Gail > Gail's Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“A soldier surrounded by enemies, if he is to cut his way out, needs to combine a strong desire for living with a strange carelessness about dying. He must not merely cling to life, for then he will be a coward, and will not escape. He must not merely wait for death, for then he will be a suicide, and will not escape. He must seek his life in a spirit of furious indifference to it; he must desire life like water and yet drink death like wine.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“The true test of a man, the beginning of his redemption, actually starts when he can no longer rely on what he’s used all his life. The real journey begins when the false self fails.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“He created Adam for adventure, battle and beauty; he created us for a unique place in his story and he is committed to bringing us back to the original design.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Emasculation happens in marriage as well. Women are often attracted to the wilder side of a man, but once having caught him they settle down to the task of domesticating him. Ironically, if he gives in he’ll resent her for it, and she in turn will wonder where the passion has gone.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard: that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving. (Ps. 62:11–12)”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“The naked woman’s body is a portion of eternity too great for the eye of man.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Despite what many modern educators would say, this is not a psychological disturbance brought on by violent television or chemical imbalance. Aggression is part of the masculine design; we are hardwired for it.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“In order to understand how a man receives a wound, you must understand the central truth of a boy’s journey to manhood: Masculinity is bestowed. A boy learns who he is and what he’s got from a man, or the company of men. He cannot learn it any other place. He cannot learn it from other boys, and he cannot learn it from the world of women.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“In any hand-to-hand combat, there’s a constant back-and-forth of blows,”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“In your life you are William Wallace—who else could be? There is no other man who can replace you in your life, in the arena you’ve been called to. If you leave your place in the line, it will remain empty. No one else can be who you are meant to be. You are the hero in your story. Not a bit player, not an extra, but the main man.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“And so a man’s heart, driven into the darker regions of the soul, denied the very things he most deeply desires, comes out in darker places.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“Permit me to bypass the entire nature vs. nurture “is gender really built-in?” debate with one simple observation: Men and women are made in the image of God as men or as women. “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen. 1:27). Now, we know God doesn’t have a body, so the uniqueness can’t be physical. Gender simply must be at the level of the soul, in the deep and everlasting places within us. God doesn’t make generic people; he makes something very distinct—a man or a woman. In other words, there is a masculine heart and a feminine heart, which in their own ways reflect or portray to the world God’s heart.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“To recover his heart’s desire a man needs to get away from the noise and distraction of his daily life for time with his own soul. He needs to head into the wilderness, to silence and solitude. Alone with himself, he allows whatever is there to come to the surface. Sometimes it is grief for so much lost time. There, beneath the grief, are desires long forsaken. Sometimes it even starts with temptation, when a man thinks that what will really make him come alive is something unholy. At that point he should ask himself, “What is the desire beneath this desire? What is it I’m wanting that I think I’ll find there?”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“The tragedy of life is what dies inside a man while he lives. —ALBERT SCHWEITZER”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“And certainly we see that God wants not merely an adventure, but an adventure to share. He didn’t have to make us, but he wanted to. Though he knows the name of every star and his kingdom spans galaxies, God delights in being a part of our lives. Do you know why he often doesn’t answer prayer right away? Because he wants to talk to us, and sometimes that’s the only way to get us to stay and talk to him. His heart is for relationship, for shared adventure to the core.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“There are no formulas with God. Period. So there are no formulas for the man who follows him. God is a Person, not a doctrine. He operates not like a system—not even a theological system—but with all the originality of a truly free and alive person.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“A boy wants to attack something—and so does a man, even if it’s only a little white ball on a tee. He wants to whack it into kingdom come.”
― John Eldredge, Wild at Heart Revised and Updated: Discovering the Secret of a Man's Soul

“the wise man should always follow the roads that have been trodden by the great, and imitate those who have most excelled, so that if he cannot reach their perfection, he may at least acquire something of its savour.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince

“Life does not ask what we want. It presents us with options”
― Thomas Sowell

“Economics is a study of cause-and-effect relationships in an economy. It's purpose is to discern the consequences of various ways of allocating resources which have alternative uses. It has nothing to say about philosophy or values, anymore than it has to say about music or literature.”
― Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy

“When people get used to preferential treatment, equal treatment seems like discrimination.”
― Thomas Sowell

“If you have been voting for politicians who promise to give you goodies at someone else's expense, then you have no right to complain when they take your money and give it to someone else, including themselves.”
― Thomas Sowell

“Don't you get tired of seeing so many "non-conformists" with the same non-conformist look?”
― Thomas Sowell, Ever Wonder Why? And Other Controversial Essays