135 Quotes & Sayings By Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. Marianne Williamson

The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative. Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light filled space, love, god, whatever we want to call it, is lacking in integrity.. . Marianne Williamson

Spirituality isn't some quaint stepchild of an intelligent worldview, or the only option for those of us not smart enough to understand the facts of the real world. Spirituality reflects the most sophisticated mindset, and the most powerful force available for the transformation of human suffering. Marianne Williamson

Our kingdom is our life, and our life is our kingdom. We are all meant to rule from a glorious place. When God is on the throne, then so are we. When God is in exile, our lands are at war and our kingdoms are in chaos. Marianne Williamson

The soul theoretically is the purview of religion. But in today’s society, relatively few people look to religion to truly heal their despair — and for understandable reason. In most ways organized religion has abdicated its role of spiritual comforter, if not through its own malfeasance, the at least through dissociation from the soulfulness at the core of its mission. Modern psychotherapy has taken up some the slack, and yet it too fails deliver when it doesn the soult necessary to heal our emotional pain. The psychotherapeutic profession has now turned to the pharmaceutical industry to compensate for its frequent lack of effectiveness, yet the pharmaceutical industry lacks the ability to do more about our sadness than to numb it. Marianne Williamson

Spirituality reflects the most sophisticated mindset and the most power force available for the transformation of human suffering — whether some is taking medication or not. That is why learning the basics of a spiritual worldview — and the mental, emotional, and behavioral principals that this entails — is key to reclaiming our inner peace. Marianne Williamson

If a man is unmarried, he is called a bachelor. If a woman is unmarried, she is called a spinster or an old maid. What is it about an unmarried woman that poses such a threat to the patriarchal order? Mainly, it is that women are no one's property when we're unmarried. We're under no one's control, and neither are our children. There is no telling what we might do or say. Marianne Williamson

The process of miraculous change is twofold.  One:  I see my error or dysfunctional pattern.  Two: I ask God to take it from me.  The first principle without the second is impotent.  As they say in Alcoholics Anonymous, your best thinking got you here.  You're the problem but you're not the answer. The second principle isn't enough to change us either.  The Holy Spirit can't take from us what we will not release to him.  He won't work without our consent.  He cannot remove our character defects without our willingness,  because that would be violating our free will.  We chose those patterns, however mistakenly, and he will not force us to give them up.  In asking God to heal us, we're committing to the choice to be healed. . Marianne Williamson

The ego is our pain, but it is what we know and we resist moving out of it.  The effort it takes to grow out of painful patterns often feels more uncomfortable than remaining within them.  Personal growth can be so painful because it can make us ashamed and humiliated to face our own darkness.   But the goal of personal growth is the journey out of dark emotional patterns which cause us pain to those which cause us peace. . Marianne Williamson

Harry Potter is one boy in a long line of mythical heroes who have reminded the human race that we are so much more than we think we are, so much more powerful than we seem to know. Jesus said that we would someday do even greater works than He; should we not take Him at His word? And should not 'someday' be today? It's time for us to start working miracles, if indeed we have the capacity within us to do so. Marianne Williamson

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world. Marianne Williamson

A marriage is meant to be a blessing on the world, because it is a context in which two people might become more than what they would have been alone.  The entire world is healed by the presence of healed people. Marianne Williamson

How odd that we spend so much time treating the darkness, and so little time seeking the light. The ego loves to glorify itself by self-analysis, yet we do not get rid of darkness by hitting it with a baseball bat. We only get rid of darkness by turning on the light. Marianne Williamson

The  thought system which dominates our culture is laced with selfish values, and relinquishing those values is a lot easier said than done. The journey to a pure heart can be highly disorienting.  For years, we may have worked for power, money or prestige.  Now all of a sudden we've learned that these are just the values of a dying world. Marianne Williamson

Something amazing happens when we surrender and just love. We melt into another world, a realm of power already within us. The world changes when we change. the world softens when we soften. The world loves us when we choose to love the world. Marianne Williamson

It takes courage...to endure the sharp pains of self discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives. Marianne Williamson

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are. Marianne Williamson

In the Christic tradition, this is the meaning of  'becoming as a little child.'  Little children don't think they know what things mean, in fact, they know they don't know.  They ask someone older and wiser to explain things to them.  We're like children who don't know but think we do.  We're meant to shine.  Look at small children.  They're all so unique before they start trying to be, because they demonstrate the power of genuine humility.  This is also the explanation of 'beginner's luck.' When we go into a situation not knowing the rules, we don't pretend to know how to figure anything out, and we don't know yet what there is to be afraid of.  This releases the mind to create from its own higher power."   . Marianne Williamson

There's no single effort more radical in it's potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children. Marianne Williamson

The most powerful thought is a prayerful thought. When I'm praying for you, I am praying for my own peace of mind. I can only have for myself what I am willing to wish for you. Marianne Williamson

When we pray for God to illumine our path, we are saying, ‘Dear God, please show me the way. What thoughts do I need to think, to be able to navigate my life at this point? What perceptions do I need; what insights will guide me? Who do I need to forgive? What parts of my personality do I need to look at; what changes do I need to make? Please come upon me and heal my life. Amen. Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. Marianne Williamson

Forgiveness is like the martial arts of consciousness.  In aikido and other martial arts, we sidestep our attacker's force rather than resisting it.  The energy of the attack then boomerangs back in the direction of the attacker. forgiveness works in the same way.  When we attack back, and defense is a form of attack, we initiate a war which no one can win. Marianne Williamson

Whether we're forgiving our parents or someone else or ourselves, the laws of mind remain the same.  As we love, we shall be released from pain and as we deny love, we shall remain in pain.  Each of us have different fears and different manifestations of fear,  but all of us are saved by the same technique:  The call to God to save our lives by salvaging our minds.  'Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.  For love is the kingdom and love is the glory and love is the power, forever and forever. . Marianne Williamson

We all make mistakes, we all have fears, and we all have weaknesses. Behind all that is our essential self. When our essential self has made contact with another, the light is dazzling and would fill the universe. The challenge of enchantment is to remain faithful to that light, to believe in it when it is not so apparent. Then that light becomes an incandescent glow and it wraps itself around everything. Marianne Williamson

There is, inside all our heads, the ego’s rabid attack dog. It is purely vicious toward others and toward ourselves as well. Learning to control that dog, and ultimately to end its life, is the process and purpose of enlightened relationships. Marianne Williamson

God gives us His strength by giving us His vision of things. Our seeing people as innocent is the only way to achieve God’s peace. Marianne Williamson

Men in our culture have been spoiled, treated with false reverence instead of respect. Marianne Williamson

I conquered outer worlds just as he had. I expressed masculine strength and power just as he had. But it didn't bring me closer to him or to others like him because I had become one of the guys, and that's not what most men are looking for. He had never loved me for being a great guy. Marianne Williamson

In business as well as in everything else, you're in business to spread love.  Your agency should spread love,   your screenplay should spread love, your store should spread love, your life should spread love.  The key to a successful career is realizing that it s not separate from the rest of your life, but is rather an extension of your most basic self and your most basic self is love. Marianne Williamson

We're hallucinating. And that's what this world is: a mass hallucination, where fear seems more real than love. Fear is an illusion. Our craziness, paranoia, anxiety and trauma are literally all imagined. Marianne Williamson

...there are four rules for miraculous work creation: Be positive. Send love. Have fun. Kick ass. Amen. Marianne Williamson

Sometimes people claim they don't need a crutch like Jesus, but he's not a crutch, he's a teacher. If you want to be a writer, you read the classics. If you want to make great music you listen to music that's been made by great musicians who have gone before. If you're studying to be a painter, it's a good idea to study the great masters. If Picasso came into your room while you were learning to draw and said 'Hi, I have a couple of hours would you like some hints?' would you say no? So it is with spiritual masters: Jesus, Buddha or any other enlightened being. They're geniuses in the way they used their minds and hearts just as Beethoven was a genius with music, or Shakespeare a genius with words. Why not learn from them, follow their lead, study what they were doing right. . Marianne Williamson

Love makes us wake up in the morning with a sense of purpose and a flow of creative ideas. Love floods our nervous system with positive energy, making us far more attractive to prospective employers, clients, and creative partners. Love fills us with powerful charisma, enabling us to produce new ideas and new projects, even within circumstances that seem to be limited. Love leads us to atone for our errors and clean up the mess when we've made mistakes. Love leads us to act with impeccability, integrity, and excellence. Love leads us to serve, to forgive, and to hope. Those things are the opposite of a poverty consciousness; they're the stuff of spiritual wealth creation. . Marianne Williamson

The only way to gain power in a world that is moving too fast is to learn to slow down. And the only way to spread one’s influence wide to learn how to go deep. The world we want for ourselves and our children will not emerge from electronic speed but rather from a spiritual stillness that takes root in our souls. Then, and only then, will we create a world that reflects the heart instead of shattering it. . Marianne Williamson

Achievement doesn't come from what we do, but from who we are.  Our worldly power results from our personal power.  Our career is an extension of our personality. People who profoundly achieve aren't necessarily people who do so much, they're people around whom things get done. Mahatma Gandhi and JFK were great examples of this.  Their great achievements lay in all the energy they stirred in other people,  the invisible forces they unleashed around them.  By touching their own depths, they touched the depths within others.  That kind of charisma, the power to affect what happens on the earth, from an invisible realm within is the natural right and function of the son of god.  New frontiers are internal ones, the real stretch is always within us.  Instead of expanding our ability or willingness to go out and get anything, we expand our ability to receive what is already here for us.  Personal power emanates from someone who takes life seriously.  The universe takes us as seriously as we take it.  There is no greater seriousness than the full appreciation of the power and importance of love.  Miracles flow from the recognition that love is the purpose of our career. Marianne Williamson

The problem with setting goals is that they can be limiting.  Perhaps we're asking for something good when God's will is that we be given something great. Marianne Williamson

Each of us has a unique part to play in the healing of the world. Marianne Williamson

You have tremendous gifts to give; God sent them with you when you came to this earth. And while you might forget them, or doubt they exist, God does not forget and He will show them to you. As soon as your gifts are dedicated to His work, they will blossom. Chains that might have held you back for years will dissolve. And you will feel free. You will learn that your spirit is bigger than your circumstances, as soon as you put your spirit first. Marianne Williamson

Spiritual growth involves giving up the stories of your past so the universe can write a new one. Marianne Williamson

And no one will listen to us until we listen to ourselves. Marianne Williamson

There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. Marianne Williamson

Healing occurs in the present, not the past.  We're not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we'e not giving in the present.  There's a lot of talk today about people growing up in dysfunctional homes, but who didn't grow up in a dysfunctional home?  This world is a dysfunction.  However, there's nothing we've been through or seen or done that cannot be used to make our lives more valuable now.  We can grow from any experience, and we can transcend any experience. Marianne Williamson

Christmas and Easter are attitudinal bookends for an enlightened world view. With an enlightened view of Christmas, we understand that it is within our power through God to give birth to a divine self. With an enlightened view of Easter, we understand that this self is the power of the universe before which death itself has no real power. Resurrection is the symbol of joy, it is the great 'ah-ha! ' The acceptance of the resurrection is the realization of the fact that we need wait no longer to see ourselves as healed and whole. . Marianne Williamson

Our prayer is not simply, ‘Dear God, please send me a better job, ’ but, ‘Dear God, enable me to see this situation differently, that this area of apparent lack might be healed inside my mind. Marianne Williamson

Love will be our medicine. Marianne Williamson

A Course in Miracles says we think we're going to understand people in order to figure out whether or not they're worthy of our love,   but that actually, until we love them, we can never understand them.  What is not loved is not understood.  We hold ourselves separate from people and wait for them to earn our love, but people deserve our love because of what God created them to be.  As long as we're waiting for them to be anything better, we will constantly be disappointed.  When we choose to join with them through approval and unconditional love, the miracle kicks in for both parties. This is the primary key, the ultimate miracle, in relationships. Marianne Williamson

In our ability to think about something differently lies the power to make it different. Marianne Williamson

You may believe that you are responsible for what you do, but not for what you think. The truth is that you are responsible for what you think, because it is only at this level that you can exercise choice. What you do comes from what you think. Marianne Williamson

A spiritual relationship is not necessarily one in which two people are smiling all the time.  Spiritual means to be above all else, authentic.  Real work can only occur in the presence of rigorous honesty  We all long for that, but we're afraid of communicating honestly with another person because we think they'll leave us if they see who we really are. Marianne Williamson

There is no single effort more radical in its potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children. Marianne Williamson

Don't stop now. Keep going. The next time someone makes you feel though, winning as you are, perhaps you're getting too big for your britches; say to them silently, "i haven't even started yet. Marianne Williamson

A queen is wise. She has earned her serenity, not having had it bestowed on her but having passer her tests. She has suffered and grown more beautiful because of it. She has proved she can hold her kingdom together. She has become its vision. She cares deeply about something bigger than herself. She rules with authentic power. Marianne Williamson

We can't look to the world to restore our worth; we're here to restore our worth to the world. The world outside us can reflect our glory, but it cannot create it. It cannot crown us. Only God can crown us, and he already has. Marianne Williamson

Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. Perhaps, in a way, that's where humanity is now: about to discover we're not as smart as we thought we were, will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defenses which avail us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of who we really . Marianne Williamson

Give all your gifts away in service to the world.  If you want to paint, don't wait for a grant, paint a wall in your town that looks drab and uninviting.  You never know who is going to see that wall. Whatever it is you want to do, give it away in service to your community. Marianne Williamson

Another miraculous transformation is the shift from a sales mentality to a service mentality. When we're motivated by the desire to sell, we're only looking out for ourselves.  When we're motivated by the desire to serve, we're looking out for others.  Since in the realm of consciousness, we only get to keep what we give away, a service mentality is a far more abundant attitude. Marianne Williamson

If our prayer is “Dear God, please use me to be of service, ” then that is what we will be. And it is not for us to judge either the size or value of our gifts. Our job is to try to get out of the way, to defer to the spirit moving within us and become open channels for the flow of God’s love. Marianne Williamson

As long as there are ways we can serve, then we have a job to do. Marianne Williamson

From a mind filled with infinite love comes the power to create infinite possibilities. We have the power to think in ways that reflect and attract all the love in the world. Such thinking is called enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a process we work toward, but a choice available to us in any instant. Marianne Williamson

The return to love is hardly the end of life's adventure.  It's the real beginning.  A course in miracle says we think we have many different problems but we really only have one:  denying love is the only problem and embracing it is the only answer. Marianne Williamson

In fact, ambitious tension actually limits our ability to succeed because it keeps us in a state of contraction emotionally and physically. It seems to give us energy but doesn't really.  Like the white sugar of mental health,  there's a short high followed by a crash.  The cultivation of mental rest or surrender is like eating healthy food.  It doesn’t give us an immediate rush, but over time it provides a lot more energy. Marianne Williamson

There is nowhere you need go to find God, for God is within you. There is no one you need ask if you are good enough, for He has already established He is exceedingly well pleased. Marianne Williamson

We don't know how to be women because we were taught it was not OK to be girls. Our most natural impulses were thwarted and distorted. Marianne Williamson

If we're talented at music, that talent is of god.  If something makes our heart sing, that's god's way of telling us its a contribution he wants us to make.  Sharing our gifts is what makes us happy. We're most powerful and god's power is most apparent on the earth when we're happy. A course in miracles teaches that we are only truly happy when we're doing god's will.  The only thing to be saved from is our own negativity and fear.  The crux of salvation in any area is a shift in our sense of purpose.  That shift is a miracle, as always we consciously ask for it:  'Dear god, please give my life some sense of purpose. use me as an instrument of your peace.  Use my talents and abilities to spread love.  I surrender my job to you. Help me to remember that my real job is to love the world back to health. Marianne Williamson

If our emotional stability is based on what other people do or do not do, then we have no stability. If our emotional stability is based on love that is changeless and unalterable, then we attain the stability of God. Marianne Williamson

Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and our abilities were used in a way that served people.  We're compensated by grateful looks in other people's eyes, whatever material abundance supports us in performing joyfully and at high energy, and the magnificent feeling that we did our bit today to help save the world. Marianne Williamson

Can the purpose of a relationship be to trigger our wounds? In a way, yes, because that is how healing happens; darkness must be exposed before it can be transformed. The purpose of an intimate relationship is not that it be a place where we can hide from our weaknesses, but rather where we can safely let them go. It takes strength of character to truly delve into the mystery of an intimate relationship, because it takes the strength to endure a kind of psychic surgery, an emotional and psychological and even spiritual initiation into the higher Self. Only then can we know an enchantment that lasts. . Marianne Williamson

Birth is violent whether it be the birth of a child or the birth of an idea. Marianne Williamson

Love is what we were borne with. Fear is what we learned here. Marianne Williamson

Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help the desire to serve. Marianne Williamson

If you give your life as a wholehearted response to love then love will wholeheartedly respond to you. Marianne Williamson

Love is what we were born with. Fear is what we learned here. Marianne Williamson

We live in a world of constant juxtaposition between joy that's possible and pain that's all too common. We hope for love and success and abundance, but we never quite forget that there is always lurking the possibility of disaster. Marianne Williamson

Hope lies in having more faith in the power of God to heal us than in the power of anything to hurt or destroy us. In realizing that as children of God we are bigger than our problems, we have the power at last to confront them. Marianne Williamson

Just as you wouldn't leave the house without taking a shower, you shouldn't start the day without at least 10 minutes of sacred practice: prayer, meditation, inspirational reading. Marianne Williamson

In every community, there is work to be done. In every nation, there are wounds to heal. In every heart, there is the power to do it. Marianne Williamson

The only work that will ultimately bring any good to any of us is the work of contributing to the healing of the world. Marianne Williamson

I never thought being famous would be wonderful, but my limited exposure to celebrity has shown me the dark side big-time. Marianne Williamson

Nature is infinitely creative. It is always producing the possibility of new beginnings. Marianne Williamson

The goal of spiritual practice is full recovery, and the only thing you need to recover from is a fractured sense of self. Marianne Williamson

The fact that people in Hollywood are open to what I teach is not because they're more desperate than anyone else, but because they're more touched by it. That's not their weakness. It's their strength! Marianne Williamson

You label somebody 'New Age, ' and that's automatic mockery: 'She cannot possibly be a serious thinker.' Marianne Williamson

For many, many people, getting married is one of the most important things they will ever do in the pursuit of happiness. Marianne Williamson

The universe is conspiring in every moment to bring me happiness and peace. Marianne Williamson