"I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing"
About this Quote
The most charged image is “collecting these shards of spirituality.” Shards aren’t gems. They’re broken pieces, evidence of something shattered - community, meaning, attention, maybe even faith. Nimoy’s subtext is that modern life doesn’t hand us coherent belief systems; it gives us fragments. The work, then, is scavenger work: small acts that don’t solve the world but refuse to let the wreckage be total. “Useful and helpful” is almost aggressively plain, a counterweight to the lofty “healing.” He’s smuggling mysticism in under the cover of practicality.
Contextually, this fits an entertainer who lived through the postwar American century and watched spirituality migrate from institutions to personal practice, from sermons to self-help, from congregations to causes. The line also gestures toward art’s moral insecurity: What good is performance in a world on fire? Nimoy answers without sanctifying art itself. Healing comes not from being seen, but from doing something that stitches people back together, one shard at a time.
Quote Details
| Topic | Faith |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Nimoy, Leonard. (2026, January 17). I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-touched-by-the-idea-that-when-we-do-things-55853/
Chicago Style
Nimoy, Leonard. "I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-touched-by-the-idea-that-when-we-do-things-55853/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I'm touched by the idea that when we do things that are useful and helpful - collecting these shards of spirituality - that we may be helping to bring about a healing." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/im-touched-by-the-idea-that-when-we-do-things-55853/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.



