As our beliefs actually change,
so do our experiences.

Carol Sheffield
   
Toward no crimes have people shown themselves so
cold-bloodedly cruel as in punishing differences in belief.

James Russell Lowell

      
The biggest addiction, and one we least often talk about,
is being addicted to beliefs.  We really get hooked into
thinking what we believe is true and right.

Martha Boesing
  

Until you understand your Core Story, whatever it is, and how it made you
who you are today, your foundation will reflect only your unconscious beliefs
about yourself, real or imagined, positive or negative.  When you delve into
your subconscious beliefs about your lot in life, whether you believe you
deserve to be happy or sad, successful or unsuccessful, only then do you
have the chance to change the story that is replaying over and over in your
head and determining how you go through life.

Lucinda Bassett

   

Within you right now is the power to do things you never dreamed possible.
This power becomes available to you just as soon
as you can change your beliefs.

Maxwell Maltz
    

Believe in poverty and you will be poor.
Believe in wealth and you will be rich.
Believe in love and you will have love.
Believe in health and you will be healthy.

Napoleon Hill

   
   
   
If we believe in magic, we'll live a magical life.
If we believe our life is defined by narrow limits,
we've suddenly made those beliefs real.

Anthony Robbins
  

People often become what they believe themselves to be.  If
I believe I cannot do something, it makes me incapable of
doing it.  But when I believe I can, then I acquire the
ability to do it even if I didn't have it in the beginning.

Mohandas Gandhi
  

   We are incredibly heedless in
the formation of our beliefs,
but find ourselves with an illicit
passion for them when
anyone proposes to rob us
of their companionship.
It is obviously not the ideas
themselves that are dear
to us, but our self-esteem
that is threatened.

James Harvey
   

The thing always happens that you really believe in
and the belief in a thing makes it happen.  And I think
nothing will happen until you thoroughly and deeply believe in it.

Frank L. Wright
  

You are what you are
by what you believe.

Oprah Winfrey

Upon this little word belief
hang all your sorrows and joys.

James Allen
  

  
They were so strong in their beliefs that there came
a time when it hardly mattered what exactly those
beliefs were; they all fused into a single stubbornness.

Louise Erdrich
  

Many a time I have wanted to stop talking
and find out what I really believed.

Walter Lippman
  
What we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often
extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.

Thomas Henry Huxley
  

Believe nothing, O monks, merely because you have been told it. . .
or because it is traditional, or because you yourself have imagined it.
Do not believe what your teacher tells you merely out of respect
for the teacher.  But whatsoever, after due examination and analysis,
you find to be conducive to the good, the benefit, the welfare of all
beings--that doctrine believe and cling to, and take it as your guide.

The Buddha
  

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When your self-identity and beliefs merge, differences feel threatening.  You are likely to defend your turf, become righteous and angry, and possibly shame or abuse other people who see things differently.  When people adopt a belief--be it about religion, politics, sex roles, or whatever--as the one, correct belief, their minds get locked up in a rigid box, and other people with differing beliefs are seen as the enemy.  And what do you do to the enemy?  Abuse them, shame them, hate them, or even kill them. . . .

Listen to your beliefs, think about how you learned them, and realize that they are not genetic, nor are they the "only way."  You are free to acquire new perspectives, to absorb new ideas, and to question everything you were taught to believe.  As your mind opens to exploration and change, you'll feel a new lightness and more joy.

Charlotte Davis Kasl
Sometimes we adopt certain beliefs when we're children and use them automatically when we become adults, without ever checking them out against reality.  This brings to mind the story of the woman who always cut off the end of the turkey when she put it in the oven.  Her daughter asked her why, and her mother responded, "I don't know.  My mother always did it."  Then she went and asked her mother, who said, "I don't know.  My mother always did it."  The she went and asked her grandmother, who said, "The oven wasn't big enough."

Charlotte Davis Kasl

A belief is not true because it is useful.

Henri Frédéric Amiel
   
   
Unconscious Beliefs
Leonard Jacobson

On the path of awakening,
it is necessary to become aware
of your unconscious beliefs.
It is not a difficult task.
Just become watchful.
If you are alert and watchful,
without any judgment,
your day to day life will reveal
those unconscious beliefs to you.
Be a watcher of your self.
Be an impartial observer
of who you are at the level of mind
which is programmed
with your unconscious beliefs.
It helps to have a sense of humor.

 If you have an unconscious belief
that you will be abused or put down,
you will attract into your life
those who will abuse you
or be critical of you.
Your mind seeks to
be validated in this way.
"See," it will say to itself,
"I knew I was a victim.
I was right all along."
If deep down you feel unlovable,
you will attract into your life
those who are incapable
of loving you.
And even those who happen along
who are very loving,
will suddenly find themselves
being unloving towards you.

If you have a belief that the
people who love you will leave you,
then sure enough, it will happen.
Over and over again.
So you had better become
aware of your unconscious beliefs.
They are creating
your experience of life.
They are based on your past
experiences, and mostly they are
formed in your early childhood.
As long as these beliefs
remain unconscious,
there is no way to be
released from them.
  

All belief that does not make us more happy,
more free, more loving, more active, more calm, is,
I fear, a mistaken and superstitious belief.

John K. Lavater
  
 

And this I do believe above all, especially in times of greater
discouragement, that I must BELIEVE—that I must believe
in my fellow people—that I must believe in myself—that
I must believe in God—if life is to have any meaning.

Margaret Chase Smith

  

Nature always takes you at your own valuation.  Believe you are
the child of God—really believe it.  Believe that you express Divine Life,
Divine Truth, and Divine Love.  Believe that Divine Wisdom guides you.
Believe that God is your supply.  Believe that God is helping and
blessing humanity through you.  Believe that you are a special enterprise
on the part of God and that he is opening your way—and
what you really believe, that you will demonstrate.

 Emmet Fox

  
Some things have to be believed to be seen.

Ralph Hodgson
  

Your beliefs are your reality.  If you don't like
the reality you see, change your beliefs!

Stephen C. Paul

  
   
The therapist does not treat patients by simply giving them
another set of beliefs.  He or she tries to help them see which
kinds of ideas and beliefs have led to their suffering.  Many
patients want to get rid of their painful feelings, but they
do not want to get rid of their beliefs, the viewpoints
that are the very roots of their feelings.

Thich Nhat Hanh

  

For as long as I can remember, people said I would never
be able to do anything.  My parents and I believed I could,
and we've been proving them wrong ever since.

Rick Hoyt

  
  

Most philosophies wrap their seekers in a strict belief system.
By virtue of what they include, they exclude everything else,
especially some vital realizations.  Periodically revising our philosophy
of life as we live it is, therefore, a critically valuable exercise.

Charles Bates

   

   
Believe nothing because a wise man said it.
Believe nothing because it is generally held.
Believe nothing because it is written.
Believe nothing because it is said to be divine.
Believe nothing because someone else believes it.
But believe only what you yourself judge to be true.

the Buddha

    
   

A belief which leaves no place for doubt is not a belief; it is a superstition.

Jose Bergamin

   
Our beliefs are so powerful that they color our entire world.
We literally see what we believe, but we can--and most of us
do--fail to take responsibility for what we see, especially what we see within.

Hugh Prather

     

What we believe about ourselves can hold us hostage.  Over the years
I have come to respect the power of people's beliefs.  The thing that
has amazed me is that a belief is more than just an idea--it seems
to shift the way in which we actually experience ourselves and
our lives.  According to Talmudic teaching, "We do not see things as they
are.  We see them as we are."  A belief is like a pair of sunglasses.  When
we wear a belief and look at life through it, it is difficult to convince ourselves
that what we see is not real. . . . Sometimes because of our beliefs we may
have never seen ourselves or life whole before.  No matter.  We can
recognize life anyway.  Our life force may not require us to strengthen it.
We often just need to free it where it has gotten trapped
in beliefs, attitudes, judgment, and shame.

Rachel Naomi Remen

    

People are made by their beliefs.  As they believe, so they are.

the Bhagavad Gita

   
People may be heretics to the truth if they believe things only
because their pastor says so, or the assembly so determines,
without knowing other reason; though their beliefs be true,
yet the very truth they hold become their heresies.

John Milton
   
To believe in God for me is to feel that there is a God, not a dead one, or a stuffed one, who with irresistible force urges us towards more loving.

Vincent van Gogh

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

J. Krishnamurti
    

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Every mental act is composed of doubt and belief,
but it is belief that is the positive, it is belief
that sustains thought and holds the world together.

Søren Kierkegaard

    
Limiting beliefs are like a cage locked tight with no opening in
sight.  But when you realize that you are the one who holds
the key in releasing these beliefs, only then can you find
freedom.  Freedom comes from within.  It comes from getting
to know who you really are, releasing all limiting beliefs. And
as you release your limiting beliefs and stand in your truth,
your example shines a light for the whole world to see.
Freedom will be yours when you give yourself permission
to live authentically.

Terri Amos
    

Our beliefs about what we are and what we can
be, precisely determine what we will be.

Anthony Robbins

   

   

She realized how many of her beliefs were either unrealistic or belonged to
her deceased parents and her ex-husband.  She also realized that her expectations
for herself and others were sometimes too rigid.  She was trying to live up to
what everyone else said was best for her, which made her depressed and hard
to be around at times.  Once she changed her beliefs about herself and others,
she began to smile more and enjoy life.

Salle Merrill Redfield
Creating a Life of Joy

   
Be sure to choose what you believe and why you believe it, because
if you don’t choose your beliefs, you may be certain that
some belief, and probably not a very credible one, will choose you.

Robertson Davies
   

One of the hardest expressions of self-assertiveness
is challenging your limiting beliefs.

Nathaniel Branden
Self-Esteem Every Day