More from and about
Marianne Williamson
(biographical info at bottom of page)

  

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.

   

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. We ask ourselves, 'Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?' Actually, who are you not to be? 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 around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
  
We cannot give what we do not have.  We cannot bring peace to the world if we ourselves are not peaceful.  We cannot bring love to the world if we ourselves are not loving.  Our true gift to ourselves and others lies not in what we have but in who we are.    -Everyday Grace

      
Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us.
  
There are no different categories of love.  There isn't one kind of love between a mother and child, another between lovers, and another between friends.  The love that is real is the love that lies at the heart of all relationships.  That is the love of God and it doesn't change with form or circumstance.
   

We must relinquish our passive observation of the world outside; we can open the door to the world we want. In understanding ourselves, we come to understand the world. In allowing ourselves to heal, we become the healers of the world. In praying for peace, we become bringers of peace. Thus we actualize the power within us to remedy the psychic wounds of humanity.

     

We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on
what's wrong in our life, or we can focus on what's right.

   

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Rather than accepting that we are the loving beings that He created, we have
arrogantly thought that we could create ourselves, and then create God.
Because we are angry and judgmental, we have projected those characteristics
onto Him. We have made up a God in our image. But God remains who He is
and always has been: the energy, the thought of unconditional love.

   

Everything we do is infused with the energy with which we do it. 
If we're frantic, life will be frantic.  If we're peaceful, life will
be peaceful.  And so our goal in any situation becomes inner peace.

   

We can't look to the world to restore our worth; we're here to
restore our worth to the world. The world outside us can reflect
our glory, but it cannot create it. It cannot crown us. Only God
can crown us, and he already has.

   

    
Marianne Williamson is an internationally acclaimed author and lecturer. She has published nine books, four of which - including the mega bestseller A Return to Love and Everyday Grace - have been #1 New York Times bestsellers. Her titles also include Illuminata, A Woman's Worth, and Healing the Soul of America.  She also edited Imagine:  What America Could Be in the 21st Century, a compilation of essays by some of America's most visionary thinkers.

Ms. Williamson has been a popular guest on numerous television programs such as Oprah, Larry King Live, Good Morning America, and Charlie Rose.

Marianne Williamson has lectured professionally since 1983.  In 1989, she founded Project Angel Food, a meals-on-wheels program that serves homebound people with AIDS in the Los Angeles area.  Today, Project Angel Food serves over 1,000 people daily.

Ms. Williamson also founded the The Peace Alliance, an international network of peace activists.  The mission of The Peace Alliance is to harness the power of nonviolence as a social force for good.  The Peace Alliance is currently steering the campaign to establish a United States Department of Peace.

Ms. Williamson's book Everyday Grace: Having Hope, Finding Forgiveness and Making Miracles, was published by Riverhead Books (Nov 2002) and quickly reached #1 on the New York Times Best-Seller List (Dec 2002).

Her book, The Gift of Change: Spiritual Guidance for a Radically New Life, was released from Harper Collins on November 9, 2004 and is available at bookstores everywhere.

   
  

    

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Every situation is ultimately a lesson in forgiveness.  Forgiveness is our decision to see the love that is real in all of us, despite whatever appearances to the contrary there are.  Fear melts away when we refuse to affirm its ultimate reality.  When we see beyond fear, it dissolves.  I no longer blame you because I don't believe the part of you that acted is who you really are.  I relate instead to your innocence, to the angel within you, which remains, no matter what you do.  That is the power of forgiveness:  to call forth a higher reality by acknowledging a higher reality.

Everyday Grace
In a noisy world, seek the silence in your heart.  And through the power of silence, the energies of chaos will be brought back to harmony--not by you, but through you, as all miracles are.  When we visit this silence regularly, particularly in the morning, then the days of our lives become lit from above.  Darkness and fear are cast from our midst, slowly at first, one moment at a time.  Ultimately, all darkness will be gone from every heart.
   

Other people:  Alan Watts - Albert Einstein - Albert Schweitzer - Andy Rooney - Anne Frank - Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Anne Wilson Schaef
- Annie Dillard - Anthony Robbins - Ari Kiev - Artur Rubenstein - Barbara Johnson - Benjamin Disraeli
Benjamin Franklin
- Benjamin Hoff - Bernie Siegel - Bertrand Russell - Betty Eadie - Booker T. Washington
Charlotte Davis Kasl
- Cheryl Richardson - Cristina Feldman - C.S. Lewis - the Dalai Lama - Dale Carnegie - Deepak Chopra
Don Miguel Ruiz
- Earl Nightingale - Elaine St. James - Eleanor Roosevelt - Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emmet Fox
- Frederick Buechner - George Bernard Shaw - George Santayana - George Washington Carver - Gerald Jampolsky
Harold Kushner
- Harry Emerson Fosdick - Helen Keller - Henry David Thoreau - Henry James - Henry Van Dyke
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
- Henry Ward Beecher - Hugh Prather - Immanuel Kant - Iyanla Vanzant - Jack Canfield
James Allen
- Jennifer James - Jim Rohn - Joan Borysenko - Joan Chittister - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - John Izzo
John Ruskin
- Joni Eareckson Tada - Joseph M. Marshall III - Julia Cameron - Kent Nerburn - Khalil Gibran
Leo Buscaglia
- Leonard Jacobson - Leslie Levine - Lucinda Bassett - Lydia Maria Child - Lynn Grabhorn - Marcus Aurelius
Marianne Williamson
- Martin Luther King, Jr. - Maya Angelou - Melody Beattie - Michael Goddart - Mitch Albom
Mohandas Gandhi
- Morrie Schwartz - Mother Teresa - M. Scott Peck - Nathaniel Branden - Nikos Kazantzakis - Norman Cousins
Norman Vincent Peale
- Og Mandino - Oprah Winfrey - Oriah - Orison Swett Marden - Pau Casals - Peace Pilgrim - Phillips Brooks
Rabindranath Tagore
- Rachel Carson - Rachel Naomi Remen - Rainer Maria Rilke - Ralph Waldo Trine - Richard Bach
Richard Carlson
- Robert Frost - Robert Fulghum - Robert Louis Stevenson - Russell Baker - Sarah Ban Breathnach
Shakti Gawain
- Soren Kierkegaard - Stephen Covey - Stephen C. Paul - Sue Patton Thoele - Susan L. Taylor
Sylvia Boorstein
- Thich Nhat Hanh - Thomas Carlyle - Thomas Kinkade - Thomas Merton - Tom Walsh - Victor Cherbuliez
Wayne Dyer
- Wilferd A. Peterson - Willa Cather - William James - William Wordsworth - Zig Ziglar

   

        
     

Yes, life can be mysterious and confusing--but there's much of life that's actually rather dependable and reliable.  Some principles apply to life in so many different contexts that they can truly be called universal--and learning what they are and how to approach them and use them can teach us some of the most important lessons that we've ever learned.
My doctorate is in Teaching and Learning.  I use it a lot when I teach at school, but I also do my best to apply what I've learned to the life I'm living, and to observe how others live their lives.  What makes them happy or unhappy, stressed or peaceful, selfish or generous, compassionate or arrogant?  In this book, I've done my best to pass on to you what I've learned from people in my life, writers whose works I've read, and stories that I've heard.  Perhaps these principles can be a positive part of your life, too!
Universal Principles of Living Life Fully.  Awareness of these principles can explain a lot and take much of the frustration out of the lives we lead.