Named source · 1918

The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit Quotes by Ralph Waldo Trine: Context & Meanings

2 quotations linked to The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit by or associated with Ralph Waldo Trine, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

More by Ralph Waldo Trine

About this source

1918 New Thought / spiritual-philosophical work

Topics and ideas

Purpose, growth, possibility, mind, spirit, self-development and Trine’s mature account of inner powers.

Read the source

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.

Primary / edition source · gutenberg.org ↗ Primary / edition source · gutenberg.org ↗

Represented passages

2 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1

Read & copy

“The purpose of life is unquestionably unfoldment, growth, advancement”

Ralph Waldo Trine

Meaning & context

Trine states his view of purpose directly: life should continue to develop rather than settle into mental or moral stagnation.

Source details

The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit; Project Gutenberg #28163. The surrounding text describes evolution from “lower” to “higher” in spiritual terms; this is Trine’s philosophical-religious position, not a scientific law of human development.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified2

Read & copy

“There are moments in the lives of all of us when we catch glimpses of a life—our life—that is infinitely beyond the life we are now living.”

Ralph Waldo Trine

Meaning & context

The opening image treats dissatisfaction with present limits as awareness of unrealized possibility, turning a glimpse of a better life into a reason for deliberate development.

Source details

The Higher Powers of Mind and Spirit, Chapter I, “The Silent, Subtle Building Forces of Mind and Spirit,” Project Gutenberg #28163. Trine opens with moments when people glimpse a life beyond their present one, then develops New Thought and metaphysical claims about latent powers, spirit and “mental and spiritual science.” It is historical religious-metaphysical self-development rhetoric, not modern psychology or neuroscience.

↓ Download image (JPG)

1918 New Thought / spiritual-philosophical work

Topics and ideas

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Prominent ideas connected with the quotations represented here

2 quotations with source context and meaning

Continue through other sources by Ralph Waldo Trine