Marianne Williamson

In business as well as in everything else, you're in business to spread love. _Your agency should spread love,_ your screenplay should spread love, your store should spread love, your life should spread love. _The key to a successful career is realizing that it s not separate from the rest of your life, but is rather an extension of your most basic self and your most basic self is love.

Men in our culture have been spoiled, treated with false reverence instead of respect.

I conquered outer worlds just as he had. I expressed masculine strength and power just as he had. But it didn't bring me closer to him or to others like him because I had become one of the guys, and that's not what most men are looking for. He had never loved me for being a great guy.

We all make mistakes, we all have fears, and we all have weaknesses. Behind all that is our essential self. When our essential self has made contact with another, the light is dazzling and would fill the universe. The challenge of enchantment is to remain faithful to that light, to believe in it when it is not so apparent. Then that light becomes an incandescent glow and it wraps itself around everything.

There is, inside all our heads, the ego__ rabid attack dog. It is purely vicious toward others and toward ourselves as well. Learning to control that dog, and ultimately to end its life, is the process and purpose of enlightened relationships.

God gives us His strength by giving us His vision of things. Our seeing people as innocent is the only way to achieve God__ peace.

Forgiveness is like the martial arts of consciousness. _In aikido and other martial arts, we sidestep our attacker's force rather than resisting it. _The energy of the attack then boomerangs back in the direction of the attacker. forgiveness works in the same way. _When we attack back, and defense is a form of attack, we initiate a war which no one can win.

Whether we're forgiving our parents or someone else_or ourselves, the laws of mind remain the same._ As we love, we shall be released from pain and as we deny love, we shall remain in pain. _Each of us have different fears and different manifestations of fear, _but all of us are saved by the same technique: _The call to God to save our lives by salvaging our minds. _'Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. _For love is the kingdom and love is the glory and love is the power, forever_and forever.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

In the absence of love, we began slowly but surely to fall apart.

When we pray for God to illumine our path, we are saying, __ear God, please show me the way. What thoughts do I need to think, to be able to navigate my life at this point? What perceptions do I need; what insights will guide me? Who do I need to forgive? What parts of my personality do I need to look at; what changes do I need to make? Please come upon me and heal my life. Amen.

The most powerful thought is a prayerful thought. When I'm praying for you, I am praying for my own peace of mind. I can only have for myself what I am willing to wish for you.

The highest prize we can receive for creative work is the joy of being creative. Creative effort spent for any other reason than the joy of being in that light filled space, love, god, whatever we want to call it, is lacking in integrity. . .

There's no single effort more radical in it's potential for saving the world than a transformation of the way we raise our children.

In the Christic tradition, this is the meaning of _'becoming as a little child.' _Little children don't think they know what things mean, in fact, they know they don't know. _They ask someone older and wiser to explain_things to them. _We're like children who don't know but think we do. _We're meant to shine. _Look at small children. _They're all so unique before they start trying to be, because they demonstrate_the power of genuine humility. _This is also the explanation of 'beginner's luck.' When we go into a situation not knowing the rules, we don't pretend to know how to figure anything out, and we don't know_yet what there_is to be afraid of. _This releases the mind to create from its own higher power." _

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.

We are not held back by the love we didn't receive in the past, but by the love we're not extending in the present.

Something amazing happens when we surrender and just love. We melt into another world, a realm of power already within us. The world changes when we change. the world softens when we soften. The world loves us when we choose to love the world.