Martha Beck Quotes - Page 10

This is the part of us that makes our brief, improbable little lives worth living: the ability to reach through our own isolation and find strength, and comfort, and warmth for and in each other. This is what human beings do. This is what we live for, the way horses live to run.

The end goal of all of this striving is to live joyfully, and that there are often more direct ways of achieving this than conforming to rigid standards set by social custom.

Many people think passion is a fuzzy feeling that makes taking action effortless. In fact, it's the gritty courage and tenacity to forge onward.

Ten bajillion product ads notwithstanding, your looks are another thing that's basically genetic.

A lot of my clients say they don't deserve to mope about their sad little memories while children are starving in India. I say that just because your broken arm isn't as serious as someone else's gut wound, that doesn't mean your injury isn't excruciating or doesn't require attention. If you want to help the Indian children, or make the world a better place in any other way, you have to start by becoming whole yourself.

I'm not saying we have power over everything in our lives - if that were true, my hair would look so, so different - but I am saying that there's no circumstance in which we are completely powerless.

I have come to believe that there are infinite passageways out of the shadows, infinite vehicles to transport us into the light.

In fact, when care appears, unconditional love often vanishes.

If you did nothing but pursue the truth about yourself for the rest of your life, you would never run out of fresh discoveries.

People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures.

At times in my life, I have been utterly lonely. At other times, I've had disgusting infectious diseases. Try admitting these things in our culture.

We evolved to move and to learn with all our five senses!

Denial exists because human infants, though equipped with trust-o-meters, are built to trust, blindly and absolutely, any older person who wanders past.

I want you to be supervised, all day every day, by people who forgive your errors and believe in your destiny.

Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self.

Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury.

You will never realize your best destiny through the avoidance of fear. Rather, you will realize it through the exercise of courage, which means taking whatever action is most liberating to the soul, even when you are afraid.

Absolutely lonely people have few personal interactions of any kind.