard purposefulness, a determination to live.

Howard Thurman

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that som...

Howard Thurman

Community cannot for long feed on itself; it can only flourish with the coming of others from beyond, their unknown and undiscovered brothers.

Howard Thurman

He who fears is literally delivered to destruction.

Howard Thurman

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Howard Thurman

The years, the months, the days, and the hours have flown by my open window. Here and there an incident, a towering moment, a naked memory, an etched countenance, a whisper in the dark, a golden glow these and much more are the woven fabric of the ti...

Howard Thurman

What I have written is but a fleeting intimation of the outside of what one man sees and may tell about the path he walks. No one shares the secret of a life; no one enters into the heart of the mystery.

Howard Thurman

And this is the strangest of all paradoxes of the human adventure; we live inside all experience, but we are permitted to bear witness only to the outside. Such is the riddle of life and the story of the passing of our days.

Howard Thurman

Twilight - a time of pause when nature changes her guard. All living things would fade and die from too much light or too much dark, if twilight were not.

Howard Thurman

Commitment means that it is possible for a man to yield the nerve center of his consent to a purpose or cause, a movement or an ideal, which may be more important to him than whether he lives or dies.

Howard Thurman

During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.

Howard Thurman

Author Bio

  • NameHoward Thurman
  • DescriptionAmerican writer
  • BornNovember 18, 1899
  • DiedApril 10, 1981
  • ProfessionWriter; Philosopher; Educator; Theologian