Some pain is simply the normal grief of human existence. That is pain that I try to make room for. I honor my grief.
Marianne WilliamsonRead
The greatest force of personal liberation is the decision to widen our circle of compassion, moving from focus on self to focus on service.
Interpretation
True liberation comes from expanding our compassion for others rather than just focusing on ourselves.
In this quote, Marianne Williamson highlights the transformative power of compassion. By choosing to shift our attention from our own needs and desires to serving and caring for others, we not only liberate ourselves but also foster a deeper connection with humanity, ultimately leading to both personal growth and communal harmony.
In practice
In a speech about community service, one might quote this to inspire volunteers.
Some pain is simply the normal grief of human existence. That is pain that I try to make room for. I honor my grief.
As we become purer channels for God's light, we develop an appetite for the sweetness that is possible in this world. A miracle worker is not geared toward fighting the world that is, but toward creating the world that could be.
Governments move armies, but only individuals can move hearts.
The world is in trouble. Many have prayed. God sent help. God sent you.
Once we truly understand that God's will is that we be happy, we no longer feel the need to ask for anything other than that God's will be done.
A queen is wise. She has earned her serenity, not having had it bestowed on her but having passer her tests. She has suffered and grown more beautiful because of it. She has proved she can hold her kingdom together. She has become its vision. She cares deeply about something bigger than herself. She rules with authentic power.
Stairway to Wisdom”) David Brooks detailed the needed ingredients to gaining a deep understanding of a social problem, beginning with the data and moving on to first-hand accounts. The highest rung on his stairway, though, went beyond those: “Empathy opens you up to absorb the good and the bad. Love impels you not just to observe but to seek union—to think as another thinks and feel as another feels.
We are dying from overthinking. We are slowly killing ourselves by thinking about everything. Think. Think. Think. You can never trust the human mind anyway. It's a death trap.
The true secret of giving advice is, after you have honestly given it, to be perfectly indifferent whether it is taken or not, and never persist in trying to set people right.
Now is the time to know that all that you do is sacred... Now is the time for you to deeply compute the impossibility that there is anything but grace.
Character cannot be summoned at the moment of crisis if it has been squandered by years of compromise and rationalization. The only testing ground for the heroic is the mundane. The only preparation for that one profound decision which can change a life, or even a nation, is those hundreds of half-conscious, self defining, seemingly insignificant decisions made in private. Habit is the daily battleground of character.
The range of what we think and do is limited by what we fail to notice. And because we fail to notice that we fail to notice, there is little we can do to change; until we notice how failing to notice shapes our thoughts and deeds.
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