Hugh Prather Quotes

I am responsible for what I see. I can elect to change all thoughts that hurt. I could see peace instead of THIS. The past is over it can touch me not. This instant is the only time there is. Today I will judge nothing that occurs. I am not the victim of the world I see. I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts. I am determined to see things differently. I am never upset for the reason I think. Forgiveness is the key to happiness. All that I give I give to myself. ~ Hugh Prather

What I want are words that reflect my heart, not my cleverness. ~ Hugh Prather

To sing with the voice of angels as we do the work of angels. To laugh with the laugh of Buddha as we go to our awakening. To extend the arms of Jesus to welcome the presence of children and let them climb into our hearts. ~ Hugh Prather

The first step of letting go: To remove what obstructs your experience of wholeness and peace, you must first look at the obstruction. ~ Hugh Prather

Boredom is useful to me when I notice it and think: Oh I'm bored; there must be something else I want to be doing ... boredom acts as an initiator of originality by pushing me into new activities or new thoughts. ~ Hugh Prather

It is your right to be happy. This is what you were made for. And if you will not resist, happiness will find a way to pour from your heart and fill your days. ~ Hugh Prather

You're wrong means that I don't understand you, I'm not seeing what you're seeing- and I'm not seeing all of you there is to see. But there is nothing wrong with you. You are what you need to be, doing what you need to be doing, and although I may take steps to protect myself of others, I do not know all and therefore am literally inadequate to judge. ~ Hugh Prather

Peace, or freedom from conflict, is the absolute core of happiness. It is in learning to watch our sense of peace that we avoid unhappiness. All forms of misery are heralded by a frame of mind that must become immediately recognizable if we are ever to gain mastery in happiness ... Take the time to look in your heart and be clear. Walk through life being clear. Practice doing each thing in peace. ~ Hugh Prather

The components of happiness are quite simple. Happiness is gentleness, peace, concentration, simplicity, forgiveness, humor, fearlessness, trust, and now. In its true form each quality includes all the rest, for happiness is whole, and one feels whole when genuinely happy. ~ Hugh Prather

When we recognize that nothing has to go right for us to be happy, that people do not have to behave for us to love them, our walk home can be surprisingly simple. We have enormous power not to manipulate the world, but to be happy and to know peace. ~ Hugh Prather

Whenever we condemn, we cloak the world in pain. ~ Hugh Prather

Selfishness is neither good nor bad - it depends on the way we are selfish as to whether it nourishes or injures. ~ Hugh Prather

Today I acknowledge that I am not in position to judge what mistakes anyone is making or what lessons anyone needs to learn. I don't know how far someone has come or when that person will have a breakthrough, I simply don't know what other people should be doing. But when I think I do know, I clearly am not doing what I should be doing, which is taking responsibility for my own life. ~ Hugh Prather

There is a part of me that wants to write, a part that wants to theorize, a part that wants to sculpt, a part that wants to teach ... To force myself into a single role, to decide to be just on thing in life, would kill off large parts of me. ~ Hugh Prather

I talk because I feel, and I talk to you because I want you to know how I feel. ~ Hugh Prather

By approaching my problems with "What might make things a little better?" rather than "What is the solution?" I avoid setting myself up for certain frustration. My experience has shown me that I am not going to solve anything in one stroke; at best I am only going to chip away at it. ~ Hugh Prather

Do I avoid looking a stranger in the eyes because I don't want to make him uncomfortable, or do I turn my eyes so he can't look into me? ~ Hugh Prather

A whole mind cannot create chaos. A conflicted mind can create nothing else. ~ Hugh Prather

We are all saying the same thing in different words. ~ Hugh Prather

If a man takes off his sunglasses I can hear him better. ~ Hugh Prather

No matter what we talk about, we are talking about ourselves ~ Hugh Prather

True humor is fun - it does not put down, kid, or mock. It makes people feel wonderful, not separate, different, and cut off. True humor has beneath it the understanding that we are all in this together. ~ Hugh Prather

What an absurd amount of energy I have been wasting all my life trying to find out how things 'really are', when all the time they weren't. ~ Hugh Prather

It is enough that I am of value to somebody today. ~ Hugh Prather

I can not 'make my mark' for all time - those concepts are mutually exclusive. 'Lasting effect' is a self-contradictory term. Meaning does not exist in the future and neither do I. Nothing will have meaning 'ultimately.' Nothing will even mean tomorrow what it did today. Meaning changes with the context. My meaningfulness is here. It is enough that I am of value to someone today. It is enough that I make a difference now. ~ Hugh Prather

I like a man with faults, especially when he knows it. To err is human ~ Hugh Prather

'Fault' means failure to meet a standard. Whose? Mine. ~ Hugh Prather

I can't be found in myself; I discover myself in others. That much is clear. And I suspect that I also love and care for myself in others. ~ Hugh Prather

But it's morning. Within my hands is another day. Another day to listen and love and walk and glory. I am here for another day. ~ Hugh Prather

Being myself includes taking risks with myself, taking risks on new behavior, trying new ways of 'being myself', so that I can see who it is I want to be. ~ Hugh Prather

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes. ~ Hugh Prather

Happiness is gentleness, peace, concentration, simplicity, forgiveness, humor, fearlessness, trust, and now. ~ Hugh Prather

Almost any difficulty will move in the face of honesty. When I am honest I never feel stupid. And when I am honest I am automatically humble. ~ Hugh Prather

Letting go is freedom. When you find yourself in a useless battle, you merely walk off the battlefield. ~ Hugh Prather

Whenever I find myself arguing for something with great passion, I can be certain I'm not convinced. ~ Hugh Prather

It seems that the truth is needed today is always a lie by tomorrow. ~ Hugh Prather

Sometimes the only way for me to find out what it is I want to do is go ahead and do something. Then the moment I start to act, my feelings become clear. ~ Hugh Prather

There were seventy-five people in the lobby and only a seven-year-old girl was finding out what it felt like to sit on the Marble Floor ~ Hugh Prather

A messy mortal is my friend. Come walk with me in the mud. ~ Hugh Prather

If I work toward an end, meantime I am confined to a process. ~ Hugh Prather

An argument is always about what has been made more important than the relationship. ~ Hugh Prather

If your reaction to your partner's fear-or any other form of distress- is disdain or irritation, you do not want oneness or even friendship with your partner at that moment. ~ Hugh Prather

The number of things just outside the perimeter of my financial reach remains constant no matter how much my financial condition improves. With each increase in my income a new perimeter forms and I experience the same relative sense of lack. ~ Hugh Prather

Problems assault us to the degree they preoccupy us. The key to release, rest, and inner freedom is not the elimination of all external difficulties. It is letting go of our pattern of reactions to those difficulties. ~ Hugh Prather

I wish" assumes that I know what is the opposite of my present experience. ~ Hugh Prather

Most words evolved as a description of the outside world, hence their inadequacy to describe what is going on inside me. ~ Hugh Prather

I was just asked to go somewhere. I said, "I can't. I have to stay home. Gayle's sick." Clearly, I was not accepting responsibility for my actions. Next time I want to be more honest and state that I do what I do because I want to do it. ~ Hugh Prather

There is no place love is not. ~ Hugh Prather

We feel understood by people who like us; misunderstood by people who don't
and those feelings are probably realistic. ~ Hugh Prather

Because the results are unpredictable, no effort of mine is doomed to failure. ~ Hugh Prather

I sometimes react to making a mistake as if I have betrayed myself. My fear of making a mistake seems to be based on the hidden assumption that I am potentially perfect and that if I can just be very careful I will not fall from heaven. But a 'mistake' is a declaration of the way I am, a jolt to the way I intend, a reminder I am not dealing with the facts. When I have listened to my mistakes I have grown. ~ Hugh Prather

Very seldom will a person give up on himself. He continues to have hope because he knows he has the potential for change. He tries again - not just to exist, but to bring about those changes in himself that will make life worth living. Yet people are very quick to give up on friends, and especially on their spouses, to declare them hopeless, and to either walk away or do nothing more than resign themselves to a bad situation. ~ Hugh Prather

My prayer is: I will be what I will be, I will do what I will do. ~ Hugh Prather

Our job this day is to become part of the answer to the world's immense and protracted suffering rather than continuing our ancient task of being part of the difficulty. ~ Hugh Prather

To live for results would be to sentence myself to continuous frustration. My only sure reward is in my actions and not from them. ~ Hugh Prather

When I get to where I can enjoy just lying on the rug picking up lint balls, I will no longer be too ambitious. ~ Hugh Prather

Why choose to be right instead of happy when there is no way to be right? ~ Hugh Prather

Don't fight a fact, deal with it. ~ Hugh Prather

The fatal mistake is waiting for life's circumstances to be right before we begin. Simply begin with your heart, look deeply into it and trust what you feel. Practice knowing and you will know. ~ Hugh Prather

It's not that "today is the first day of the rest of my life," but that now is all there is of my life. ~ Hugh Prather

It's not that we fear the place of darkness, but that we don't think we are worth the effort to find the place of light. ~ Hugh Prather

Love itself is not an act of will, but sometimes I need the force of my volition to break with my habitual responses and pass along the love already here. ~ Hugh Prather

The key to having "more than enough time" is to relax. Time is change, therefore I have more time per clock-hour when i am flexible. Rigid control means less time because less change. I can lengthen my life by saying out of doctrines and ruts. ~ Hugh Prather

All my life, I have made it complicated, but it is so simple. I love when I love. And when I love, I am myself. ~ Hugh Prather

The ego, as a collection of our past experiences, is continually offering miserable lines of thought. It's as if there were a stream with little fish swimming by, and when we hook one of them there is a judgment. The ego is constantly judging everybody and everything. It has its constant little chit chat about things that can happen in the future, things about the past, too, and these are the little fish that swim by. And what we learn to do-this is why it takes work-is to not reach out and grab a fish. ~ Hugh Prather

Don't strive for love, be it. ~ Hugh Prather

Sometimes I doubt and sometimes I believe. And I like not making myself believe when I am doubting, and not making myself doubt when I am believing. Surely neither God nor Accident need my consistency. ~ Hugh Prather

There is a time to let things happen and a time to make things happen. ~ Hugh Prather

Love, the magician, knows this little trick whereby two people walk in different directions yet always remain side by side ... ~ Hugh Prather

Negative feedback is better that none. I would rather have a man hate me than overlook me. As long as he hates me I make a difference. ~ Hugh Prather

Life is also a mixture of unsolved problems, ambiguous victories and vague defeats-with very few moments of clear peace. ~ Hugh Prather

I live from one tentative conclusion to the next, thinking each one is final. The only thing i know for sure is that I'am confused. ~ Hugh Prather

am not responsible for my feelings, but for what I do with them. ~ Hugh Prather

Support your friends - even in their mistakes. But be clear, however, that it is the friend and not the mistake you are supporting. ~ Hugh Prather

Today I don't want to live for, I want to live. ~ Hugh Prather

I'm very interested in heritage restoration, and I'm working with a group of people to create a number of academies and performance spaces to encourage native arts and crafts and to explore African history. ~ Hugh Masekela

I'm not great around the house, I'm pretty useless. I do little bits, but I never quite finish tidying up - I'll start, but I'll leave things unwashed in the sink. It has been known to irritate people somewhat. ~ Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall

There us a difference you know, between the male and the female ghost-"
"What is the difference?" Georgina asked.
"Oh, the male ghost is obsessed with venegemce, I find." Lear said, drinking again.
"And what are females obsessed by?" Hugh asked.
"Prick songs," Lear said. "Snogging. Same as when they are alive, really. ~ Julia Quinn

And occasionally some of the nations that will be partners in this would probably not be, in terms of passing a pure human rights check, have everything going for them that you would like to have. ~ Hugh Shelton

To be able to pretend to be something that I'm frankly not is very liberating and exciting. ~ Hugh Laurie

Grace is given of god, but knowledge is bought in the market. ~ Arthur Hugh Clough

Instead of setting goals, seek defining moments. Those are the real tests, because you have to be willing to fail in a pressure situation in front of other people. ~ Hugh Jackman

A wretched disheartening result. And a little mouse shall lead them. ~ Hugh Dalton

Whether it's from the books or the films, there are some people that will have a very fixed idea in their head. You're not going to match that. At a certain point, you have to accept that. ~ Hugh Dancy

Your idea doesn't have to be big. It just has to be yours alone. The more the idea is yours alone, the more freedom you have to do something really amazing. The more amazing, the more people will click with your idea. The more people click with your idea, the more it will change the world. ~ Hugh MacLeod

We're beginning the age in which machines attached to our bodies will make us stronger and more efficient, ~ Hugh Herr

I was shown into a room. A red room. Red wallpaper, red curtains, red carpet. They said it was a sitting-room, but I don't know why they'd decided to confine its purpose just to sitting. Obviously, sitting was one of the things you could do in a room this size; but you could also stage operas, hold cycling races, and have an absolutely cracking game of frisbee, all at the same time, without having to move any of the furniture.
It could rain in a room this big. ~ Hugh Laurie

One of the principal goals in my life has been to avoid embarrassing my children by doing the job I do. I hope I've managed to do that, and I hope that, with the job I'm in now, they are, if not proud, at least unembarrassed by it. I must say, my three are most agreeable children, who do nothing but delight me. ~ Hugh Laurie

Keep in mind the challenging fact that your aim is not to get ahead of others, but to surpass yourself; to begin today to be the person you want to be. ~ Hugh B. Brown

The only good thing I've ever noticed about money, the only positive aspect of an otherwise pretty vulgar commodity, is that you can use it to buy things. ~ Hugh Laurie

We are a one party country. Half of them call themselves Democrats and the other half call themselves Republicans. All the good ideas come from the Libertarians. ~ Hugh Downs

One of the greatest skills in the practice of the military art is the avoidance of the natural tendency to overrate or underestimate the enemy. ~ Hugh M. Cole

On the Hugh Grant romance rumours: We're not dating and I'm not pregnant. We have not kissed or touched. We have not fought and broken up. ~ Sandra Bullock

People were like machines. They broke down. They rattled. They could burn you or maim you if you weren't careful. Her job was not only to figure out why this happened and who was to blame, but also to listen for the signs of it coming. Being sheriff, like being a mechanic, was as much the fine art of preventive maintenance as it was the cleaning up after a breakdown. ~ Hugh Howey

If you put Buddha, Jesus Christ, Socrates, Shakespeare, Arjuna, Krishna at a dinner table together, I can't see them having an argument. ~ Hugh Jackman

Love is a word. A sound. Its association with a particular feeling is arbitrary, unmeasurable, and ultimately meaningless ~ Hugh Laurie

There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. ~ Hugh Laurie

Ironically, members on both sides of the debate do agree about one thing: big bang cosmology puts their position in jeopardy. The big bang poses a problem for young-earth creationists because it makes the universe billions of years old rather than thousands. Such an assertion undercuts their system at its foundation. Big bang cosmology also presents a problem for atheistic scientists because it points directly to the existence of a transcendent Creator - a fact they dare not concede. ~ Hugh Ross

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me. ~ Hugh Jackman

As she went down the steps leading to the station square she noticed a priest going before her. He seemed a very upright and sturdy old man, for though his hair was white he walked steadily and strongly. At the foot of the steps he stopped and half turned, and then, to her surprise, she saw that his face was that of a young man, fine-featured and strong, with black eyebrows and very bright grey eyes. Then she passed on and began to cross the square in the direction of her aunt's house. Then without the slightest warning, except one shrill hoot from overhead, a number of things happened. A great shadow whirled across the sunlight at her feet, a sound of rending tore the air, and a ~ Robert Hugh Benson