“At midlife, you're pregnant with the best self you can be - someone who has learned enough from both successes and failures to add up to a fine human being.” HumansSelfEnoughHuman BeingsFineAddPregnantSuccess And FailureBest SelfMidlife Author:Marianne Williamson
“I do believe 50 is the new 40 and 60 is the new 50. Hell, maybe 60 can be the new 40, I don't know. I believe that when we give ourselves permission, we can live with an excitement and heat and passion that most women in previous generations were unable to attain.” KnowsGivingBelievePassionI BelieveHellGenerationsExcitementHeatPermissionPrevious Generations Author:Marianne Williamson
“I don't believe the United States is going through a midlife crisis. The United States is going through an adolescent crisis.” BelieveStatesUnitedUnited StatesCrisisDon't BelieveMidlifeMidlife Crisis Author:Marianne Williamson
“The teenager begins to realize he or she really does want to be part of a community, really does want to have good relationships with others, really does want to create something truly good with his or her life. The teenager comes to understand just being smart and just being privileged are not enough.” WantDoeEnoughRealizingCommunitySmartTeenagerJust BeingPrivilegedBeing SmartGood RelationshipRelationships With Others Author:Marianne Williamson
“I've always wanted to have a radio show. It has been a dream of mine for a long time. With a radio show I can sit in a studio, or ultimately even sit in my own living room, and talk to hundreds of thousands of people.” PeopleLongHas BeensI CanShowsDreamWantedMy OwnRoomsMinesLong TimeRadioStudiosLiving Room Author:Marianne Williamson
“I have lived enough to know great things will unfold for me externally only if I allow them to unfold for me internally.” IfsKnowsEnoughGreat Things Author:Marianne Williamson
“I take very seriously this notion that my highest job is to live a better life, all the time and to the best of my ability. I need to monitor my own progress - take my own inventory - and clean my own closet. I am trying to do all that.” NeedsTryingJobsMy OwnAbilityProgressHighestCleanNotionClosetsBetter LifeInventory Author:Marianne Williamson
“I am trying to be in that alchemical soup of human transformation. I am trying to process, reconcile, forgive, let go, and grieve, when necessary.” TryingHumansProcessLetting GoTransformationForgivingGrievingSoupReconcile Author:Marianne Williamson
“Hopefully, I will emerge more shining. If I have that good fortune, if I am blessed in that way - and I do feel I am in the middle of the blessing - then I have faith my service will be greater.” IfsWayFeelsGreaterMiddleBlessingBlessedShiningFortuneHopefullyHave FaithGood Fortune Author:Marianne Williamson
“I think there is a place where self-awareness becomes self-preoccupation if you don't take what you have discovered and bring it to bear on the conditions of the world.” IfsThinkingWorldSelfConditionsAwarenessBearsSelf AwarenessPreoccupation Author:Marianne Williamson
“There is a point at which we begin to receive a diminishing return on the accumulation of sacred knowledge unless we use it to at least try to improve the world.” WorldTryingUseReturnSacredAccumulationDiminishing Returns Author:Marianne Williamson
“Life is a constant back-and-forth. We take a breath in and then we breathe out. The same is true for the culture as a whole.” WholeLife IsCultureBreathsConstantBreatheBack And Forth Author:Marianne Williamson
“Environmentally, the planet will not sustain the kind of abuse it receives at our hands.” KindHandsPlanetsAbuse Author:Marianne Williamson
“The rage building up, generation after generation, among what has become a permanent underclass in many parts of the world cannot continue. We are desperately undereducating our children. In the United States, we are turning prison-building into the single largest urban industry. These are like toxic chemical factors any one of which could cause a raging fire. God help us if they begin to interact.” IfsWorldChildrenStatesHelpingCausesUnitedUnited StatesFireGenerationsBuildingIndustryOur ChildrenPrisonRageFactorsPermanentChemicalsToxicUrbanGod HelpBuilding UpGod Help UsToxic Chemicals Author:Marianne Williamson
“I'm not a doom-and-gloom person. But I think there is a difference between transcendence and denial, and much of the Western world is in major denial today.” ThinkingWorldPersonsTodayDifferencesMajorsWesternDenialDoomTranscendenceGloomWestern WorldDoom And Gloom Author:Marianne Williamson
“We are living at an extraordinary time in human history. And for many of us things are great. Things are great for me.” HumansExtraordinaryGreat ThingsHuman History Author:Marianne Williamson
“Capitalism has been really good to me. I'm very fortunate: I have written books and my books have sold.” Has BeensBookWrittenCapitalismFortunate Author:Marianne Williamson
“Nobody has to tell me about the glories of the capitalist system. But what concerns me is that there no longer seems to be a commitment to make the opportunities afforded by technology and capitalism universally accessible.” SeemsOpportunityTechnologyGloryCommitmentCapitalismConcernCapitalist Author:Marianne Williamson
“When I was a child, my society lifted me up - though education primarily, as well as through other kinds of cultural stimulation. It wasn't just my parents or my religious community. The entire society lifted me up to the bottom rung of the ladder. Then they said, "Girl, it's up to you whether or not you climb." I don't have a problem with that. I think that is the best way to go about living.” ThinkingWayWellsKindChildrenSaidProblemGirlParentCommunityReligiousBottomBest WayClimbsThey SaidLaddersUp To YouStimulationReligious Community Author:Marianne Williamson
“What is happening today is that there are millions of children who are not lifted up to the first rung of the ladder. Then they are condemned when they don't know how to climb from there.” KnowsFirstsChildrenTodayMillionsKnow HowHappeningsClimbsLadders Author:Marianne Williamson
“For a society as abundant and as blessed as ours, to have as many disadvantaged children as we have does not bode well for our long-term economic future.” WellsChildrenLongDoeTermEconomicBlessedLong TermDisadvantaged Author:Marianne Williamson
“I don't like the tendency on the part of so many people today to think that those who don't agree with them are bad. In fact, I find that very dangerous.” PeopleThinkingFactsTodayDangerousAgreeTendencies Author:Marianne Williamson
“I don't think that anything that anyone is doing today that is being pointed at as the "enemy" or "the problem" is as dangerous to our future as the fact that there are so many pointed fingers. The pointed finger is the enemy.” ThinkingFactsProblemTodayEnemyDangerousFingersOur Future Author:Marianne Williamson
“The revolution of ideas that will save us is a revolution of goodwill, of compassion, and of higher thinking. I believe that they outnumber the people who would choose fear. But they are not a particularly politicized force. If you look at the numbers of people buying books about revolutions from within and personal transformation as the key to global change, the numbers add up to a much greater audience than most people realize.” PeopleIfsThinkingBelieveLooksBookIdeasForceI BelieveRealizingNumbersCompassionAudienceGreaterRevolutionKeysHigherTransformationAddBuyingGoodwillPersonal TransformationBuying Books Author:Marianne Williamson
“Obviously, our political system is profoundly corrupted by, among other things, the influence of money. But, at a deeper level, the current structure is flawed because it looks to citizens for only two things - votes and money. I don't think we will see any healing until citizens are viewed in a whole new way.” ThinkingWayLooksTwoWholePoliticalLevelsHealingInfluenceCitizensVoteStructureCurrentsDeeperTwo ThingsNew WaysFlawedPolitical Systems Author:Marianne Williamson
“Citizens should be looked to for what they can give of their own nobility, virtue, creative thinking, passion, and natural talent for community building and relating to others.” ThinkingGivingShouldPassionCommunityNaturalCreativeVirtueTalentBuildingCitizensNobilityCreative ThinkingCommunity BuildingNatural Talent Author:Marianne Williamson
“The right tends to posit that the market fuels social good. The left tends to posit that the government fuels social good. At bottom, democracy claims that citizens drive social good, but there is currently no container for a political force-field that stakes claim to the unbelievable resources now virtually untapped in every man, woman, and child in our society.” MenChildrenGovernmentPoliticalLeftForceSocialDemocracyFieldsCitizensResourcesClaimsBottomEvery ManFuelOur SocietyStakesUnbelievableMen WomenContainersSocial GoodForce Fields Author:Marianne Williamson
“People tend to have a government that reflects the level of consciousness of the majority of people who voted.” PeopleGovernmentLevelsConsciousnessMajority Author:Marianne Williamson
“If we had the government we deserved we would have the most righteous government, because we deserve the best - everybody does.” IfsDoeGovernmentDeserveRighteousDeserve The Best Author:Marianne Williamson
“I think moral outrage is born not of anger but of love. It comes from the highest in us, not from a low-level sense of anger or cynicism.” ThinkingBornLevelsMoralHighestLowsCynicismOutrageLow LevelMoral Outrage Author:Marianne Williamson
“I was very much a child of the 1960s. I protested the Vietnam War and grew up in a fairly politicized home. My father was like a cross between William Kunstler and Zorba the Greek. I grew up among left-wing lawyers.” ChildrenWarHomeFatherLeftGrewGrew UpCrossesWingsLawyerGreekVietnam1960sVietnam WarLeft Wing Author:Marianne Williamson
“The historian Arthur Schlesinger has pointed out that people tend to get interested in politics again every 30 years. The universe moves in cycles of three. The number figures in everything from Pythagoras's theory that the universe is based on three to the Father-the-Son-and-the-Holy- Ghost to the three-sided pyramidal shapes that intersect in the Jewish Star of David. The notion of the mystical three, metaphysically, spiritually, and even politically, is quite interesting to me.” PeopleYearsMovingUniverseThreeFatherStarsInterestingNumbersFiguresSonTheoryHolyShapesNotionGhostCyclesHistorianMysticalHoly GhostArthur Author:Marianne Williamson
“I feel that the social revolution of the sixties is like a revolving door that came our way, and then left. It's back again.” WayFeelsLeftSocialDoorsRevolutionSixtyBack AgainRevolvingSocial RevolutionRevolving Doors Author:Marianne Williamson
“Kennedy's assassination was the opening salvo in the social revolution of the sixties. In some ways, perhaps, Princess Diana and Mother Teresa dying when they did, and how they did, represent the opening salvos of a social revolution in the nineties.” WayMotherSocialDyingRevolutionOpeningPrincessSixtyAssassinationDianaTeresaSocial Revolution Author:Marianne Williamson
“I think we're ripe for social revolution now. There is the necessary yearning, and the necessary, or at least incipient, outrage. And there is an inchoate knowing that all is not right.” ThinkingSocialKnowingRevolutionYearningOutrageRipeSocial Revolution Author:Marianne Williamson
“There is a lot of sixties-bashing going on these days that I don't agree with at all. I feel that extremely important ideals were brought to the forefront of the collective consciousness at that time. Granted, drug use was so pervasive that our generation did not as a group have the capacity to manifest our ideals to any great extent. But many of the people who were young in the sixties and who were most touched by that collective ethos are still touched.” PeopleFeelsStillsImportantUseYoungConsciousnessGenerationsGroupsDrugCapacityIdealsAgreeGrantedThese DaysTouchedCollectivesManifestSixtyOur GenerationEthosDrug UseCollective Consciousness Author:Marianne Williamson
“I feel that if your soul was branded by the sixties, you never lost the brand. It's like going into a nightclub and having your hand stamped so that you don't have to come back but you can come back.” IfsFeelsSoulHandsLostBrandsYour SoulSixtyNightclubsBranded Author:Marianne Williamson
“The word "politics" comes from the Greek politeia which had to do with the citizenry, not the government.” GovernmentGreekCitizenry Author:Marianne Williamson
“To me, everything happening inside of us is political.” PoliticalHappenings Author:Marianne Williamson
“Anything having to do with what is happening inside people has political significance to me. That is why I like the term "holistic politics."” PeoplePoliticalTermHappeningsSignificanceHolistic Author:Marianne Williamson
“In medicine, we have invented an entirely new healing paradigm. Now we no longer simply look to the doctor and to medicine to heal us. We now recognize what has been substantiated scientifically everywhere from Harvard to Duke to Stanford - that the power of the mental and spiritual consciousness of the patient is as significant in healing as physical factors are. If we apply that same paradigm to politics, we see that the mind and the spiritual consciousness of the citizen are every bit as important as anything that goes on in the government.” IfsMindLooksHas BeensImportantGovernmentSpiritualBitsHealingConsciousnessGoes OnCitizensDoctorsMedicinePatientSignificantHealFactorsHarvardParadigmDukesStanford Author:Marianne Williamson
“We need to recognize that part our political problem is that we do not participate effectively, that we suffer from a kind of mental slumber.” NeedsKindProblemPoliticalSufferingSlumber Author:Marianne Williamson
“If we get away from the lazy and fuzzy thinking that is like a poison in our society - if we get away from all the bad television that we tend to watch - and begin to take up serious meditation and other sacred exercises, we will have a real revolution of consciousness. If that happens, the world will change by itself.” IfsThinkingWorldRealHappensConsciousnessWatchesMeditationTelevisionSeriousRevolutionExerciseSacredPoisonLazyOur SocietyGet AwayFuzzy Author:Marianne Williamson
“There is an increasingly pervasive sense that one age is over and a new one is beginning - in business, in politics, in science, in psychology.” AgePsychology Author:Marianne Williamson
“The sense of endings as well as beginnings in the air is now so obvious in so many dimensions of our experience that a critical mass has been reached.” WellsHas BeensAirMassObviousCriticalDimensionsCritical Mass Author:Marianne Williamson
“You don't have to be a spiritual seeker, you can be a businessman dealing with the revolution in computers. You could be a congressman, or a scientist. No matter what area of life and endeavor we are in we are seeing the signs of new-paradigm thinking.” ThinkingMatterSpiritualSeeingRevolutionComputerAreasScientistNo Matter WhatEndeavorBusinessmanSeekersParadigmCongressman Author:Marianne Williamson
“The power to rethink a situation is our greatest tool for transforming the world. This notion is taking hold in medicine, in business, in education. But not in politics and the media. They are the last holdouts of old-paradigm thinking.” ThinkingWorldLastsSituationMediaToolsMedicineNotionTransformingParadigmTransforming The World Author:Marianne Williamson
“The media establishment senses that the boats are coming and it has taken it upon itself to stand on those beaches and do everything it can to shoot the soldiers on the boats. They know the beaches will be taken.” KnowsTakenMediaSoldierSensesBoatBeachEstablishment Author:Marianne Williamson
“Calling something "new age" is one of the media's biggest canons. If you're called "new age," you couldn't possibly be serious, you couldn't possibly have anything deep to say, and you probably hang out in California too much - and we know that no one in California reads books or has any serious thoughts!” IfsKnowsBookAgeToo MuchMediaSeriousCallingCaliforniaSomething NewHanging OutNew AgeCanon Author:Marianne Williamson
“When many people think of "new age" they think of crystals and purple decals and ceramic angels in people's windows and a kind of fuzzy thinking - which is abhorrent to a serious person.” PeopleThinkingKindPersonsAgeSeriousAngelWindowNew AgePurpleCrystalsFuzzyAbhorrentCeramicsSerious Person Author:Marianne Williamson
