Marianne Quotes

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

When you are 18, 19, 20, you're used to being photographed all the time, in a certain way. So, the narcissism becomes almost out of control. And the way that young women are photographed, they become addicted to this feedback of the image. ~ Marianne Faithfull

Some of us believe humanity should be in divine partnership with nature, some people believe that man has been given by God the right to have dominion over nature. But since even they say that we should be good stewards, that right there should be the common ground. ~ Marianne Williamson

You The Thought God holds of you is like a star, unchangeable in an eternal sky. ~ Marianne Williamson

Freedom has its risks. ~ Marianne Williamson

Until you have a child, it's very tempting to look at the state of the world and say, "To hell with it, in 50 years I won't be around anyway." But if you have a child you don't say that, because even if you're not around in 50 years, your children presumably will be, and maybe even their children. You think of yourself as responsible to future generations in a whole different way. ~ Marianne Williamson

I know for a fact that Heaven and Hell are here on Earth. ~ Marianne Faithfull

Clearly, there is some invisible force that is moving every aspect of reality to its next best expression. And the universe is not only self-organizing, it is also self-correcting. The embryo becomes a baby; the baby is born; its lungs continue to breathe - not only were they created but then they continue to breathe. The heart is not only created but it continues to breathe. If there is injury and disease that becomes present within the body, the body is also equipped with an immune system to correct that. ~ Marianne Williamson

If the train doesn't stop at your station, it's not your train. ~ 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

I have seen so much obstructed potential among people who lack personal discipline, who just slough it off, whatever it is, and who think that nothing matters very much. I want my daughter to have what I think of as a capacity for self-discipline. Not the sort of self-discipline that diminishes her own wild passions, but that makes it safer for her to own those wild passions. ~ Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. ~ Marianne Williamson

The miracle often lies outside our comfort zone. ~ Marianne Williamson

Elinor, in spite of every occasional doubt of Willoughby's constancy, could not witness the rapture of delightful expectation which filled the whole soul and beamed in the eyes of Marianne, without feeling how blank was her own prospect, how cheerless her own state of mind in the comparison, and how gladly she would engage in the solicitude of Marianne's situation to have the same animating object in view, the same possibility of hope. ~ Jane Austen

Accepting people as they are has the miraculous effect of helping them improve. Acceptance doesn't prohibit growth; rather, it fosters it. ~ Marianne Williamson

A primary goal of the spiritual life is to learn to quiet the mind through prayer and meditation, through spiritual practice, so that we can hear what in both Judaism and Christianity, is called the small, still voice within. ~ Marianne Williamson

The only thing lacking in any situation is our own awareness of love. ~ Marianne Williamson

An ancient memory of this love haunts all of us all the time, and beckons us to return. ~ 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

Choosing joy involves spiritual surrender, and sometimes we would rather hold on to the pain than surrender our egos. ~ Marianne Williamson

To me, when I think of New Age, I think of crystals and rainbows and platitudes. ~ Marianne Williamson

A pencil in my hand, its secret life / is charcoal, the wood already burnt, / a sacrifice. ~ Marianne Boruch

If you will tell me why the fen appears impassable, I then will tell you why I think that I can cross it if I try. ~ Marianne Moore

I like you so much, Marianne said. Connell felt a pleasurable sorrow come over him, which brought him close to tears. Moments of emotional pain arrived like this, meaningless or at least indecipherable. Marianne lived a drastically free life, he could see that. He was trapped by various considerations. He cared what people thought of him. He even cared what Marianne thought, that was obvious now. ~ Sally Rooney

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. ~ Marianne Williamson

Consider the possibility now that anything could happen. I'm not asking you to believe this, but only to consider that it might be true. Simply thinking this thought - that miracles are possible - does more to pave the way for your healing than you can imagine. It opens the door to a realm of infinite possibilities, regardless of what you have been through or what you are going through now. The ~ Marianne Williamson

Camels are snobbish
and sheep, unintelligent; water buffaloes, neurasthenic
even murderous.
Reindeer seem over-serious. ~ Marianne Moore

For Marianne, however - in spite of his incivility in surviving her loss - he always retained that decided regard which interested him in every thing that befell her, and made her his secret standard of perfection in woman; - and many a rising beauty would be slighted by him in after-days as bearing no comparison with Mrs. Brandon. ~ Jane Austen

As we awaken individually, we will act more powerfully collectively. ~ Marianne Williamson

Relationships are the Holy Spirit's laboratories in which He brings together people who have the maximal opportunity for mutual growth. ~ Marianne Williamson

The Ballad of Lucy Jordan
The morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy Jordan
In a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town
As she lay there 'neath the covers dreaming of a thousand lovers
Till the world turned to orange and the room went spinning round.

At the age of thirty-seven she realised she'd never
Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair.
So she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing
Little nursery rhymes she'd memorised in her daddy's easy chair.

Her husband, he's off to work and the kids are off to school,
And there are, oh, so many ways for her to spend the day.
She could clean the house for hours or rearrange the flowers
Or run naked through the shady street screaming all the way.

At the age of thirty-seven she realised she'd never
Ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair
So she let the phone keep ringing as she sat there softly singing
Pretty nursery rhymes she'd memorised in her daddy's easy chair.

The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan
On the roof top where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud
And she bowed and curtsied to the man who reached and offered her his hand,
And he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd.

At the age of thirty-seven she knew she'd found forever
As she rode along t ~ Marianne Faithfull

The greatest force of personal liberation is the decision to widen our circle of compassion, moving from focus on self to focus on service. ~ Marianne Williamson

Don't be concerned that things appear to be falling apart: this has to happen in order for something new and wonderful to emerge. ~ Marianne Williamson

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

I've noticed in myself that if something small and ultimately meaningless has gone wrong - I can't find the file I left on top of my desk, my daughter failed to do what I asked her to do before going to a friend's house - I can easily get rattled. But if someone calls to inform me of a serious difficulty - someone has been in an accident, or a child is in trouble - I notice a profound stillness come over me as I focus on the problem. In the former case, my temptation to become frantic does not attract solutions, but rather hinders them. There is nothing in my personal energy that invites help from others, nor do I have the clarity to think through what I need to do next. ~ 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. ~ Marianne Williamson

God isn't separate from us, because He's the love inside our minds. Every problem, inside and out, is due to a separation from love on someone's part. Thirty-five thousand people a day die of hunger on earth, and there's no dearth of food. The question is not 'what kind of God would let children starve?' but rather, 'What kind of people let children starve?' ~ Marianne Williamson

I wish people didn't just think of me in the '60s. I'm not any era. ~ Marianne Faithfull

A Course in Miracles says that only love is real: The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite. ~ Marianne Williamson

Withholding love is a form of self-sabotage, as what we withhold from others we are withholding from ourselves. ~ Marianne Williamson

If you think about it, I made history. Not only was I the first black British woman to be nominated for an Oscar, I was the first black British person. ~ Marianne Jean-Baptiste

The same group of New York pseudo-intellectuals who've put down prayer are the same ones who put down L.A. ~ Marianne Williamson

Sobriety itself is today's high, for it is ultimately in the most centered consciousness that we find our power to transcend the world. ~ Marianne Williamson

Blessed is the man who "takes the risk of a decision" -
asks himself the question: "Would it solve the problem?
Is it right as I see it? Is it in the best interests of all? ~ Marianne Moore

I think optimism is a moral imperative. ~ Marianne Williamson

We are dominated on this planet by a fear-based rather than a love-based thought system. ~ 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

Truly as the sun can rot or mend, love can make one bestial or make a beast a man. ~ Marianne Moore

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. ~ Marianne Williamson

Whether we choose to focus on the guilt in their personality, or the innocence in their soul, is up to us. ~ Marianne Williamson

Spirituality is an inner fire, a mystical sustenance that feeds our souls. The mystical journey drives us into ourselves, to a sacred flame at our center. The purpose of the religious experience is to develop the eyes by which we see this inner flame, and our capacity to live its mystery. In its presence, we are warmed and ignited. When too far from the blaze, we are cold and spiritually lifeless. We are less than human without that heat. Our connection to God is life itself. ~ Marianne Williamson

Every problem emerges from the false belief we are separate from one another, and every answer emerges from the realization we are not. ~ Marianne Williamson

You've committed no sins, just mistakes. ~ Marianne Williamson

Of course I have regrets; I'm not stupid. ~ Marianne Faithfull

The gap is not between knowing it and living it, it's between knowing it and living it consistently. You know, we've all had moments when we got it right. Most of us have moments when we get it right every day. The trouble is getting it right when a curve-ball comes at us. ~ Marianne Williamson

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. ~ Marianne Williamson

If we only identify with the mortal world, then we identify with a level of scarcity and lack and brokenness, and that will be our experience. But if we shift our experience of self-identification - and this is what enlightenment is - from the body-self to the spiritual-self, then we place ourselves under an entirely different set of possibilities and probabilities. ~ Marianne Williamson

Love merely becomes clouded over, or surrounded by mental mists. ~ Marianne Williamson

Always seek less turbulent skies.
Hurt. Fly above it.
Betrayal. Fly above it.
Anger. Fly above it.
You are the one who is flying the plane. ~ Marianne Williamson

We need more than new policies. We need a new worldview, and a new bottom line. We need to replace economic values as our ordering principle, with humanitarian values as our ordering principle. ~ 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

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

So wary as to disappear for centuries and reappear but never caught, the unicorn has been preserved by an unmatched device wrought like the work of expert blacksmiths ... ~ Marianne Moore

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

Judaism is interesting in that there is something there that I think you just can't understand if you're not a Jew - it moves into a realm of true mystery. ~ Marianne Williamson

All manifestation of fear is a reflection of the fact that humanity has forgotten its spiritual identity. In beginning to remember it, we put fear on notice that its days are numbered. ~ Marianne Williamson

All of us wish we'd had perfect childhoods, with a mother and father who modeled ideal parental attitudes and taught us to internalize the tenets of self-love. Many of us, however, did not. ~ Marianne Williamson

The past doesn't determine your future unless you carry it with you into the present. Forgiving yourself and others, you free the universe to begin again at any moment. ~ Marianne Williamson

If you deny yourself your own passion, your own path, your own longing, your own drama, your own life force, your own truth - then you might be tempted to live vicariously through those who allow themselves theirs. Your creative energy has got to go somewhere, even if it is projected onto others. You're tempted to live a life of fantasy if you deny yourself a life of truth. ~ Marianne Williamson

If you're trained in metaphysics, you don't see the world as distinct from yourself. You are one with the world. ~ Marianne Williamson

Dear God, As I rise up, I thank You for the opportunity to be on this earth. I thank You for my mind and body, I thank You for my life. Please bless my body and use it for Your purposes. May I rise up strong today, and may my body and soul radiate Your love. May all impurities be cast out of my mind, my heart, my body. May every cell of my being be filled with Your light. ~ Marianne Williamson

But when we ask Him to change them, He will. When we're angry, or upset for any reason, we're asked to say, "I'm angry but I'm willing not to be. I'm willing to see this situation differently." We ask the Holy Spirit to enter into the situation and show it to us from a different perspective. ~ 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

The new midlife is where you realize that even your failures make you more beautiful and are turned spiritually into success if you became a better person because of them. You became a more humble person. You became a more merciful and compassionate person. ~ Marianne Williamson

I don't remember being a child, and that's why I think I'm so child-like now in my unending curiosity and approach to life. ~ Marianne Wiggins

You need to get straight in your mind what you think a good society would look like, said Marianne. And if you think people should be able to go to college and get English degrees, you shouldn't feel guilty for doing that yourself, because you have every right to. ~ Sally Rooney

It is in general true that in order to create works of art one has to have leisure. On the other hand I think that one needs to experience resistance in a practical sense, and even that which is poignant to bring out what makes easy reading for others. Too much deprivation of course, means death. ~ Marianne Moore

I'm fascinated by the narrative of geology, and I'm a veritable pack rat of a collector on the road. I keep a rock hammer in my car. ~ Marianne Wiggins

There will be no peace in the world until there is peace in our hearts. ~ Marianne Williamson

Dear God, I surrender this relationship to you," means, "Dear God, let me see this person through your eyes." In accepting the Atonement, we are asking to see as God sees, think as God thinks, love as God loves. We are asking for help in seeing someone's innocence. ~ Marianne Williamson

As I see it, the greatest responsibility of motherhood is to make sure that our children know that there are principles of kindness, compassion, integrity, excellence, and discipline. ~ Marianne Williamson

I'm better than I used to be.
Better than I was yesterday.
But hopefully
not as good as I'll be tomorrow. ~ Marianne Williamson

The point of life is not who falls down. The point is who gets up and how you do it. ~ Marianne Williamson

Shooting Willoughby carrying Marianne up the path ... Male strength
the desire to be cradled again? ... I'd love someone to pick me up and carry me off. Frightening. Lindsay assures me I'd start to fidget after a while. She's such a comfort. ~ Emma Thompson

What the Fross?" Whispered Kero ~ Marianne De Pierres

Real liberation for men means that they can explore and integrate their feminine aspects of consciousness. ~ Marianne Williamson

It is quite cruel that a poet cannot wander through his regions of enchantment without having a critic, forever, like the old man of the sea, upon his back. ~ Marianne Moore

Physical circumstances have very little to do with either our capacity to love or to attract love. ~ Marianne Williamson

Marriage can be a magnificent lesson in becoming our best selves; that is true. ~ Marianne Williamson

If you went to live in the Himalayas and everyone was lovely there, I'm sure it would be fairly easy to be a spiritual master. ~ Marianne Williamson

This, after all, is the literal level on which the incident took place. She asked him to hit her and when he said he didn't want to, she wanted to stop having sex. So why, despite its factual accuracy, does this feel like a dishonest way of narrating what happened? What is the missing element, the excluded part of the story that explains what upset them both? It has something to do with their history, he knows that. Ever since school he has understood his power over her. How she responds to his look or the touch of his hand. The way her face colours, and she goes still as if awaiting some spoken order. His effortless tyranny over someone who seems, to other people, so invulnerable. He has never been able to reconcile himself to the idea of losing this hold over her, like a key to an empty property, left available for future use. In fact he has cultivated it, and he knows he has.
What's left for them, then? There doesn't seem to be a halfway position anymore. Too much has passed between them for that. So it's over, and they're just nothing? What would it even mean, to be nothing to her? He could avoid her, but as soon as he saw her again, even if they only glanced at one another outside a lecture hall, the glance could not contain nothing. He could never really want it to. He has sincerely wanted to die, but he has never sincerely wanted Marianne to forget about him. That's the only part of himself he wants to protect, the part that exists inside her. ~ Sally Rooney

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

In every moment we make a decision - whether conscious or unconscious. Will I choose to open my heart, send love, withhold judgment and thus free myself from fear? Or will I close my heart, project fear instead of extending love, judge others, and thus bind myself to fear? The choice is mine and mine alone. ~ Marianne Williamson

When you've written 10 books and have six on the New York Times best-seller list - and four have been No. 1 - I think you have a right to be a member of Congress. ~ Marianne Williamson

I hope you're not contemplating retaliation against Mr. Figueroa."

She smiled again. "Don't need to. Karma will take care of him."

"As long as Karma isn't a hit man from New Delhi, we're good. ~ Marianne Stillings

I think what you can't see is always what you should be frightened of. ~ Marianne Wiggins

I live a very nice life. I have a wonderful time. But it's not lived drawing on a full level. I'm relaxed, cool, and enjoying it. ~ Marianne Faithfull

That is an expression, Sir John," said Marianne, warmly, "which I particularly dislike. I abhor every common–place phrase by which wit is intended; and "setting one's cap at a man," or "making a conquest," are the most odious of all. Their tendency is gross and illiberal; and if their construction could ever be deemed clever, time has long ago destroyed all its ingenuity. ~ Jane Austen

The meaningful question is never what we did yesterday, but what we have learned from it and are doing today. ~ Marianne Williamson

Without nourishing our own souls, we can't nourish the world, for we cannot give what we do not have. As we attend to our souls, we emanate invisibly and involuntarily the light we have received. ~ Marianne Williamson