50 Epiphany Quotes Celebrating New Realizations
Published May 31, 2023
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If you are looking for some inspiration or a new idea, our epiphany quotes are exactly what you need.
Check out our interesting content about epiphanies below.
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What is an epiphany?
By definition, an epiphany can be many things.
Check out these definitions of epiphany below:
- A manifestation of a divine being.
- An illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.
- A sudden realization of the essential nature of the meaning of something.
For eons, humans have described experiencing both secular and spiritual epiphanies.
Some have come in the form of new ideas for inventions or cultural practices, and others have come through spiritual guidance and inspiration.
Is there a difference between epiphany and revelation?
The words epiphany and revelation have many similarities.
At its core, to have an epiphany is to have something revealed, but an epiphany can also be the appearance of something divine, which is a sense not shared by a revelation.
Epiphanies can be scientific, personal, or secular, while revelations have religious themes of revealing communication.
Is there a difference between epiphany and eureka?
Absolutely!
Eureka can function as an interjection or an adjective, while an epiphany functions as a noun.
Both words cover themes of new realizations, but they are not the same.
In fact, the word eureka has a famous story behind it concerning its connection to the word epiphany.
Who said eureka?
If you ask people what they know about the word eureka, many people will mention a thinker in a bathtub who suddenly pops their head out of the water and yells, ‘Eureka!’
The reason this scene is in the collective consciousness goes back to ancient Greece.
Archimedes was the first Greek to derive a formula for the volume of a sphere and find an accurate value for pi.
Therefore, he is recognized as one of the best mathematicians of antiquity.
He is famous for his story with King Hieron II of Syracuse.
The king asked for a crown to be created to honor the gods.
However, the king felt the crown’s weight was off when he received it from the gold makers.
It was common for goldsmiths to trick buys by adding alloy to the heated metal in an attempt to pocket the extra gold.
So the king was suspicious of this and asked Archimedes to derive a way of determining if the crown’s weight aligned with the weight of the gold he provided for it.
While in the bathhouse relaxing, he saw some of the water in the tub tip over the edge of the bath.
The water inspired him to realize that the displaced water must have exactly the same volume as he did.
Archimedes famously arose from his bath, sticking his head out of the water, and yelled, “Eureka! I have found it!” as he ran naked down the street on his way to see the king.
So it was at this moment Archimedes determined that if you know the volume of an object, you can easily calculate its density.
To learn more, check out our epiphany quotes below!
Short epiphany quotes about the power of realization
New realizations make life worth living, and these quotes celebrate the power of epiphany.
1. “Truth is always a turning point.” — Sheila Walsh
2. “Change is an action, not just an epiphany!” — Garrison Wynn
3. “Love is the epiphany of God in our poverty.” — Thomas Merton
4. “Without the quest, there can be no epiphany.” — Constantine E. Scaros
5. “Becoming is not a contradiction of being but the epiphany of being.” — Ananda Coomaraswamy
6. “Fame is an epiphany of bubbles that are transient and pugnacious.” — Debasish Mridha
7. “The magic of the street is the mingling of the errand and the epiphany.” — Rebecca Solnit
8. “Every moment an epiphany arrives, and cleaves the mountain asunder.” — Kim Stanley Robinson
9. “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies.” — John Milton
10. “I always liked those moments of epiphany, when you have the next destination.” — Brad Pitt
The best epiphany quotes about life and success
Many times our epiphanies take us to the road of success and joy.
11. “This is an epiphany moment; I can either sink or swim.” — Jamie Scallion
12. “Nature poets can’t walk across the backyard without tripping over an epiphany.” — Christian Wiman
13. “There’s nothing better when something comes and hits you, and you think ‘YES’!” — J. K. Rowling
14. “The camera is my means to internalize those fleeting epiphanies that I was having in my life.” — Jason Silva
15. “Naturally, we would prefer seven epiphanies a day and an earth not so apparently devoid of angels.” — Jim Harrison
16. “With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.” — Dalai Lama
17. “People have moments of consciousness and epiphanies throughout their lives, but then suppress the realization.” — Bryant H. McGill
18. “If you look throughout human history, the central epiphany of every religious tradition always occurs in the wilderness.” — John F. Kennedy
19. “The inspiration can come in such small ways that if you sit there just waiting for the big epiphany, you’ll sit there for the rest of your life.” — Irvine Welsh
20. “Those who are waiting for an epiphany to strike may wait forever. The artist simply goes to work, making art, both good and not so good.” — Chuck Close
Inspirational epiphany quotes and sayings to keep you motivated
Epiphanies motivate us to turn our ideas into reality.
21. “Discovering your calling is not an epiphany but a series of intentional decisions.” — Jeff Goins
22. “I think the biggest shift has been in realizing how much more we are creating our life than we realize.” — Lauren Bowles
23. “I had the epiphany that laughter was light, and light was laughter and that this was the secret of the universe.” — Donna Tartt
24. “I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal.” — Nick Hornby
25. “Instead of swinging back and forth between individual points of truth, each piece we learn should build upon another to bring us closer to the full truth.” — Amy Layne Litzelman
26. “Evidently, I’d suffered an epiphany: the subconscious realization that when it comes to coolness, nothing the human race has ever invented is more cool than a book.” — Tom Robbins
27. “It was an epiphany when I realized you don’t have to call yourself a linguist, a translator, a poet. You can call yourself an artist, and you can do all these things.” — Jan Peacock
28. “For me, the short story is not a character sketch, a mouse trap, an epiphany, a slice of suburban life. It is the flowering of a symbol center.” — William H Gass
29. “And presently the aroused intellect finds that a fact is an epiphany of God, that on every fact of his life, he should rear a temple of wonder and joy.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
30. “What I did not realize was that I also hoped to have an epiphany, to discover a cause to devote my life to, a location where I thrived, a man to love, a life that would give me more fulfillment than the meager amount I had been living on for years.” — Kristine K. Stevens
Epiphany quotes about the nature of inspiration
These quotes remind us to align ourselves with the source of our epiphanies.
31. “In reality, genuine epiphanies are extremely rare.” — David Foster Wallace
32. “Modern usage usually deploys epiphany as a metaphor.” — David Foster Wallace
33. “If you look throughout human history, the central epiphany of every religious tradition always occurs in the wilderness.” — John F. Kennedy
34. “Art is life seeking itself. It is our intractable expressions of love for the beauties, ideas, and epiphanies we regularly find.” — Vincent Van Gogh
35. “It had come to me, not in a sudden epiphany but with a gradual sureness, a sense of meaning like a sense of place.” — Rebecca Solnit
36. “An epiphany enables you to sense creation, not as something completed, but as constantly becoming, evolving, ascending.” — Abraham Isaac Kook
37. “By an epiphany, he meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in the vulgarity of speech or of gesture or memorable phrase of the mind itself.” — James Joyce
38. “The epiphany I had in my career in randomness came when I understood that I was not intelligent enough, nor strong enough, to even try to fight my emotions.” — Nassim Nicholas Taleb
39. “He believed it was for the man of letters to record these epiphanies with extreme care (saving them for later use, that is), seeing that they themselves are the most delicate and evanescent of moments.” — James Joyce
40. “Science means constantly walking a tightrope between blind faith and curiosity; between expertise and creativity; between bias and openness; between experience and epiphany; between ambition and passion; and between arrogance and conviction – in short, between an old today and a new tomorrow.” — Heinrich Rohrer
Spiritual epiphany quotes about the power of revelation
These quotes show how Epiphanies have shaped humankind since we can remember.
41.“You always have to be ready for that little artistic Epiphany.” — Nick Cave
42. “A great epiphany: I found out that I’m totally confused, and I’m good with that.” — Ronnie Dunn
43. “The notion of a contemporary epiphany to me is very exciting because it’s a sort of biblical thing.” — Pamela Stephenson
44. “Perhaps the journey towards epiphany is an unseen, steady process towards understanding.” — Chris Matakas
45. “By an epiphany, he meant a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether in vulgarity of speech or of gesture or in a memorable phase of the mind itself.” — James Joyce
46. “Gratitude bestows reverence, allowing us to encounter everyday epiphanies, those transcendent moments of awe that change forever how we experience life and the world.” — John Milton
47. “I entered the water as naked as when my mother bore me. When I first touched the cold water, I felt a shudder go through me; then the shudder was transformed into a sensation of wakefulness.” — Tayeb Salih
48. “The music is happy; the laughter is happy. Everything feels ecstatic and desperate. Blurrily, I think of sex, and I think of death. I realize: Every moment of joyous celebration contains the seed of death.” — Laura Rose Wagner
49. “In retrospect, I would have to recommend against epiphanies. They are difficult on an emotional level, and they also sometimes move you to foolish and inopportune acts, which was what happened in my case.” — Peter David
50. “The epiphany was simply tucked away for consideration after we were back on campus. Sometimes a revelation comes with a flash of heavenly light and a booming voice, and sometimes it is jotted in a sun-bleached spiral notebook.” — Jeffrey A. Lockwood
How can I have more epiphanies?
Opening your mind and heart to the idea that epiphanies and miracles are the norms can be a challenge at first.
Miracles and epiphanies constantly occur right in front of our eyes.
The problem or challenge is that some people have lost the vision to see miracles and accept epiphanies.
So allowing ourselves to get in tune with our conscious, subconscious, and unconscious thoughts is essential to experiencing an epiphany.
If you think of your mind like a muscle, you can appreciate that it needs rest.
If you were to curl a small 3-pound weight over a long period of time, your arm would cramp and need rest.
Your mind also works the same way.
If you never give your mind a break from being “on” while constantly processing information and stimulus, your mind, just like your arm, will fatigue.
Before an epiphany, the mind plays around with the possibilities on an unconscious level you might not know.
Eventually, a powerful idea, solution, or inspiration pops out, and if we are present enough to receive it, we can experience an epiphany.
Do you have a favorite epiphany quote?
Please be sure to let us know in the comments section below.
