Marianne Williamson

I didn't realize that running as an independent would be perceived as a threat to the Democrats.

I would never, ever in my life say, 'I want to go to Washington to heal the soul of Washington.'

My self healing lies in praying for those who have harmed me.

When God created the world, he didn't draw a line between Canada and America.

Politics in America is like stale bread. It's so yada yada that the best among us can hardly stand it.

Enlightenment is the key to everything and it is the key to intimacy because it is the goal of true authenticity.

Doug Motel makes 'conscious comedy'. He makes me laugh, and he makes me think.

In Taoist philosophy, 'yin' is the feminine principle, representing the forces of earth, while 'yang' is the masculine principle, representing spirit.

Throughout my career I have been an advocate for women, in all aspects of their lives.

When an idea reaches critical mass there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure about you. We were born to manifest the glory of God that is within us.

I'm an author. And writers write books. And writing books is a full-time career.

Today's average American is more apt to rebel against a tennis shoe not coming in the right color than against the slow erosion of our democratic freedom.

I know politics is emotionally brutal; I've already had experience with the reality of smear campaigns, so I understand there will not be a path of roses laid before me.

Would a man ever be called vain for speaking his mind?

There is nothing that a military machine can do to work a miracle.

Over the years, many people on a spiritual journey have asked me why I keep going on about politics, and many people involved in politics have asked me why I keep going on about spirituality.

Being a mother makes everything more urgent.

Gay men in a very real way created my career.

Some pain is simply the normal grief of human existence. That is pain that I try to make room for. I honor my grief.

Whatever it is that leads human beings to hate, to destroy, and to kill has taken on a collective force like never before, as technology and globalization now give it the capacity to not just strike, but to strike us all, together, as one.

God exists in eternity. The only point where eternity meets time is in the present. The present is the only time there is.

Ironically, it is when we identify with our spirits rather than our bodies that we are most powerful on the material plane. Our overidentification with the world does not give us power within the world so much as it diminishes our power here. It makes us frightened and nervous and full of anxiety.

In 'Healing the Soul of America,' I wrote about Gandhi's notion of soul force in politics and why it matters to stand on your truth.

Family relationships trigger childhood wounds, and those wounds often trump our rational thinking. We can't 'rationally' transcend the kind of primal pain that such relationships can arouse.

Governments move armies, but only individuals can move hearts.

Abraham Lincoln went through 12 generals before he got Ulysses S. Grant. He had never done a Civil War before.

Everything we do is infused with the energy in which we do it. If we're frantic, life will be frantic. If we are peaceful, life will be peaceful.

Jesus is a personal symbol of the Holy Spirit. Having been totally healed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus became one with him. Every thought, action, and deed of Jesus was guided by the Holy Spirit instead of ego.

Just as you wouldn't leave the house without taking a shower, you shouldn't start the day without at least 10 minutes of sacred practice: prayer, meditation, inspirational reading.

Religion is like a map. The route isn't important. It's the destination that matters.

Major political parties have a role, but they are incapable of initiating fundamental change because they are fundamentally tied to the status quo. They are the status quo.

It is your thoughts and your thoughts alone that determine whats possible for you now.

The same group of New York pseudo-intellectuals who've put down prayer are the same ones who put down L.A.

As all of us are only too aware, the loud and frantic voices of the outer world easily drown out the small, still loving voice within.

Presidential campaigns are exhausting. Once they're over, we all heave a sigh of relief that we have our lives back, the constant emails and news reports no longer harangue us, and the topic even turns at times to something else entirely.

Buckminster Fuller was one of those world historic geniuses who reminded us of the extraordinary things that are possible, and inspires all of us to set about doing them!

America won't be saved because one or 10 people stand up. It will be saved because millions of us stand up.

Nature is infinitely creative. It is always producing the possibility of new beginnings.

The only way to end a culture of violence is to proactively create a culture of peace.

The basic premise of 'A Course in Miracles' is that it teaches us to relinquish thoughts based on fear and to accept instead thoughts based on love.

The force that keeps the planets revolving around the sun would be glad to handle the circumstances of your life, if only you would ask him to.

Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.

At their peak, religion and psychotherapy become one.

Personal transformation can and does have global effects. As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us. The revolution that will save the world is ultimately a personal one.

Nervous breakdowns can be highly underrated methods of spiritual transformation.

Forgiveness is not always easy. At times, it feels more painful than the wound we suffered, to forgive the one that inflicted it. And yet, there is no peace without forgiveness.

We incarcerate more African-American men today than were slaves in 1850.

Love is the intuitive knowledge of our hearts.

The new midlife is where you realize that even your failures make you more beautiful and are turned spiritually into success if you became a better person because of them. You became a more humble person. You became a more merciful and compassionate person.

I trust that when people meet, we meet for a transcendent reason, and that the challenges we face in life are always lessons that serve our soul's growth.

One day I looked at something in myself that I had been avoiding because it was too painful. Yet once I did, I had an unexpected surprise. Rather than self-hatred, I was flooded with compassion for myself because I realized the pain necessary to develop that coping mechanism to begin with.

The Latin root of the word 'politics' means 'of the people.' Politics is about something bigger than electoral politics; in that sense, I feel like I'm already involved.

Relationships are eternal. The 'separation' is another chapter in the relationship. Often, letting go of the old form of the relationship becomes a lesson in pure love much deeper than any would have learned had the couple stayed together.

While women were powerfully liberated both externally as well as internally by the feminism of the 1970s, we made some serious mistakes as well.

In a choice between love and fear choose love.

Marriage, like everything else in the world, is holy or unholy depending on the purpose the mind ascribes to it.

Now if you know what makes one person's life change, then you know what makes a nation change - because a nation is simply a large group of individuals.

I have a gruff side. This is not exactly news... At the same time, anyone who wants to judge me for this can walk a mile in my moccasins. And then we'll talk.

I can't say that there are 'things' that make me come alive. There are thoughts that make me come alive.

Today, most Americans are too cynical, or tired, or both, to even approximate our Founders' courageous repudiation of injustice.

There is no amount of money I can make which could buffer my daughter from the horrors that will explode in our society if we do not address the huge amount of suffering in our midst.

When we are truly aware of our spiritual glory, a varicose vein or two is not that big a deal.

It is our own thoughts that hold the key to miraculous transformation.

Nothing liberates our greatness like the desire to help, the desire to serve.

The reason so many of us are obsessed with becoming stars is because we are not yet starring in our own lives. The cosmic spotlight isn't pointed at you, it radiates from within you.

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.

I have known healthy, wealthy people who were depressed, and people with critical illnesses who could honestly attest to joy.

The human race is evolving to the realization that what is happening on the level of consciousness both precedes and determines what happens in the world.

The past doesnt determine your future unless you carry it with you into the present. Forgiving yourself and others you free the universe to begin again at any moment.

As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence actually liberates others.

Once youve had enough and you cant do it anymore you consider the possibility that there might be a better way. Thats when your head cracks open and God comes in.

Americans are good with to-do lists; just tell us what to do, and we'll do it. Throughout our history, we have proven that. Colonize. Check. Win our independence. Check. Form a union. Check. Expand to the Pacific. Check. Settle the West. Check. Keep the Union together. Check. Industrialize. Check. Fight the Nazis. Check.

In God, there is no lack and no recession.

Forgiveness is the choice to see people as they are now. When we're mad at people, we're angry because of something they said or did before this moment. By letting go of the past, we make room for miracles to replace our grievances.

I went into therapy several times, but it rarely made an impact.

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.

The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and the acceptance of love.

If a train doesn't stop at your station, then it's not your train.

Your relationship to food is but a reflection of your relationship to yourself, as is everything in your life.

Our past is a story existing only in our minds. Look, analyze, understand, and forgive. Then, as quickly as possible, chuck it.

In the hands of the ego, marriage is a prison. It is exclusive. It is a place where people are constantly reminded of their failures and limited by the energies of another person. It is rife with judgment and blame.

Anytime you try to be a loving person, you're doing your part to save the world.

Your past is over; it cannot touch you. Forgive all involved, including yourself.

People don't live in Los Angeles because we are tied to the same old, same old. We live in Los Angeles because of the intoxicating energy of new beginnings that permeate our city.

People who attend support groups who have been diagnosed with a life-challenging illness live on average twice as long after diagnosis as people who don't.

A lot of my traditional audience does not appreciate my foray into politics.

People with AIDS, cancer and other illnesses need free nonmedical support services.

The greatest force of personal liberation is the decision to widen our circle of compassion, moving from focus on self to focus on service.

In our society, as people pass out of young adulthood, they tend to relate to themselves more in terms of what they are no longer than what they are now, and that's psychologically low-grade devastating.

One of the shocks of a 50th birthday is realizing the fundamental fact that your youth is irrevocably over.

The ego mind both professes its desire for love and does everything possible to repel it, or if it gets here anyway, to sabotage it. That is why dealing with issues like control, anger, and neediness is the most important work in preparing ourselves for love.

Self-awareness is not self-centeredness, and spirituality is not narcissism. 'Know thyself' is not a narcissistic pursuit.

Use each interaction to be the best, most powerful version of yourself.

Any man who holds a woman back is not a man a woman can afford to be with.

I want to be a cheerleader for women who have never even considered running for office or being involved in a campaign, but who in the quietness of their hearts might think, 'Why not me?'

We tend to lack humility toward love, to patronize it rather than bow before it, to put mundane considerations before the emotional need to hold someone in our arms.

Most women I know are priestesses and healers... We are, all of us, sisters of a mysterious order.

As we mature through the years, we access more deeply information we had only abstractly understood before.

As citizens of the United States, we are stewards of this magnificent thing called democracy.