John Eldredge > Quotes

“The culture of women in the church today is crippled by some very pervasive lies. "To be spiritual is to be busy. To be spiritual is to be disciplined. To be spiritual is to be dutiful." No, to be spiritual is to be in Romance with God. The desire to be romanced lies deep in the heart of every women. It is for such that you were made. Are you ARE romanced, and ever will be.”
― John Elderedge

“We think you'll find that every woman in her heart of hearts longs for three things: to be romanced, to play an irreplaceable role in a great adventure, and to unveil beauty. That's what makes a woman come alive.”
― John Eldredge, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

“I wasn't mean; I wasn't evil. I was nice. And let me tell you, a hesitant man is the last thing in the world a woman needs. She needs a lover and a warrior, not a Really Nice Guy.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Deep in his heart, every man longs for a battle to fight, an adventure to live, and a beauty to rescue.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“A wound that goes unacknowledged and unwept is a wound that cannot heal.”
― John Eldredge

“And after years of hearing the heart-cry of women, I am convinced beyond a doubt of this: God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to someone. How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, "Why won't you choose Me?" It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this point. "You will . . . find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). In other words, "Look for me, pursue me -- I want you to pursue me." Amazing. As Tozer says, "God waits to be wanted.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“One of the most poisonous of all Satan’s whispers is simply, “Things will never change.” That lie kills expectation, trapping our heart forever in the present. To keep desire alive and flourishing, we must renew our vision for what lies ahead. Things will not always be like this. Jesus has promised to “make all things new.” Eye has not seen, ear has not heard all that God has in store for his lovers, which does not mean “we have no clue so don’t even try to imagine,” but rather, you cannot outdream God. Desire is kept alive by imagination, the antidote to resignation. We will need imagination, which is to say, we will need hope. ”
― John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

“We are made in the image of God; we carry within us the desire for our true life of intimacy and adventure. To say we want less than that is to lie.”
― John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed of

“She is the crescendo, the final, astonishing work of God. Woman. In one last flourish creation comes to a finish with Eve. She is the Master's finishing touch.”
― John Elderedge

“The point is the love story. We live in a love story in the midst of war.”
― John Eldredge, The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

“don’t ask yourself what the world needs, ask yourself what makes you come alive, because what the world needs are men who have come alive.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“A man needs a much bigger orbit than a woman. He needs a mission, a life purpose, and he needs to know his name. Only then is he fit for a woman, for only then does he have something to invite her into.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Worship is the act of the abandoned heart adoring its God”
― John Eldredge, The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We've Only Dreamed of

“Instead of asking, 'What should a woman do—what is her role?' it would be far more helpful to ask, 'What is a woman—what is her design?' and, 'Why did God place Woman in our midst?”
― John Eldredge, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

“somehow we have overlooked the fact this treasured called the heart can also be broken, has been broken, and now lies in pieces down under the surface. When it comes to habits we cannot quit or patterns we cannot stop, anger that flies out of nowhere, fears we cannot overcome, or weaknesses we hate to admit--much of what troubles us comes out of the broken places in our hearts crying out for relief.

Jesus speaks as if we are all brokenhearted. We would do well to trust His perspective on this.”
― John Eldredge, Waking the Dead: The Glory of a Heart Fully Alive

“True strength does not come out of bravado. Until we are broken, our life will be self-centered, self-reliant; our strength will be our own. So long as you think you are really something in and of yourself, what will you need God for? I don’t trust a man who hasn’t suffered; I don’t let a man get close to me who hasn’t faced his wound. Think of the posers you know—are they the kind of man you would call at 2:00 A.M., when life is collapsing around you? Not me. I don’t want clichés; I want deep, soulful truth, and that only comes when a man has walked the road I’ve been talking about.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“You can't fight a battle you don't think exists.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“In the case of our fair maiden, we have overlooked two very crucial aspects to that myth. On the one hand, none of us ever really believed the sorcerer was real. We thought we could have the maiden without a fight. Honestly, most of us guys thought our biggest battle was asking her out. And second, we have not understood the tower and its relationship to her wound; the damsel is in distress. If masculinity has come under assault, femininity has been brutalized. Eve is the crown of creation, remember? She embodies the exquisite beauty and the exotic mystery of God in a way that nothing else in all creation even comes close to. And so she is the special target of the Evil One; he turns his most vicious malice against her. If he can destroy her or keep her captive, he can ruin the story.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“The true story of every person in this world is not the story you see, the external story. The true story of each person is the journey of his or her heart.”
― John Eldredge Brent Curtis, The Sacred Romance: Drawing Closer to the Heart of God

“Truth be told, most of us are faking our way through life. We pick only those battles we are sure to win, only those adventures we are sure to handle, only those beauties we are sure to rescue.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“In the end, it doesn’t matter how well we have performed or what we have accomplished—a life without heart is not worth living.”
― John Eldredge

“A woman in her glory, a woman of beauty, is a woman who is not striving to become beautiful or worthy or enough. She knows in her quiet center where God dwells that he find her beautiful, has deemed her worthy, and in him, she is enough.”
― John Eldredge, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

“A man's calling is written on his true heart, and he discovers it when he enters the frontier of his deep desires.”
― John Eldredge

“He is the playfulness of creation, scandal and utter goodness, the generosity of the ocean and the ferocity of a thunderstorm; he is cunning as a snake and gentle as a whisper; the gladness of sunshine and the humility of a thirty-mile walk by foot on a dirt road.”
― John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus

“The most dangerous man on earth is the man who has reckoned with his own death. All men die; few men ever really live.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“You would not ask someone with a broken arm to swim the English Channel, so you cannot demand that the broken to live as if they were whole.”
― John Eldredge, Love and War: Finding the Marriage You've Dreamed Of

“Every man carries a wound. I have never met a man without one. No matter how good your life may have seemed to you, you live in a broken world full of broken people.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it careful round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket—safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable . . . The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers . . . of love is Hell. (C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves)”
― John Eldredge, Captivating Revised and Updated: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul

“There is something else I am after, out here in the wild. I am searching for an even more elusive prey . . . something that can only be found through the help of wilderness. I am looking for my heart.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Grief is a form of validation; it says the wound mattered. It mattered. You mattered. That’s not the way life was supposed to go.”
― John Eldredge, Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul