Alan Cohen Quotations

Everything will line up perfectly when knowing and living the truth becomes more important than looking good.

It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

You will find truth more quickly through delight than gravity. Let out a little more string on your kite.

Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts.

Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us.

To love yourself right now, just as you are, is to give yourself heaven. Don't wait until you die. If you wait, you die now. If you love, you live now.

If you sense there must be more, there is more.

You are in integrity when the life you are living on the outside matches who you are on the inside.

You can only see in someone else what you see in yourself.

You can always tell what you believe by what you are getting.

Great masters neither want nor need your worship. Your greatest gift to them and yourself is to emulate their divinity by claiming it as your own.

The same source that gave you the idea, will give you the means to see it through.

You are doing better than you think you are.

Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want.

What are you accepting that would not be a part of your ideal day?

So I'm true to my unique gifts, and I make space for others. And we all end up winning.

I am sad. It's like seeing my oldest son go off to college. I know he is ready for the world, but I still worry.

Live entertainment is really prospering, and people are demonstrating their appetite for live theater. The theater has become the mass art form it was decades ago.

Red gave us a choice. If we came up (to Boston) Sunday, we could eat Chinese. If we came up Monday, we could eat Chinese. If we came up Tuesday, we could eat Chinese. We decided to come up Tuesday so we could eat Chinese.

Paiva is very important to us because it gives us the third concept.

We can look at any experience in two ways: through the eyes of lack, or the eyes of plenty. Fear sees limits, while love sees possibilities. Each attitude will be justified by the belief system you cherish. Change your allegiance from fear to love, and love will sustain you wherever you walk.

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.

Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

We believe we are hurt when we don't receive love. But that is not what hurts us. Our pain comes when we do not give love. We were born to love. You might say that we are divinely created love machines. We function most powerfully when we are giving love. The world has led us to believe that our wellbeing is dependent on other people loving us. But this is kind of upside down thinking that has caused so many of our problems. The truth is our well being is dependent on our giving love. It is not about what comes back; it is about what goes out!

Money is but one venue for generosity. Kindness is an even more valuable currency.

Eventually we grow weary of seeking treasures outside ourselves and we begin to look within. There we discover that the gold we sought, we already are.

To grow, you must be willing to let your present and future be totally unlike your past. Your history is not your destiny.

We have all been hypnotized into thinking that we are smaller than we are. Just as an undersized flowerpot keeps a mighty tree root-bound or a little fishbowl keeps goldfish tiny, we have adapted, adjusted, and accommodated to a Lilliputian life. But place the same tree in an open field or the fish in a lake, and they will grow to hundreds of times their size. Unlike the tree or goldfish, you are not dependent on someone else to move you. You have the power to move yourself. You can step into a broader domain and grow to your full potential.

Wouldn't it be powerful if you fell in love with yourself so deeply that you would do just about anything if you knew it would make you happy? This is precisely how much life loves you and wants you to nurture yourself. The deeper you love yourself, the more the universe will affirm your worth. Then you can enjoy a lifelong love affair that brings you the richest fulfillment from inside out.

Trust who and what you are, and the universe will support you in miraculous ways.

Love is heaven and fear is hell. Where you place your attention is where you live.

God is a frequency. Stay tuned.

Keeping your commitment to your purpose does not depend on other people keeping theirs.

Only those who ask for more can get more and only those who know there is more, ask.

Don't postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson.

Appreciation empowers not just money transactions, but all interactions. Gratitude is one of the greatest meditations of a lifetime, the fastest attitude uplifter I know. Be grateful for all the good in your life and your good will only increase, along with your happiness.

It is not insult from another that causes you pain. It is the part of your mind that agrees with the insult. Agree only with the truth about you, and you are free.

You are destined to become the peer of those you most respect because the greatness you perceive in them is your own.

When you learn to say yes to yourself, you will be able to say no to others, with love.

Happy people do not demand a lot from the world because their happiness proceeds from a place deeper than the world can touch.

'Confusion is the last stop on the way to clarity,' he told me. 'The part of your mind that thinks it knows it all is butting up against a bigger idea. It's only a matter of time until the smaller thought gives way to the greater. Don't fight it. Just try to enjoy the ride.'

So money is not the answer to problems; wealth mentality is.

Do what is healing to your spirit and without effort you will bring the world healing in return.

Enlightenment does not ask you to be perfect; it simply asks you to find perfection right where you stand.

If you gave your inner genius as much credence as your inner critic, you would be light years ahead of where you now stand.

The world would have you agree with its dismal dream of limitation. But the light would have you soar like the eagle of your sacred visions.

Will you ever run out of creative ideas and expressions? Ha! The more creative ideas you have, the more you will discover. Creativity is a tree with countless branches that never stop blossoming.

Personal growth is not a matter of learning new information but of unlearning old limits.

Simply be who you are, do what you do best, be where you are called by joy, and let life work its magic on your behalf.

Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows, and the more power you have to use it on your behalf. If you do not practice gratefulness, its benefaction will go unnoticed, and your capacity to draw on its gifts will be diminished. To be grateful is to find blessings in everything, This is the most powerful attitude to adopt, for there are blessings in everything.

To be content means that you realize you contain what you seek.

Since you are the one who has to live with your choices, be sure they are your own.

You give your power away when you make someone or something outside of you more important than what is inside of you.

True progress comes not through action, but through awakening.

Upgrade your past by seeing it with appreciation.

Life does not require you to sacrifice or compromise your joy to get what you want. Joy is what you want, so when you choose in harmony with it, you are fulfilling your purpose in living.

The difference between famous creators and struggling artists is that the creators know that improving the lives of others deserves the highest reward.

Our history is not our destiny.

Use pain as a stepping stone, not a camp ground.

Do not resist events that move you out of your comfort zone, especially when your comfort zone was not all that comfortable.

If you want to find God, hang out in the space between your thoughts.

When you protect yourself from pain, be sure you do not protect yourself from love.

Waiting does not exist in the experience of those who recognize the presence of love wherever they are.

You have the power to take away someone's happiness by refusing to forgive. That someone is you.

You need not wrestle for your good. Your good flows to you most easily when you are relaxed, open, and trusting.

Sometimes when things seem to be going wrong, they are going right for reasons you are yet to understand.

The more you recognize the immense good within you, the more you magnetize immense good around you.

The fire of purpose easily melts the icicles of obstacles.

People who do not need to please are irresistible because they radiate wholeness, a rare delicacy in a world of hungry hearts.

There is virtue in work and there is virtue in rest. Use both and overlook neither.

To make the world a better place, see the world as a better place.

I give myself the kindness and forgiveness I would show others.

The purpose of life is not to fight against evil and misfortune; it is to unveil magnificence.

While there seem to be many things to manage in the world, the most important thing to manage is your consciousness.

You change the past when you change the way you see it.

Only the ego resists egos. The spirit may notice egos, but sees beyond them and does not engage with them.

Acts that proceed from your calm center are always more effective than acts that proceed from fear, guilt, or anger.

Anything you believe you have to do or become before you can be free is a denial and distraction from the truth that you are already free.

The deeper you love yourself, the more the universe will affirm your worth.

View the past as your enemy, and it will be an albatross. View it as your friend, and it will give you wings.

Preparing to live your dream is postponing it. You are either living it, or not.

The more you know your beauty, power, and worth, the less you NEED others to VALIDATE you. The less you know your beauty, power, and worth, the more you NEED others to VALIDATE you. The more you know, the less you NEED.

The only thing more important than being good is being real. Authenticity is kinder than resignation without conviction. Truth leads to good faster than good leads to truth. Ultimately truth is good, but you have to live it from the inside out.

When your sense of worth exceeds your conditions, conditions will shift to match your vision.

If you have good wealth mentality.... you will generate wealth wherever you go. Even if you lose money temporarily, your wealth mentality will attract it again. If you have a lack mentality, no matter how much you receive or what financial opportunities come your way, wealth will evade you or, if it comes, it won't last.

Don't use the past as an excuse to miss out on your future.

Quit planning your dream and start living it.

What you go through is nothing compared to who you are.

Communication is an offering. When you tell someone your truth, you must release your expectation of what the other person should do with it. They may thank you profusely, love you forever, argue with you, or ignore you. It doesn't matter. Of course we hope the gift will be received with appreciation and thanks. But if it isn't we must not dictate. We've done our part, and we must trust the universe to do the rest.

Life has meaning only if you do what is meaningful to you.

Successful people pay more attention to their visions and goals than to history and the opinions of others.

The ego tells you to fill space. Your spirit tells you to let space fill you.

The deeper you love yourself, the more the universe will affirm your worth. Then you can enjoy a lifelong love affair that brings you the richest fulfillment from inside out.

Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows.

Guilt: punishing yourself before God doesn't.

Every choice before you represents the universe inviting you to remember who you are and what you want.

Truly creative people care a little about what they have done, and a lot about what they are doing. Their driving focus is the life force that surges in them now.

Humility is born of the spirit, humiliation of the ego.

Dance on the edge of mystery.

Abundance is not a number or acquisition. It is the simple recognition of enoughness.