QuoteProject
Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach... One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire.
Clarissa Pinkola Estes
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

We may not be able to change the whole world, but we can make a difference where we can by showing our true selves.

This quote emphasizes the importance of individual actions in addressing the challenges of the world. Rather than becoming overwhelmed by the magnitude of global issues, it encourages individuals to focus on their immediate surroundings, using their inner light and authenticity to inspire and uplift others, especially in difficult times.

Themes

Individual ActionAuthenticityInspirationHopeChange

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about community service, one could quote this to inspire volunteers.

More from Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Asking the proper question is the central action of transformation- in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation. The key question causes germination of consciousness. The properly shaped question always emanates from an essential curiosity about what stands behind. Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead
Tears are a river that takes you somewhere…Tears lift your boat off the rocks, off dry ground, carrying it downriver to someplace better.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead
Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are multi-volume sets. In our lives, even though one episode amounts to a crash and burn, there is always another episode awaiting us and then another. There are always more opportunities to get it right, to fashion our lives in the ways we deserve to have them. Don't waste your time hating a failure. Failure is a greater teacher than success.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead
Stories are medicine. They have such power; they do not require that we do, be, act anything - we need only listen.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead
There's a reason poets often say, 'Poetry saved my life,' for often the blank page is the only one listening to the soul's suffering, the only one registering the story completely, the only one receiving all softly and without condemnation.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead
To love means to embrace and at the same time to withstand many endings, and many many beginnings- all in the same relationship.
Clarissa Pinkola EstesRead

Similar quotes

Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.
John RuskinRead
I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning.
Ursula K. Le GuinRead
So, open your mouth, lad! For every voice counts!
Dr. SeussRead
It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen. We must dare to invent the future.
Thomas SankaraRead
Throw off your tiredness. Let me show you one tiny spot of the beauty that can't be spoken.
RumiRead
This year I am choosing to live beyond my wildest dreams. I wonder where they'll take me.
Oprah WinfreyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.