Quotessence
Home / Authors / Rob Brezsny Books
Rob Brezsny

Rob Brezsny Books

Astrologer

Related Quotes

“Sadly, many storytellers and artists are still addicted to the old delusions (happy is boring, evil is interesting) about the risks of good mental health. Even those who don’t view peace of mind as a threat to their creative power often believe that it’s a rare commodity attained through dumb luck….It’s possible to define a more supple variety of happiness that does not paralyze the will or sap ambition….the number one trait of happy people is a serious determination to be happy. Bliss is a habit you can cultivate, in other words, not an accident.”

ArtHappinessJoyEvilCreativityMediaNewsMental HealthStorytellingBlissPeace Of Mind
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“The only real voyage consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes; in seeing the universe through the eyes of another, one hundred others-in seeing the hundred universes that each of them sees. Marcel Proust, translated by Kiyotesong”

WonderJourneyDiversityOptimismSeekingLandscapeOpen MindOpen Heart
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so it can hold evermore wonders. -Andrew Harvey”

WisdomLossGriefWonderBeautyComfortHeartbreakOptimismPositivity
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“It is noted that from 1967 to 1995 essays on negative emotions far outnumbered those on positive emotions in the psychological literature. The ratio was 21:1. Even those supreme perpetrators of pop nihilism, The New York Times and The Washington Post, have a better ratio than psychological literature. They average 12 negative stories to every one that might be construed to be non-negative. Many of their non-negative stories, however, cover success in sports and entertainment. I demand that the purveyors of despair who pretend to be dispassionate observes of the human condition go ahead and disclose that the 10 most beautiful words in the English languages are chimes, dawn, golden, hush, lullaby, luminous, melody, mist, murmuring, and tranquil; that Java sparrows prefer the music of Back over that of Schoenberg; that math experts have determined there are 1/96 trillion ways to lace up your shoes; that the Inuit term for making love is translated as ‘laughing together in bed;' and that according to Buckminster Fuller, “pollution is nothing but resources we’re not harvesting.”

StoriesWisdomLanguageNaturePsychologyMediaHuman NatureNewsEmotionsOptimismMythStorytellingPessimismNegativityPronoia
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Quoting geneticists, Guy Murcia says we’re all family. You have at least a million relatives as close as tenth cousin, and no one on Earth is further removed than your fiftieth cousin. Murcia also describes out kinship though an analysis of how deeply we share the air. With each breath, you take into your body 10 sextillion atoms, and-owing to the wind’s ceaseless circulation- over a year’s time you have intimate relations with oxygen molecules exhaled by every person alive, as well as everyone who ever lived. (The Seven Mysteries of Life)”

WisdomJoyFamilyMysteryInterconnectedness
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Somewhere in the world there is a person who could ask you the precise question you need to hear in order to catalyze the next phase of your evolution. Do what's necessary to run into that person.”

WorldNeedsPersonsRunningOrderNextAsksEvolutionPhasesPrecise
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“A common obstruction to a vital intimate relationship is what I call the assumption of clairvoyance. You imagine, perhaps unconsciously, that your partner or friend is somehow magically psychic when it comes to you -\-\ so much so that he or she should unfailingly intuit exactly what you need, even if you don't ask for it. This fantasy may seem romantic, but it can undermine the most promising alliances. To counteract any tendencies you might have to indulge in the assumption of clairvoyance, practice stating your desires aloud.”

IfsNeedsShouldMaySeemsMightDesireAsksCommonPracticeFantasyImaginePartnersTendenciesIntimateAssumptionPsychicsIndulgeAlliancesIndulge InObstructionIntimate RelationshipsClairvoyance
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“Do you realize you can actually listen a person's soul into existence? Your fervent interest in the inner life of those you care for can awaken their dormant powers. The teacher Richard Moss says 'The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.' Offer this gift.”

LifeGivingPersonsSoulCareInterestRealizingExistenceAttentionTeacherOffersPurityGreatest GiftsInner LifeMossDormantFervent
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Being born on the earth is the highest honor and greatest privilege. To be alive as human beings gives us the chance to pull off exquisite and Herculean feats of magic that are not possible in nirvana or heaven or any other so-called paradise, higher dimension, or better place,being alive right now is the greatest gift i got from God.”

InspirationalGivingHumansEarthHeavenBornChanceHuman BeingsAliveMagicHigherHonorRight NowHighestPrivilegeParadiseDimensionsBetter PlaceExquisiteGreatest GiftsFeats
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“Anger has become one of the trendiest emotions of all. In moderation it can be a righteous force for constructive change. But its hackneyed omnipresence means the vast majority of its outbreaks are trivial. The paucity of colorful obscenities is aggravated by an abundance of frivolous fury.”

MeanForceEmotionMajorityAbundanceRighteousModerationFuryConstructiveColorfulFrivolousObscenityOutbreaksAggravated
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Life is a conspiracy to shower you with a nonstop feast of interesting experiences, all of which are designed to help you grow your intelligence, shed your pretensions, and master the art of ingenious love.”

LoveArtHelpingLife IsGrowsInterestingMastersExperienceConspiracyShedShowersPretensionIngenious
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Your imagination is the single most important asset you possess. Your imagination is your power to create mental pictures of things that don't exist yet and that you want to bring into being. Your imagination is what you use to shape your future. And so in your own way, you are a prophet. You generate countless predictions every day. Your imagination is the source,tirelessly churning out mental pictures of what you'll be doing in the future.”

WayWantImportantUseImaginationSourceShapesProphetAssetsOur FuturePredictionsYour FutureChurning
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“The "Kumulipo" is an old Hawaiian prayer chant that poetically describes the creation of the world. The word literally means "beginning-in-deep-darkness." Here darkness doesn't connote gloom and evil. Rather, it's about the inscrutability of the embryonic state; the obscure chaos that reigns before germination.”

WorldWritingMeanStatesEvilPrayerDarknessCreationChaosSongwritingReignObscureGloomHawaiiansCreation Of The World
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“We're not going to waste our valuable space or your precious energy by giving equal time to stories of tragedy, failure, and tumult. They get far more that their fair share of attention everywhere else. Future historians might even conclude that our age suffered from a collective obsessive-compulsive disorder: the pathological need to repetitively seek out reasons for how bad life is.”

NeedsGivingReasonStoriesMightAgeLife IsEnergySpaceAttentionShareMediaEqualWasteFairsTragedyHistoricalValuableCollectivesDisorderHistorianObsessiveFair ShareTumultBad LifeObsessive CompulsiveObsessive Compulsive Disorder
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“The average American child sees 20,000 murders in TV before reaching age 18. This is considered normal. Every community has video rental stores filled with multimillion-dollar films that depict people doing terrible things to each other. If you read newspapers, you have every right to believe that Bad Nasty Things compose 90 percent of the human experience. But you will be hard-pressed to find more than a few novels, films, news stories, and TV shows that dare to depict life as a gift whose purpose is to enrich the human soul.”

PeopleIfsLifeBelieveHumansChildrenSoulHardStoriesShowsAgeFilmPurposeCommunityNovelTvsTerribleNormalNewsPercentMurderFilledDollarsAverageDareStoresNewspapersVideoReachingNastyTv ShowsHuman ExperienceHuman SoulTerrible ThingsNews Stories
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“Please take good care of it all, OK? Be an enlightened monarch who treats your domain with reverent responsibility. And make sure you also enjoy the full measure of fun that comes with such mastery. Glide through life as if all of creation is yearning to honor and entertain you.”

IfsCareFunEnjoyResponsibilityCreationHonorPleaseEmpowermentTreatsEnlightenedMasteryYearningDomainMonarchs
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“In the New World, you'll kick your own ass and I'll wash my own brain. I'll be my own parents and you'll be you own wife. And vise versa. That'll be normal in the New World - different from the Old World, where everyone except me is to blame for my ignorance and you call on everyone except yourself to give you what you need. I'll push my own buttons and right my own wrongs. You'll wake yourself up and sing your won songs.”

WorldNeedsGivingDifferentSongParentMy OwnBrainWifeIgnoranceNormalEmpowermentBlameAssKicksNew WorldBe YouButtonsOld World
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“Your holiest pain comes from your yearning to change yourself in the exact way you'd like the world around you to change.... Your sweet spot is in between the true believers and the scoffing skeptics.”

WorldWayPainSweetBalanceBelieverSpotsYearningSkepticTrue BelieverChange YourselfScoffing
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“You will have a growing knack for gravitating toward wilder, wetter, more interesting problems. More and more, you will be drawn to the kind of gain that doesn't requite pain. You'll be so alive and awake that you'll cheerfully push yourself out of your comfort zone in the direction of your personal frontier well before you're forced to do so by divine kicks in the ass.”

WellsKindProblemPainInterestingAliveGrowingDivineComfortBlessingGainsAssAwakeKicksZoneComfort ZoneFrontiersPush YourselfKnackWilder
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“But you will be hard-pressed to find more than a few novels, films, news stories, and TV shows that dare to depict life as a gift whose purpose is to enrich the human soul.”

HumansSoulHardStoriesShowsFilmPurposeNovelTvsNewsCancerDareTv ShowsHuman SoulNews Stories
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Can you imagine what it would feel like to become aware of an omnipresent ocean of wild divine love that has always been a secret to you in the same way that the sea is invisible to a fish?”

WayLoveFeelsSecretImagineSeaAwarenessDivineOceanFishesInvisibleDivine Love
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“Love isn't as simple as you wish it would be. On the other hand, it's nowhere near as complicated as you fear it is. My advice to you is to extinguish any itch you might have to compel love to serve any agenda whatsoever. Instead, bow down before it with all the innocence you can muster, and declare yourself ready to be its humble student and servant. Celebrate through surrender.”

LoveHandsMightWould BeWishSimpleLove IsAdviceStudentsReadyHumbleComplicatedSurrenderCelebrateInnocenceServantAgendasBowsMuster
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“Act as if the universe is a prodigious miracle created for your amusement and illumination. Assume that secret helpers are working behind the scenes to assist you in turning into the gorgeous masterpiece you were born to be. Join the conspiracy to shower all of creation with blessings.”

IfsUniverseBornSecretBehindsCreationSceneBlessingMiracleAssumingConspiracyShowersMasterpieceAmusementGorgeousIlluminationBehind The ScenesHelpersProdigiousWorking Behind The Scenes
Author:Rob Brezsny
Create image

“The fisherman of the Colombian coast must be learned doctors of ethics and morality, for they invented the word sentipensante, or ‘feeling-thinking’ to define language that speaks the truth. Eduardo Galeano”

ThinkingFeelingsSpeakLanguageMoralityEthicsDoctorsCoastSpeak The TruthFisherman
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image

“The Sun, each second, transforms four million tons of itself into light, giving itself over to become energy that we, with every meal, partake of. For four million years, humans have been feasting on the Sun’s energy stored in the form of wheat or reindeer. Brian Swimme”

GivingYearsHumansHas BeensLightFormEnergyMillionsSunFourMealsWheatBrianFeastingReindeer
Book:Pronoia Is the Antidote for Paranoia: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings
Create image