Great Throughts Treasury

"Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. If we're frantic, life will be frantic. If we're peaceful, life will be peaceful. And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace."

"Family... a group experience of love and support."

"Every time we open our hearts, we create the space for a global alternative."

"Fill you mind with the meaningless stimuli of a world preoccupied with meaningless things, and it will not be easy to feel peace in your heart."

"Fear comes, but fear passes."

"Forgiveness is the stroke of God within us. The American people haven't ignored what he did. He asked for forgiveness and the American people gave it to him. Theirs is the higher morality."

"For many people, God is a frightening idea. Asking God for help doesn't seem very comforting if we think of Him as something outside ourselves, or capricious, or judgmental. But God is love and He dwells within us. We are created in His image, or mind, which means that we are extensions of His love, or Sons and Daughters of God."

"Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness."

"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."

"God exists in eternity. The only point where eternity meets time is in the present. The present is the only time there is."

"God is definitely out of the closet."

"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."

"God created the law of free will, and God created the law of cause and effect. And he himself will not violate the law. We need to be thinking less in terms of what God did and more in terms of whether or not we are following those laws."

"Hatred is the spiritual malignancy of our species, and like any other form of cancer, does its most terrible work not outwardly, but from within us."

"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."

"I deepen my experience of God through prayer, meditation, and forgiveness."

"I am a glorious child of God. I am joyful, serene, positive, and loving."

"I fell in love with the thought that a human life could be a priestly conduit, a connecting link between earth and sky. As I grew and stumbled and, most important, as I began to love and be loved, I realized that the ultimate priest is the lover inside us."

"I believe that the most urgent need of parents today is to instill in our children a moral vision: what does it mean to be a good person, an excellent neighbor, a compassionate heart? What does it mean to say that God exits, that He loves us and He cares for us? What does it mean to love and forgive each other? Parents and caregivers of children must play a primary role in returning our society to a healthy sense of the sacred. We must commit to feeding our children?s souls in the same way we commit to feeding their bodies."

"I feel that as women we've allowed ourselves to be deluded by certain ideas that hold us back, such as the over- glorification of masculine consciousness. To me, liberation doesn't mean that I can think just like a man. Real liberation means that I can think, act, and be like a woman and receive equal respect, honor, and compensation. Liberation also means that even though I'm a woman I have masculine parts of my temperament which I can safely explore and integrate into my experience. In the same way, real liberation for men means that they can explore and integrate their feminine aspects of consciousness."

"If a train doesn't stop at your station, then it's not your train."

"I want to be a cheerleader for women who have never even considered running for office or being involved in a campaign, but who in the quietness of their hearts might think, 'Why not me?'"

"If I choose to bless another person, I will always end up feeling more blessed."

"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."

"In each of us, there lies a divine connection to a power more powerful than hate or violence. Today is the day to attune to that power and use it on behalf of peace on earth."

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

"In his farewell address, George Washington warned the people about political parties. Now we see how both Democrats and Republicans have conspired to reduce democratic participation. If this is the best the Democrats and Republicans have to offer, it's time to look elsewhere. . . . Politics should be the prism for our most noble intentions."

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

"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."

"In the absence of love, we began slowly but surely to fall apart."

"In the holy relationship, it's understood that we all have unhealed places, and that healing is the purpose of our being with another person. We don't try to hide our weaknesses, but rather we understand that the relationship is a context for healing through mutual forgiveness. Adam and Eve were naked in the Garden of Eden but not embarrassed. That doesn't mean they were physically naked. It means they were emotionally naked, totally real and honest, yet they were not embarrassed because they felt accepted completely for who they were."

"It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. 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 and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. 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."

"In that Holy Place where you tell Him everything and he understands; there are angels who stand in wait to hear his every command. How may they serve you and increase your joy?"

"It is our own thoughts that hold the key to miraculous transformation."

"It's not just in some of us, it's in everyone."

"I've never seen service as separate from my spiritual practice or my spiritual teaching."

"Joy has no cost."

"Just like a sunbeam can't separate itself from the sun, and a wave can't separate itself from the ocean, we can't separate ourselves from one another. We are all part of a vast sea of love, one indivisible divine mind."

"Know that there's enough room for everyone to be passionate, creative and successful. In fact, there's more than room for everyone; there is a need for everyone."

"Life as we knew it is passing away, and something new is emerging to take its place... The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life."

"Love will be our medicine."

"Maturity includes the recognition that no one is going to see anything in us that we don't see in ourselves. Stop waiting for a producer. Produce yourself."

"May my heart be your shelter, and my arms be your home."

"Life itself is intelligence riding everywhere on chemicals. We must not make the mistake of thinking the rider and the horse are the same."

"Lives with no more sense of spiritual meaning than that provided by shopping malls, ordinary television, and stagnant workplaces are barren lives indeed. Spirituality enriches culture."

"Love in your mind produces love in your life. This is the meaning of heaven."

"Love is a hero?s journey, and the hero?s journey is a noble but difficult path."

"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."

"Love knows how to form itself. God will do his work if we do ours. Our job is to prepare ourselves for love. When we do, love finds us every time."

"Looking for Mr. Right leads to desperation, because there is no Mr. Right. There is no Mr. Right, because there is no Mr. Wrong. There is whoever is in front of us and the perfect lessons to be learned from that person."