61+ Parker Palmer Quotes On Education, Selfhood, And Community

Lydia Samson
Dec 12, 2023 By Lydia Samson
Originally Published on Mar 24, 2021
Edited by Monisha Kochhar
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Read time: 8.7 Min

Parker J. Palmer is an author, activist, and educator based in the United States.

Parker J. Palmer focuses on issues pertaining to the community, education, leadership, spirituality, and social change. He has also authored 13 books.

Parker J. Palmer is the founder of the Senior Partner Emeritus Of The Center For Courage And Renewal, holds 13 honorable doctorates, has won several national awards, and has been recognized with several foundation grants. Here are specially curated Parker J. Palmer quotes to enlighten you with his perspective of things.

If you like Parker J. Palmer quotes, check outRichard Rohr quotes and Rita Pierson quotes.

Inspirational Parker J. Palmer Quotes

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Parker J. Palmer has inspired thousands by his works. Here are such Parker J. Palmer quotes to inspire you.

1. “Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique; good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

2. “Violence is what happens when we don't know what else to do with our suffering.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

3. “The winters will drive you crazy until you learn to get out into them.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

4. “Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

5. “We are here not only to transform the world but also to be transformed.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

6. “As I teach, I project the condition of my soul onto my students, my subject, and our way of being together.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

7. “Before you tell your life what you intend to do with it, listen for what it intends to do with you.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

8. “The inner life of any great thing will be incomprehensible to me until I develop and deepen an inner life of my own.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

9. “How easily we get trapped in that which is not essential - in looking good, winning at competition, gathering power and wealth - when simply being alive is the gift beyond measure.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

10. “Whoever our students may be, whatever the subject we teach, ultimately we teach who we are.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

11. “As young people, we are surrounded by expectations that may have little to do with who we really are, expectations held by people who are not trying to discern our selfhood but to fit us into slots.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

12. “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.

13. “Vocation does not mean a goal that I pursue. It means a calling that I hear...”

- Parker J. Palmer.

14. “Humility is the only lens though which great things can be seen...”

- Parker J. Palmer.

15. Each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up.

- Parker J. Palmer.

16. “Even when life challenges us, it's a gift beyond all measure.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

17. “Storytelling has always been at the heart... strengthening our sense of community.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

18. “For me, teaching is about weaving a web of connectedness between myself, my students, the subject I'm teaching, and the larger world.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

19. “I like to say that before we can create an external space in which to receive people, we have to create an internal space in which to receive them.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

20. “Connection and connectedness are other words for community and communion.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

Parker Palmer Quotes From 'The Courage To Teach'

Being an activist and an educator, Parker J. Palmer's vision for children was insightful. Here is a list of such Parker J. Palmer quotes.

21. “By choosing integrity, I become more whole, but wholeness does not mean perfection. It means becoming more real by acknowledging the whole of who I am.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

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

- Parker J. Palmer.

23. “Teaching like any truly human activity emerges from one's inwardness.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

24. “Good teaching comes from good people.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

25. “We have been deformed by educational and religious institutions that treat us as members of an audience instead of actors in a drama, so we become adults who treat democracy as a spectator sport.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

26. “The entanglements I experience in the classroom are often no more or less than the convolutions of my inner life.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

27. “...good teaching as knowing my students and my subject.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

28. “Good teachers join self and subject and students in the fabric of life.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

29. “We listen for guidance everywhere except from within.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

30. “Mentoring is a mutuality that requires more than meeting the right teacher: the teacher must meet the right student.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

Parker J. Palmer Quotes From 'Let Your Life Speak'

The perspective that Parker J. Palmer has towards life and true self is quite sagacious. Here is a list of Parker Palmer 'Let Your Life Speak' quotes.

31. “Self-care is never a selfish act - it is only good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

32. “...respectfully at the edge of that person's mystery and misery.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

33. “Is the life I'm living the life that wants to live in me?”

- Parker J. Palmer.

34. “If I were to find new life, who knows what daunting tasks I might be required to take on?”

- Parker J. Palmer.

35. “I speak often of my own mistakes... I do not feel despondent about my mistakes though I grieve the pain they have sometimes caused others.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

36. “Vocation does not come from willfulness. It comes from listening.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

37. “Either a spirit of hope or a spirit of despair. Either an inner confidence in wholeness and integration, or an inner terror about life being diseased and ultimately terminal.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

38. “Consciousness precedes being.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

39. “Burnout is a state of emptiness, to be sure, but it does not result from giving all I have: it merely reveals the nothingness from which I was trying to give in the first place.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

40. “The punishment imposed on us for claiming true self can never be worse than the punishment we impose on ourselves by failing to make that claim.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

Famous Parker J. Palmer Quotes

Right from self-care to the importance of education, Parker J. Palmer's perspective on everything is perspicacious. Here are such Parker J. Palmer quotes.

41. “Fascist movements kill off their critics, literally or metaphorically, while democratic movements value, invite and even welcome criticism.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

42. “As a person who has made three deep dives into depression along the way, I do not speak lightly of this. I simply know that it is true.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

43. “The master metaphor of our era does not come from agriculture - it comes from manufacturing.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

44. “If the unexamined life is not worth living, it’s equally true that the unlived life is not worth examining.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

45. “Take on big jobs worth doing — jobs like the spread of love, peace, and justice.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

46. “Our heroes take on impossible jobs and stay with them for the long haul because they live by a standard that trumps effectiveness.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

47. “If you hold a healthy awareness of your own mortality, your eyes will be opened to the grandeur and glory of life.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

48. “The good news is that suffering can be transformed into something that brings life, not death.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

49. “The highest form of love is the love that allows for intimacy without the annihilation of difference.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

50. “The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own skin.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

51. “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.

52. “We do not believe that we ‘grow’ our lives - we believe that we ‘make’ them.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

53. "True self is true friend. One ignores or rejects such friendship only at one's peril."

- Parker J. Palmer.

54. “I want to learn how to respond more gracefully to students who refuse to dance, not projecting my limitation on them but embracing it as part of myself."

- Parker J. Palmer.

55. “We have yet another name for people who can share silence and laughter with equal ease: we call them soulmates."

-Parker J. Palmer.

56. “You won’t get the big jobs done in your lifetime, but if at the end of the day you can say, ‘I was faithful,’ I think you’ll be okay.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

57. “I want my inner truth to be the plumb line for the choices I make about my life - about the work that I do and how I do it, about the relationships I enter into and how I conduct them.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

58. “Solitude does not necessarily mean living apart from others; rather, it means never living apart from one's self.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

59. “At its deepest level, I think teaching is about bringing people into communion with each other, with yourself as the teacher, and with the subject you are teaching.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

60. “I am not sure that any sight or sound on earth is as exquisite as the hushed descent of a sky full of snow.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

61. “Truth-telling by a leader can legitimate truth-telling at every level.”

- Parker J. Palmer.

62. “What do I want to let go of and what do I want to give myself to?”

- Parker J. Palmer.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked this article, then why not take a look at Joan Didion quotes, or spiritual growth quotes.

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Written by Lydia Samson

Bachelor in Science specializing in Mass Communication

Lydia Samson picture

Lydia SamsonBachelor in Science specializing in Mass Communication

A diligent and driven mass communications graduate from Caleb University, Lydia has experience in media and a passion for digital marketing and communications. She is an effective communicator and team-builder with strong analytical, management, and organizational skills. She is a self-starter with a positive, can-do attitude.

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