Being True to Yourself

In every work of genius,
we recognize our own rejected thoughts;
they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

If you hear a voice within you say,
"you cannot paint,"
then by all means paint,
and that voice will be silenced.
~Vincent Van Gogh

Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live. It is asking others to live as one wishes to live.
-Oscar Wilde

Emotions

To seek permission is to seek denial.
-Steve Jobs

Your circumstances may be uncongenial,
but they shall not remain so
if you only perceive an ideal and strive to reach it.
You cannot travel within and stand still without.
~ James Allen

As your faith is strengthened
you will find
that there is no longer the need
to have a sense of control,
that things will flow as they will,
and that you will flow with them,
to your great delight and benefit.
~ Emmanuel / Pat Rodegast

It’s impossible to resolve anger
on the level of anger.
Ask, “What is the fear
that is fueling the anger?”
and you are on the road to resolution.
~ Alan Cohen

Right Livelihood

Miscellaneous

You empower what you fight.
You withdraw power from what you release.
~ Alan Cohen

Never wrestle with a pig.
You both get dirty, and the pig likes it.
~Country wisdom


The secret of writing is to write.
The secret of doing anything is to do it.
~Source Unknown


It is your own respect and approval
that you seek.
~Alan Cohen


The purpose of life is not to
arrive safely at death.
~Author Unknown.


The thought, “I must make something happen”
is often what keeps something from happening.
~Alan Cohen


The winds of grace are blowing all the time,
but it is you that must raise your sails.
~Rabindranath Tagore


The more you try to fix, the more you find to fix. Only wholeness heals.
~Alan Cohen


Real humility is not about denying the
gifts you are offered; it is accepting them.
~Alan Cohen


The moment you are ready and willing,
God is able.
~Alan Cohen


Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap
but by the seeds that you plant.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson



Do not waste time bothering whether you
"love" your neighbor; act as if you did.
As soon as we do this we find one of the great secrets. When you are behaving as if you loved someone you will presently come to love him.
~C.S Lewis


It’s not that you’re not good looking.
It’s that you’re not good at looking.
~Alan Cohen


You can always tell what you believe you deserve by what you are getting.
~Alan Cohen


If I am not for myself, who will be for me?
If I am only for myself, what good am I?
If not now, when?
~Tulmud


Give yourself what you long to receive.
~Alan Cohen


We’re not held back by the love we didn’t
receive in the past, but by the love we’re not
extending in the present.
~Marianne Williamson


Today you are in the perfect position to actualize
the gifts you came to share with the world
~Alan Cohen


For a web begun, God gives the thread.
~ Inscribed on the ceiling of U.S. Library of Congress


He was the kind of guy who didn’t have any problems because he didn’t want any.
~Unknown


What you love to do the most is the shortest distance between where you are now and your dreams.
~Emmanuel (Pat Rodegast)


I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself.
I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
~ Michel de Montaigne


After a certain point you quit trying to prove yourself to anyone and you simply live in the way that makes you happy.
~Alan Cohen


If a man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide,
the huge world will come round to him.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
~ Epictetus


Whatever satisfies the soul is truth.
~ Walt Whitman


It takes courage to grow up
and become who you really are.
~ e.e. cummings


Never does nature say one thing
and wisdom another.
~ Juvenal


Love is ready for you whenever you’re ready for it.
~ Alan Cohen


You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need.
~ Jerry Gillies


A musician must make music,
an artist must paint,
a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately
at peace with himself.
What a man can be, he must be.
~ Abraham Maslow


Most of the shadows of this life
are caused by our standing in our own sunshine.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson


Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are.
~ Malcolm Forbes


First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.
~ Epictetus


Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions.
Small people always do that,
but the really great make you feel that you, too,
can become great.
~ Mark Twain


Seeking is not the same as finding.
Seeking engenders more seeking,
and finding engenders more finding.
The end of seeking is finding.
Not because it just happens. Because you choose.
~ Alan Cohen


Seeking is not the same as finding.
Seeking engenders more seeking,
and finding engenders more finding.
The end of seeking is finding.
Not because it just happens. Because you choose.
~ Alan Cohen


If I have the belief that I can do it,
I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it
even if I do not have it at the beginning.
~ Mahatma Gandhi


New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.
~ Lao-Tsu


Tell everyone what you want to do
and someone will want to help you do it.
~ W. Clement Stone


How you introduce yourself is what you will become.
~ Alan Cohen


The more you try to justify yourself or your actions,
the farther you drift from authority.
Let your being speak for itself.
~ Alan Cohen