Marianne Williamson Thinking Quotations

The present moment, if you think about it, is the only time there is. No matter what time it is, it is always NOW!

I think moral outrage is born not of anger but of love. It comes from the highest in us, not from a low-level sense of anger or cynicism.

Citizens should be looked to for what they can give of their own nobility, virtue, creative thinking, passion, and natural talent for community building and relating to others.

When you meet anyone, remember it is a holy encounter. As you see him, you will see yourself. As you treat him, you will treat yourself. As you think of him, you will think of yourself. Never forget this, for in him you will find yourself or lose yourself.

When we do align with it, we thrive. And when we do not, we suffer. This is not "punishment." It is merely the Law of Cause and Effect. With each thought we think, we either align with universal love, or we disconnect ourselves from it. Whichever is our choice determines whether we then feel connected to, or disconnected, from our own true Selves.

I think daily life is where the lessons come in - that's where the tests and the growth come in.

No matter what is happening in our lives, we choose how we wish to think about it. And the greatest gift we give ourselves is often our willingness to change our minds. Despite what might seem to be the saddest and most intractable situation, we have the power to believe that something else is possible, that things can change, that a miracle can happen.

I sometimes say to people who have life-challenging illnesses: "Right now you are tempted to think that if you were physically well you would be happy. But if that were true, everybody who is physically well would be happy."

God created the law of free will, and God created the law of cause and effect. And he himself will not violate the law. We need to be thinking less in terms of what God did and more in terms of whether or not we are following those laws.

I think optimism is a moral imperative.

I think that every moment you succumb to cynicism, you're taking energy away from change.

I think every writer lives for the thought that there will be a moment when somebody reads something on the page and says, "Yes!"

Obviously, our political system is profoundly corrupted by, among other things, the influence of money. But, at a deeper level, the current structure is flawed because it looks to citizens for only two things - votes and money. I don't think we will see any healing until citizens are viewed in a whole new way.

The thinking of the world leads us to think shallowly and act too quickly.

Imagine the week ahead unfolding in an ever-increasing flow of miracles. Allow the image to sink into your heart. Receive it with a big yes!

We are here to repair the world. I grew up thinking that was what everybody was trying to do.

The revolution of ideas that will save us is a revolution of goodwill, of compassion, and of higher thinking. I believe that they outnumber the people who would choose fear. But they are not a particularly politicized force. If you look at the numbers of people buying books about revolutions from within and personal transformation as the key to global change, the numbers add up to a much greater audience than most people realize.

I don't like the tendency on the part of so many people today to think that those who don't agree with them are bad. In fact, I find that very dangerous.

I don't think that anything that anyone is doing today that is being pointed at as the "enemy" or "the problem" is as dangerous to our future as the fact that there are so many pointed fingers. The pointed finger is the enemy.

I think it's unfortunate how many people today try to build up their own careers by denigrating the work of others.

The only issue that I have a problem with when it comes to the new age is the way that people such as myself are diminished by that label. I simply don't consider myself "new age." It's other people's small-mindedness that tries to connect me with someone who, let's say, thinks crystals are the answers to all of life's problems. I never did. There are those who suggest that anyone speaking from a base in California has less to say. That kind of bashing doesn't interest me.

I don't think of myself as a very famous person, but the modicum of celebrity that I've had has not been a positive experience for me at all.

Enter any moment devoid of agenda, with an absence of posturing, and with your only intention being to send love to everyone you meet or even think of... Happiness, miracles and inner peace will follow.

The week ahead is already programmed for fabulousness. Pray that your thinking be aligned with the force that makes it so.

I think the media has become incredibly corrupt. We used to have a profound tradition of investigative journalism in the United States. Some journalists were real heroes, such as Bob Woodward who helped uncover the Watergate scandal. But today he is leading the opposite charge, trying to bring down the careers of people and score easy victories. In other words, those who used to bust the status quo have now become the status quo.

Think of the most amazing thing you could possibly do with your life. Then say out loud, 'YES.'

With every thought we think, we either summon or block a miracle. It is not our circumstances, then, but rather our thoughts about our circumstances, that determine our power to transform them.

I don't think that my twenties were any more dramatic than those of most people I know. I was never that bad and I never became that good.

With every thought we think, we either summon or block a miracle.

Obviously, I don't want to minimize the patriarchal nature of our media, our government and our culture as a whole. But I think it's our refusal as women to own our power that is our biggest problem, both individually and collectively. The linchpin that holds the current system in place is the slumber of women.

The fact that the commercial success of my books has allowed me to buy a house for myself and my daughter I think is a lovely thing. I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

Enlightenment doesn't mean we were never wounded; it means we've found a way to evolve beyond our wounds. Enlightenment isn't idealistic; it's practical. What's idealistic is thinking we can live from our wounds, stay in our weakness, and ever transform the world.

I think we're ripe for social revolution now. There is the necessary yearning, and the necessary, or at least incipient, outrage. And there is an inchoate knowing that all is not right.

Think bigger. Forget limits. Embrace the idea of endless possibility.... It will change you.

I think there is a place where self-awareness becomes self-preoccupation if you don't take what you have discovered and bring it to bear on the conditions of the world.

From a mind filled with infinite love comes the power to create infinite possibilities. We have the power to think in ways that reflect and attract all the love in the world. Such thinking is called enlightenment. Enlightenment is not a process we work toward, but a choice available to us in any instant.

Every time we're about to criticize someone for what we think they did wrong, let's first remember to thank them for the things they did right. And to mean it; to sincerely affirm them. Then, if there's still a problem that needs to be shared, it will come from a completely different energy -- and actually be heard!

Love and fear represent two different lenses through which to view the world. Which I choose to use will determine what I think I see.

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.

Usually we try to figure out what we think would make us happy, and then try to make those things happen. But happiness isn't circumstance-de pendent. There are people who have every reason in the world to be happy who aren't. There are people with genuine problems who are. The key to happiness is the decision to be happy.

Fuzzy thinking is, after all, just one step above not thinking at all. But to take the ideas of serious transformational thinkers and philosophers and throw the "new age" label at them is also abhorrent.

You must master a new way to think, before you can master a new way to be.

When many people think of "new age" they think of crystals and purple decals and ceramic angels in people's windows and a kind of fuzzy thinking - which is abhorrent to a serious person.

In our ability to think about something differently lies the power to make it different.

Think of your work life therefore, not as separate from your spiritual life but as central to your spiritual life. Whatever your business, it is your ministry.

When we pray for God to illumine our path, we are saying, ‘Dear 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.

You don't have to be a spiritual seeker, you can be a businessman dealing with the revolution in computers. You could be a congressman, or a scientist. No matter what area of life and endeavor we are in we are seeing the signs of new-paradigm thinking.

If we get away from the lazy and fuzzy thinking that is like a poison in our society - if we get away from all the bad television that we tend to watch - and begin to take up serious meditation and other sacred exercises, we will have a real revolution of consciousness. If that happens, the world will change by itself.

Again--nothing you do or think or wish or make is necessary to establish your worth.

Thought is cause: experience is effect. If you don't like the effects in your life, you have to change the nature of your thinking.

What you do comes from what you think.

Even a happy life has a sad day. We fail to provide a context which says it's okay to cry, it's okay to be sad. So I think making the space for suffering is so important and making space for this expression of feelings in community.

The power to rethink a situation is our greatest tool for transforming the world. This notion is taking hold in medicine, in business, in education. But not in politics and the media. They are the last holdouts of old-paradigm thinking.

I don't think pain is a prerequisite for growth, but on the other hand, most of us choose very painful ways to learn.

Some people think it's naive to think we can make love our new bottom line. What I believe is naive is thinking human civilization as we know it will survive another two hundred years if we do not.

I don't believe there are any powers, which in the larger sense, are unnatural or even supernatural. I think we just do not yet scientifically understand all of the powers inherent in the human consciousness, and the more attuned we are to the realm of spirit, the more our conscious mind is available to subconscious, spiritual prompting.

I think that's what we all want on this earth - to feel that at some level we have connected with other human beings.

If you think there's something you need in order to be happy, then you believe in lack. Then believing you lack, you will create more lack.

We are so trained in the thought system of fear and attack that we get to the point where natural thinking - love - feels unnatural and unnatural thinking - fear - feels natural. It takes real discipline and training to unlearn the thought system of fear.

These are very serious times, and serious people need to be doing some serious thinking.

A Course in Miracles tells us that although 'we think that without the ego, all would be chaos, the opposite is true. Without the ego, all would be love.'

The spiritual journey has to do with learning to think more deeply and take as long a time as we need. That's the path to wisdom.

Our self-perception determines our behavior. If we think we’re small, limited, inadequate creatures, then we tend to behave that way, and the energy we radiate reflects those thoughts no matter what we do. If we think we’re magnificent creatures with an infinite abundance of love and power to give, then we tend to behave that way. Once again, the energy around us reflects our state of awareness.

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.

Think of your career as your ministry. Make your work an expression of love in service to mankind.

Your job is to allow the Holy Spirit to remove the fearful thinking that surrounds your perfect self,

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.

Gender or skin color does not of itself determine the nature of a person's thinking.

Don't think small and expect to have a big life.

I also think the women's movement has unintentionally contributed to the dishonoring of motherhood. It happened because we made such a big deal about our right to go out into the world.

Those among us who have achieved the most have achieved only a fraction of what ALL of us are capable of. You haven't even begun to scratch the surface!

Miracles are happening all the time, but if your eyes aren't open and your ears aren't open and your mind's not open and your heart's not open - then even though the miracles are there - you're not!

Love is to fear as light is to dark; in the presence of one, the other cannot exist. So wherever there is a place of fear in your life, think of one thing - even if it's just a thought you can think-where you can generate love to cast out the fear.

I think those of us on a spiritual journey can help create a new conversation, a new America, and a new world.

The way to have the life we want is to receive more deeply the life we have. Sometimes we keep our own life at arm's length, thinking we'll wait until circumstances improve before giving it all we've got. But life is just a reflection of consciousness, so it's never going to give any more to us than we give to it. Don't wait for a perfect life; breathe in the life that's already perfect.

The implication was that if you had any skepticism whatsoever, you were anti-science. I think there's a difference between having skepticism about science and having skepticism about the pharmaceutical industry.

We think we need to create ourselves, always doing a paste-up job on our personalities. That is because we're trying to be special rather than real. We're pathetically trying to conform with all the other people trying to do the same.

Fear is a psychic tyrant that has no intention of letting its slave go free. It will say whatever it needs to say to confuse your thinking... It will always seek to preserve itself.

When we think with love, we are literally co-creating with God.

If I'm honest with myself, I think it's probably true I have learned more in my life through pain than through joy. But hopefully that's changing.

I think we all need to be looking to the better angels of our own selves. We don't need to be looking for great people so much as becoming great people.

There is an old cliche, 'You can see the glass half empty, or you can see it half full.' You can focus on what's wrong in your life, or you can focus on what's right. But whatever you focus on, you're going to get more of. Creation is an extension of thought. Think lack, and you get lack. Think abundance, and you get more.

If you think humanity can get itself out of all this mess without divine help, then you're not being hopeful - you're hallucinating.

Our thoughts about the future go far toward creating it; our minds and hears are like filaments taht connect today to tomorrow, they are conduits for either the status quo or the emergence of different, hopefully more loving, possibilities. How we think and how we behave determine where we are going

I think the greatest gift we can give our children is to show them that devotion to God's purposes - love for all beings - is the center of all right living.

Often miracles are happening right in front of our eyes, but we think they should look different, so we miss them though they're right there.

When you carry yesterday's thinking into today, you program tomorrow to be like yesterday.

Angels are thoughts of God--to pray to an angel is to look to a level of pure thinking, divine thinking, and to ask that it replace our thoughts of fear. (Page 27.)

Sometimes we think, "We're the only people who see it this way," but that's really not the case.

Think of the mystical three days between the crucifixion and the resurrection as the time it takes for a situation to change once spirit has infused our consciousness. As we come to look at an experience differently, in time in begins to transform.

I don't think that anyone can age in a conscious way and not experience grief.

Think of one person who you are tempted for any reason to withhold love from, and pray for their happiness. In that moment your pain will stop.

I think the vast majority of Americans would have supported military action to stop the second plane from hitting the World Trade Center, if that had been possible. I would have been among them.

I don't think of spiritual principle as a struggle. I think of life lived without spiritual principles as a struggle.

As you get older, you have more and more layers of experience to forgive, more layers of heartbreak, more layers of what you might think of as failure.

I think the violence in the world right now is being reflected inside people. And I also believe the violence inside people is being reflected in the world.

I think you have to grieve the loss of youth before you can claim the joy on the other side of it.

I do think that every generation has its unique story.

I believe that the spirit of God enters into the details and if we ask for guidance we will be led to the places where we can learn most fully because we can be most joyful. If I'm in a place that's lonely, I think God has one or two things to say. Extend your hand in service so that you might meet people or go somewhere else - or both.

We think that because we dwell inside our bodies that we are separate from other people who dwell inside theirs.